Our Campaigners

Our core group of campaigners committed to improving False Creek.



Maggy Spence 
is our ‘de facto‘ executive director for the summer of 2022. She is currently a Master’s Student in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia and is passionate about resiliency, community-based research and marine conservation. This summer, through the UBC Sustainable Scholars Project, Maggy is researching and piloting a series of public engagement strategies to highlight citizen science as a tool for place-making and marine conservation within the False Creek Community. 

Rebecca Blundon is an Environment Engineer who practised for 6 years reclaiming contaminated sites. She was diagnosed with MS in 2019 and shortly after stopped working. She now devotes her energy to making Vancouver a greener and more sustainable city. She has volunteered at the Vancouver Farmers Markets and is active with the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association. She is very interested in the redevelopment of the False Creek South lands and the future of the city as a whole

Kira Leeb is  a scientist, most recently executive director, Data, Surveillance and Intelligence, COVID-19  for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, Australia. With over 25 years management experience, including 15 years senior management with progressive emphasis on corporate strategic and leadership development as well as staff and budget management, Kira now has the distinction of being False Creek Friends Society’s very first member and has taken a leadership role in operationalizing its goals.

Johannes Fast is a Swedish artist, communicator and environmental visionary, now based in Canada. His interest in a wide range of topics has led him to now pursue ways of restoring the environment through a holistic view of science, action and communication. With his sidekick, Atya, (see below), they bring a sense of vitality and joy to their dedication to save False Creek.

Atya is a Finnish Lapphund, a breed traditionally used by Lapplanders to herd reindeer. Here in False Creek, Atya can be seen most mornings on the north side of False Creek near David Lam Park, patrolling the seashore for debris cast aside by careless humans. And yes, he has easily learned to deposit the litter in bins that some of us humans seem to forget to use.

Atya also has his own Twitter account. You can find him at @atyaforchange.

Zaida Schneider was a worrywart who successfully transformed his paralyzing enviro-anxieties into positive marine conservation activities. Previously a television reporter, educator, and logger, he now inhabits an itinerant vessel that makes unscheduled trips between his homes on Bowen Island and in False Creek. After spending many years of bluewater sailing, he returned home only to fret about False Creek. Why was such an incredible marine treasure still being neglected and abused?

Zoey Briggs attends Kitsilano Secondary and is in grade 9. She is interested in photography and enjoys cooking. She is the current youth coordinator for the False Creek Friends Society and is involved in the light trap project as well as the False Creek BioBlitz project. When she grows up, she is interested in becoming a teacher or a lawyer.

Wouldn’t your photo look better here?

We need you. We need your energy. It’s there, just waiting to be transformed from a nagging sense of dread into something joyous and liberating. We have a number of projects on the planning board: restoring False Creek’s marine environment by planting underwater eelgrass meadows, eliminating microplastics and microfibres from the water, cultivating mussels that can help clean up the toxins. Lots to do! Friends to make!

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