Events: Talks, Lectures & Gatherings

September 17 - December 19, 2025

This fall, please join us for Community Powered: Celebrating Canadian Co-operatives, a new exhibition celebrating the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives 2025.

Community Powered brings Canadian co-operators and museum visitors together to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives 2025 theme: Co-operatives Build a Better World. From the prairies' iconic Wheat Pool to Inuit art production and marketing co-ops to financial institutions that serve the banking and insurance needs of millions of Canadians, this exhibition tells the story of co-operation from before Canada's creation to how co-operators are tackling big problems today—and into the future.

The stories bring to life the importance of co-ops in meeting important needs, shaping markets and socio-cultural outcomes, and offering democratic solutions and opportunities—powered by and empowering communities in building a better world. 

Co-curated by the Diefenbaker Canada Centre's Helanna Gessner and Raymond Morstad in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, this immersive museum exhibition brings to life co-operative principles and values such as equity, self-help, and democratic governance.  

Community Powered: Celebrating Canadian Co-operatives is presented by the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in partnership with the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, and in collaboration with Canadian Arctic Producers, University of Saskatchewan Library and Archives, Kenderdine Art Gallery/College Art Galleries, and Saskatchewan Co-operative Association. Special thanks to the CCSC’s funders for making this exhibit possible.

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About the Exhibition: Community Powered: Celebrating Canadian Co-operatives will be on display at the Diefenbaker Canada Centre from September 17 to December 19, 2025. The Centre is open to visitors Wednesday through Saturday, from 12:00 to 4:30 pm. Admission is by donation.

The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives' (CCSC) Co-op Conversations is a monthly online gathering for co-operative sector professionals to learn from others in the field and exchange information in a casual setting. The CCSC believes that the best learning is peer-to-peer, and casual conversations across different organizations are what break old thinking patterns, make new connections, and generate fresh perspectives. Each Co-op Conversation will be held during lunch hours (Saskatchewan time) on the first Wednesday of the month.

Exploring the Impact of Co-operative Youth Education Programs in Canada – The Perspectives of Alumni featuring Stan Yu

Date: December 3, 2025
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM (Saskatchewan time or Central Standard Time)
Location: On Zoom
File: Download Event Poster

Co-operative youth education programs have been offered across Canada for decades, providing experiential learning through day camps and weeklong retreats. These programs aim to build leadership, teamwork, confidence, and communication skills while introducing youth to co-operative values and principles. Thousands of young people have participated in programs such as Camp Kindling in Saskatchewan and Co-operative Young Leaders in Ontario. Despite strong anecdotal evidence of success, there has been little systematic research on their long-term impact. To address this gap, in 2025 the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives partnered with several organizations to survey alumni of these programs. This Co-op Conversation shares early findings and discusses implications for youth engagement and the future of these programs.

Stan Yu is the Research and Communications Coordinator at the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. Stan has a keen interest in collecting, analyzing, and making sense of quantitative and qualitative data to support organizations in facilitating evidence-based decision-making and organizational learning. Prior to joining the CCSC, Stan held numerous positions at the University of Saskatchewan, including Survey Research Manager at the Social Sciences Research Laboratories (now Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research) and Program Evaluation Specialist at the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning. 

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Past talks can be found here: Past Co-op Conversations.

The annual MacPherson Talk honours the late Dr. Ian MacPherson, one of the leading lights of the international cooperative movement. Historian, educator, author, and passionate co-operator, Ian personified the relationship between Canadian co-operative academics and co-op practitioners. 

Social and Solidarity Economy Research: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

The 11th Annual MacPherson Talk features Dr. Marie J. Bouchard—whose distinguished career has significantly shaped the fields of social and solidarity economy (SSE) research and social innovation and co-operative studies—sharing observations concerning the state of scientific research on the SSE and suggesting how research could contribute to consolidating and shoring up the SSE field. Bouchard’s timely talk comes on the eve of publishing A Modern Guide to the Social and Solidarity Economy (Edward Elgar, January 2026) with co-editor Damien Rousselière (Institut Agro, France), which demonstrates the SSE is more than just another sector of the economy, but a challenge to the dominant economic paradigm by fostering equitable patterns of resource and surplus distribution while promoting democratic, empowering, and emancipatory power relations.

About our Speaker

Marie J. Bouchard is Professor Emerita at the Université du Québec à Montréal, emeritus member of the Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES), and consultant to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Task Force on the Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE). She held the Canada Research Chair on Social Economy (2003-2013) and CIRIEC International Presidency of the Scientific Commission on the Social and Cooperative Economy (2015-2025) and has been recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 Canadian Association for Studies on Cooperatives (CASC) Merit Award, 2022 Université du Québec à Montréal Career in Research Merit Award and 2023 European Committee on Cooperative Research of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her recent work focuses on the conceptual definition and statistical marking of cooperatives and social economy, as well as on impact measurement.

Event Details

Date: December 17, 2025
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 PM (SK/CST/GMT-6)
Where: This is a hybrid event and will take place in Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Building (101 Diefenbaker Place, University of Saskatchewan) and on Zoom.

Register to attend (in-person or online): 2025 MacPherson ft Marie Bouchard (online or in-person)

Note: The MacPherson Talk will be recorded and shared with registrants after the event.

Download Event Poster

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The Fredeen Lecture is hosted annually and features the research of the most recent recipient of the Hartley and Margaret Fredeen Scholarship in Co-operative Studies. This scholarship is offered annually to a student who is conducting research on co-operatives, either entering or continuing studies in a master's or doctoral program at the University of Saskatchewan.

The 2025 Fredeen Lecture (featuring Candice Minott)

Moral Suasion as a Policy Tool: How Effective are Ethical Appeals in Advancing TRC #92 and UNDRIP in Saskatchewan Credit Unions? featuring Candice Minott

This year’s Fredeen Lecture explores the effectiveness of moral suasion (ethical appeals) as a policy tool to advance reconciliation efforts within Saskatchewan credit unions. Specifically, it examines how two Saskatchewan credit unions have operationalized the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Call to Action #92 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) within their governance structures, policies and practices. In 2018, the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA) made an important signal to its members as it confirmed a resolution on Truth and Reconciliation at its Annual General Meeting to adopt the TRC and UNDRIP as a reconciliation framework. The resolution also encouraged CCUA delegates to respond to this call and to share similar resolutions with their boards of directors to demonstrate support for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The talk will review the research findings, assess the circumstances under which moral suasion is effective and evaluate how co-operative values intersect with reconciliation frameworks.

Presented by Candice Minott, Recipient of the 2024 Hartley and Margaret Fredeen Scholarship in Co-operative Studies

Candice Minott graduated this fall with a Master of Public Policy from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. Concurrently, Candice is the Community Engagement Consultant at Co-operatives First, where she supports the development of co-operatives across Western Canada.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, November 20, 2024
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM (Saskatchewan Time or Central Standard Time)
Where: On Zoom
File: Download Event Poster

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Past lectures can be found here: Past Fredeen Lecture.

The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives hosts additional periodical public lectures featuring topical research and visiting scholars. Below you can find our most recent special talk and an archive of special talks we have hosted in the past.

Past talks can be found here: Past Special Talks.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Centre for the Study Co-operatives launched the "Co-operatives in Times of Crisis Conversation Series", which asked leaders in co-operatives, big and small, how they were making use of their co-operative structure to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis.

Jen Budney, Professional Research Associate, the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives and former Chair, the Spadina Early Learning and Childcare Co-operative

Past talks can be found here: Full Series Conversation.