Farewell, Mariel!

Every year we welcome an eager young person to our policy team, and every year we have to go through the pain of saying goodbye. Yesterday was Mariel’s last day at CPJ – she’s off for a well-deserved vacation before starting an MA in public policy at Concordia University in Montreal. We’re really going to miss Mariel!

Mariel hit the ground running at CPJ, since one week after she started, the federal election was called. Mariel contributed a number of pieces to our election coverage, writing about affordable housing, health care, and regional perspectives across Canada. Mariel quickly revealed a strong capacity for insightful analysis, as well as a flair for writing.

In October, we launched our new website. It didn’t take long for Mariel to find her groove as a regular blogger. One of her first posts reflected on her first 10 weeks as a CPJ intern. Mariel dedicated a lot of time to blogging about issues she was passionate about or topics that she wanted to explore further, taking readers along with her on her journey of discovery. This included a great series on the reduced work week.

In exploring the different areas CPJ works on, Mariel discovered a real passion for women’s equality, and the way in which it relates to poverty and women’s economic security through the issue of childcare. Mariel developed research papers on the topic for CPJ, and pulled all of the information together for a presentation on childcare at the inaugural Canadian Social Forum in May.

Mariel also developed her public speaking skills, helping to lead workshops on poverty reduction and human trafficking.

We are proud of Mariel for the way she flourished and developed her skills here at CPJ. She was a funny, warm-hearted, thoughtful addition to our staff, who didn’t mind being teased or tackling traditional intern roles. We'll miss you greatly, Mariel!

While Mariel is moving on to new things, you’ll still be able to catch up with her regularly on this blog! Mariel has agreed to contribute posts on justice-related issues and events from Montreal, starting in September.

Also joining the blog will be inaugural CPJ policy intern, Trixie Ling. Trixie is starting an MA in public policy at Simon Fraser this fall. She will be blogging on all things justice in the greater Vancouver area.

In the next few weeks, blogging will be fairly sporadic as Karen, Karri and I are on vacation. We’ll be back with a vengeance the week of September 8, and ready to introduce the 2009-2010 CPJ intern!