Kitchener Waterloo Canoe Symposium Announces 2015 Guest Speakers

Update: December 12th, 2014 - Tickets are available now for purchase through Eventbrite.

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Here is the lineup for the Fourth Annual Kitchener Waterloo Canoe Symposium. The event will be held on Saturday, April 11th at the Princess Twin Theatres in Waterloo, Ontario.

1. BILL WEAVER and KATHY KUJALA are naturalists at heart. Personal experience has taken them on canoe and exploring adventures which has peaked their interest in the history and meaning of Rock Art. Their presentation will touch on selected pictographs from the heart of Bon Echo through Fairy Point on Missinaibi Lake, to the Dog Lake pictographs….the who, what, why, where, and how. Their photographs have captured a storyline that only a very few have attempted to interpret.
2. E. Robert Ross has been a full time artist since 1975, exhibiting primarily in Southern Ontario. He was born and raised in the Hamilton area, where he currently resides with his wife and two children. He also lived on Vancouver Island for many years.
3. David Lee (The Passionate Paddler) His nickname isn’t just a light-hearted jest, but actually has some meaningful correlation. The evidence being in his absence - away on canoe trips. Following in the steps of the late Bill Mason, or the contemporary Kevin Callan, David lives and breathes canoeing. That is his passion. When not in a canoe, he enjoys sharing stories of his adventures.
4. James Gjesing turned his passion for paddling into his career. Owner of HandCrafted Canoes and HCC Boatworx, James fills his days building many different models with all different methods of construction. When not building or restoring/repairing canoes James passion for paddling will find him eddying out into a nice class 2/3 rapid, searching for the perfect site in one of our great Ontario Parks or beating himself up doing extreme races like the Muskoka River X which James took home 3rd place solo in 2013.
5. Mike McIntosh - Founder and President of the “Bear With Us” Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre for Bears. Interested in wildlife and their behaviour, Mike became fascinated about perceived dangerous “predators” and human's misunderstanding of these amazing beings. Mike is especially intrigued by bears. For most his life bears have been Mike's focus.Mike has been to Kamchatka Russia, walked among some of the largest bears in existence, travelled to Alaska, the Rockies, observing bears and their behaviour. The only weapons Mike feels you need in bear habitat is your brain and a can of pepper spray. Mike has operated the “Bear With Us” Sanctuary since 1992, caring for orphan bear cubs and injured bears, returning 349 of them to their wild home as of December 2013.
6. Katie Tanz has been connected to Keewaydin Camp since it first introduced girls into its over one hundred year old canoe tripping program in 1999. Since then, she has led teenage girls on 6 and 7 week, all-female trips through northern areas of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. This past summer they travelled on the Eastmain River to Lac Mistassini, in Quebec.