We Can Sing Safely Webinar

National Webinar: We Can Sing Safely

On Tuesday, June 29, 12pm ET, Choral Canada presented a national webinar discussing updates on the latest research for safe group singing, the use of ventilation in your rehearsal space, the current legalities around vaccinations for choirs and singing groups, and recommendations on how to manage communicating your plans with your choir/singing group. Below you will find our list of panelists, the recording, the powerpoint slides, and the saved chat.

Panel included:

Dr. Juliette O’Keeffe
Dr. Juliette O’Keeffe is an Environmental Health Knowledge Translation Scientist at The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH) based at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver. The NCCEH focuses on health risks associated with the physical environment and identifies evidence-based interventions to mitigate those risks. Dr. O'Keeffe's work involves synthesizing research across a range of environmental health issues to inform practitioners and policy makers, with COVID-19 transmission and mitigation measures being the focus of recent work.

Allison Tremblay
Allison Tremblay (she/her/hers) is a partner at Victory Square Law Office, where she practices union and worker-side labour, human rights and pensions and benefits law. Allison has represented clients in labour, employment, and human rights matters before the Labour Relations Board, collective agreement arbitrators, human rights and other administrative tribunals, professional regulatory bodies, mediators and the B.C. and Federal Courts. Allison also provides advice to trustees on legal issues arising in the administration of pension and benefits plans and related litigation. Her clients work in varied industries in British Columbia, including the resource, film, government, policing, and transportation sectors. Allison sings second soprano with Elektra Women’s Choir, and previously served as the organization’s President. When not practicing law or singing, she can be found trying to keep up with her four-year old.

Margo Nightingale
Born in Winnipeg, Margo (she/her) has settled on the traditional lands of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the North Slave Metis Nation since 1994. A lawyer and mediator by profession, Margo has always sung in choirs, with musical theatre and other opportunities. She currently sings with the Canadian Chamber Choir and is the Chair of their Board. Margo has conducted Yellowknife’s adult community choir Aurora Chorealis since 2001. During the pandemic, Aurora Chorealis experimented with Zoom sings and “virtual choir” recording projects, before negotiating an exemption from public health restrictions to allow modified in-person rehearsals through Sept 2020-April 2021. They will be re-negotiating their plans in hopes of a more normal rehearsal season this coming fall.

Dr. Allison McGeer
Dr. Allison McGeer is a Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System in Toronto. She has a research interest in the
prevention of healthcare associated infection and adult immunization. She is the former director of infection prevention at Sinai Health System, and has been a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization. Since February, 2020, she has been working on research related to the prevention and management of COVID-19.

You can access the recording of the webinar here.

The PowerPoint presentations can be accessed here:
1. Dr. Juliette O'Keeffe's presentation
2. Dr. Allison McGeer's presentation
3. Allison Tremblay's presentation
4. Margo Nightingale's presentation

The saved chat can be accessed here.

Our office is located in Tkaronto in the Dish With One Spoon Territory and covered by Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties. We are grateful to work, live, and make music on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples.
Notre bureau est situé à Tkaronto, dans le territoire de Dish With One Spoon et couvert par le Traité 13 et les Traités Williams. Nous sommes reconnaissants de travailler, de vivre et de faire de la musique sur le territoire traditionnel de nombreuses nations, notamment les Mississaugas de Credit, les Anishnabeg, les Chippewa, les Haudenosaunee et les Wendats.