The path so far

The classroom

The first chapter. Fresh from a Bachelor of Arts at Université Sainte-Anne and a Bachelor of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Randy taught and coached with the Ministry of Education in St. John’s. He was learning the craft of holding a room, and he developed teaching modules on cultural adaptation along the way.

An awakening

In the Kullu Valley of northern India, Randy met Swami Shyam, founder of the International Meditation Institute, and something opened in him that went far beyond the religion he had grown up with. Under Swami Shyam’s guidance he studied ancient texts such as Patanjali’s Yog Darshan and explored yoga in all its forms, as a whole way of understanding the mind and the self.

Meditation became his teacher, and that inner work has run beneath everything since.

A national voice

At YMCA Canada he wrote and published newsletters and built a system to monitor overseas projects. At the Canadian Council for International Cooperation he became the national contact for 130 non-government organizations (NGOs), coordinating a public awareness campaign and political lobby, producing training manuals and running the Development Education Awards Program for CIDA. As an independent consultant, he wrote briefing notes for the provincial Ministry of Citizenship and Culture and helped direct funding to community projects.

Meeting people where they are

In 1995, Vancouver became home, and it has been ever since. Randy matched job seekers from the Downtown Eastside with employers, then spent six years at the Open Learning Agency, where he counselled more than 2,000 people through career transition and helped set up the Lower Mainland’s busiest Employment Resource Centre. For nearly a decade he was also an eCoach with Knowplace.ca, teaching online long before “virtual learning” was a household phrase.

He served as executive director of Youthquest!, then facilitated Kaleidoscope, a film production program for at-risk youth that won the Solicitor General of BC’s Crime Prevention and Community Safety Award. More than 200 young people were mentored there, and together they produced over 40 community documentaries and dramatic shorts.

East meets West

Just over 15 years ago, Randy’s path led him into three years of ceremonial work with a traditional healer from the Amazonian traditions. Those journeys deepened and confirmed what India had first awakened in him and what meditation had shown him. Wisdom from opposite sides of the world was pointing to the same truth.

Making the law make sense

As a public legal education instructor, Randy led workshops for newcomers to Canada on family, youth, criminal and civil law, helping people understand the systems they now had to live within.