“You are free, and that is why you are lost.” ~Franz Kafka
If you are free, then you will feel lost in a society that is unfree. If you are healthy, then you will feel lost in a society that is unhealthy. If you have reconditioned your cultural conditioning, then you will feel lost in a society that is culturally conditioned.
When you are outflanked by a sick society, rebellion against cultural reasoning is the only reasonable course of action. Hence, your loneliness. Rebellion will always be tainted by the feeling of being lost. And that’s okay, especially when you consider the following words by Krishnamurti, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Contrastingly, it is a measure of health to be lost in a profoundly sick society. Your sense of loneliness is proportional to the courage it takes to rebel against the sickness that surrounds you.
Immanuel Kant said, “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.” But that is patently false. If understanding ends with reason, then you are stuck with the tyranny of reason that attempts to keep you trapped in the sick society.
There are two things higher than reason: imagination and humor. And it is in imagination and humor where “the lost” might be found.
Reason is important. But it will never be more important than imagination. For reason without imagination has the tendency to fall in upon itself. It eats itself in the maw of its own perceived “truth.” Given enough rope, reason will hang itself in the shadow of its own unwavering ideal. Reason will drown in its own reasoning. That is, unless imagination can regain the upper hand and pull it out of deep water.
How does imagination regain the upper hand? Through a good sense of humor. Humor dethrones hubris. It always has and it always will. Humor acts as a skyhook that unhooks the prideful from the fishing line of the sick society. Suddenly unfettered, one is free to swim in the open waters of imagination. The comfort zone snaps. Boundaries are transformed into horizons. The sickness is seen for what it is: pride in an irresponsible and fear-based way of living.
Hubris is in lockstep with reason. The reasoning that led to the sick society is the hubris which that society clings to. In such a state, only a good sense of humor can lift (skyhook) the prideful out of his settled pride and into a higher state of unsettled imagination.
Only in a state of unsettled imagination can he who was once sick see the bigger picture enough to understand why he is sick.
Therefore, all our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to cultural conditioning, and ends with the cultures reasoning, unless a healthy person emerges and uses a good sense of humor to break the spell and thus enter a state of openness (imagination) to higher reasoning.
As Ram Dass said, “Faith is not belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell.”
Indeed. When your belief in your cultural conditioning is blown to hell, all you have left is faith. Faith in the unknown. Faith in your good sense of humor. Faith in your imagination. Faith that being lost to a profoundly sick society is preferrable to being trapped by it.
And that’s okay. Your freedom is your new bedrock. On which anything can be built. Armed with a good sense of humor and a good imagination you now have the power to get power over power itself. You get ahead of the curve. Your freedom becomes a surfboard on which you are free to surf over all preconceived power structures. Nothing is unconquerable. Including your Self.
Indeed. You have to feel “lost” in order to feel the real You as you. You are a microcosm within a macrocosm. You can no more separate the micro from the macro than you can the human from the cosmos; both are needed to put the whole into holistic. You are a desperate tiny thing in an otherwise indifferent universe, but you are also an aspect of the universe. As such, it is your responsibility alone to act on behalf of the universe in which you are a part.
And there is no higher sign of self-responsibility than courage, humor, and imagination in the face of fear, hubris, and reason.
The only way not to become fixed in any set pattern (pride, certainty, or reason), is to question your cultural conditioning. Shine your darkness into the blinding light. Keep imagination ahead of reason. Keep curiosity ahead of certainty. Recondition your cultural conditioning.
The ego is just as likely to get lost in the light as in the dark. When you are healthy, you give people hope by becoming a beacon of light in the darkness. When you are free, you give people courage by becoming a beacon of darkness in the blinding light. In both cases egoism is put in checkmate.
Do not fret. Do not balk. There is adventure to be had. There is heroism to be mined from Plato’s Cave. The upside of uncertainty is that your imagination becomes supple. Having lost your certainty, you may feel lost, but sometimes you must be lost to discover something that has never been found.
As Lorca said, “I’ve often lost myself in order to find the burn that keeps everything awake.”
“Lost” outside of your preconceived certainty, the unexpected is brought to the fore. Curiosity is unleashed. Magic is let loose. You become startled by the truth, mesmerized by the mystery, astonished by the animating principle of life living itself through you. Your life becomes your highest art, an immortality project for the ages.
Everything is within you: demon and diamond, love and loss, power and pain, laughter and anxiety. Say yes to it all. Shirk nothing. Don’t lie to yourself. You are not going to live forever. You are lost. You are a butterfly in a tsunami, but at least you are no longer a caterpillar trapped in a delusion. Don’t fight it. Surrender. Let it guide you. Let it drive you. Let it teach you. Become one with the tempest.
As Rumi said, “Doing as others told me, I was blind. Coming when others called me, I was lost. Then I left everyone, myself as well. Then I found everyone, myself as well.”
Image source: Linear Progress by Beeple
About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (Why It’s Okay to Be Lost) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.
First of all, Soapstone Carving for Children is a family book; secondly, it combines a history of the craft with the procedures of carving, making the book a high-interest source of enjoyment; and thirdly, it provides sample projects and working drawings for children to develop on their own.
Together, Bonnie and Dave Gosse provide children with step-by-step instructions for carving, and visual clues for the proper handling of soapstone. The children in this book, Rebecca Gosse, Sylvie Gosse, and Lani Bastien, attended the Vancouver Waldorf School.
Have a go! Experience the hands-on pleasure of carving soapstone.
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Soapstone, also called talc or steatite, can be bought at most rockshops and is not expensive. Soapstone is actually and impure variety of talc. That means it consists of almost all talc with just a sprinkling of other minerals thrown in. Talc is the softest known mineral in the world. You can scratch it with your fingernail.
Soapstone is found all over the world. It looks greasy and feels slippery. It comes in a great variety of colours: white, grey, green, yellow, red, brown, and black. It can be plain or variegated, or even polka-dotted. We have some green soapstone with red polka-dots in it. The colours are caused by ‘extra’ minerals that also make this soapstone a little harder than others.
People have used soapstone since ancient times. Egyptians and Babylonians used carved soapstone to make raised stamps. They would press it into wet clay to leave its mark. In India, soapstone was used for cooking pots, palaces, and statues. Arabs used it as soap. Some North American Indigenous People and Africans along the Senegal River have eaten it. Inuit make lamps, cooking pots, and small carvings from soapstone. Chinese people carved figurines from soapstone.
Soapstone is still used today in an even greater variety of ways than ancient people used it. We use it as a filler in paint, paper, rubber, linoleum, tile, soap, plastics, insecticides, cleaning compounds, and cosmetics. Talcum powder, of course, is mainly talc; when you dust yourself with nice-smelling bath powder, you are really dusting yourself with the main ingredient of soapstone.
Because soapstone is also heat-resistant, it is also used to line smelting furnaces and in insulators for electrical switchboards. But the modern use of soapstone that we like best is as a carving material for magical figures.
FROM: “Sketching a working drawing”
It is very helpful to have pictures of what you are going to carve. Sample pictures showing body shapes and stance of animals are the most useful. You can find excellent pictures in nature magazines and books at your library.
On a piece of paper, sketch two views of the animal that you wish to carve. In one view, show what your animal looks like from the side. In the other view, show what it looks like from above. Keep your sketch simple. Try to capture only the general shape and essence of your animal — special features of this animal that make it look like (for example) an eagle, or a dove, or an owl.
When you are first starting to carve soapstone it is easier to make your animal all one solid shape. This is what Sylvie has chosen to do. Her dove is sitting with its wings folded. The wings will be shown as a raised area on the body of the dove. Rebecca has chosen a more difficult carving. Her eagle is flying, with its wings at their highest point. She will have to work carefully so that her eagle’s wings don’t break off. Lani’s snow owl is sitting on a branch, but he is not showing the branch or the owl’s feet. Its wings are folded and will be shown as a raised area. The owl’s beak will be emphasized by scratching in details.
Another feature to consider is that your bird or animal will need a flat section to rest on so it won’t fall over. Rebecca’s eagle and Lani’s owl were easy in this respect. It will be much more difficult to find the right location for the flat spot on the bottom of Sylvie’s dove so that it will stand up and not fall over. Make a guess where you think this spot should go on the sketch. It is usually near the center of the carving. When you come to making your rough rounded shape on the soapstone, you can make sure that this flat section is in the right spot.
Bonnie Gosse is an experienced Vancouver teacher and has always been interested in learning and teaching crafts. Soapstone Carving follows on her other success, Keep It Green, an environmental board game.
Dave Gosse is a shipyard cabinet maker by trade. He is also an amateur photographer with a love of computers.
Since 1979, Penumbra Press books have been garnering praise for both their content and their elegance. We are confident that you will find much that is similarly rewarding in the handful of new titles I will introduce you to in the coming weeks as we celebrate our 45th anniversary.
As a small press publisher with a niche in northern and aboriginal subjects, we are offering a slight deviation from the norm with this season’s titles, looking both to the past and to the future for an understanding of who we were and who we are as global citizens in a troubled world.
The first 45 individuals who order books from our website will each receive a gratis copy of Volume 1, Then & Now, in the Bookmark Readerity Series, Readers & Writers on Books & Reading, which I wrote for Dan and Marlene MacDonald, proprietors of Bookmark in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Please visit our website, penumbrapress.com, or email me at john@penumbrapress.com for assistance in finding the right Penumbra Press book for you.
— John Flood, Publisher & Producer john@penumbrapress.com
StratCann’s David Brown investigated concerns around federal sampling rules, with Health Canada confirming such actions are compliant as long as all applicable federal and provincial requirements are adhered to.
In other cannabis news this past week, it was somewhat slow.
The CannExpo will be in Toronto from March 22 to 24, 2024, at the Enercare Centre in Exhibition Place. This three-day event is open to industry and the adult public. Attendees can enjoy budtender sampling and a culinary stage, among other features.
Radio Canada spoke with Lynne Petit, secretary of the Retail Cannabis Council of Manitoba (RRCMB) and owner of the Midnight Show Cannabis store in Beauséjour, about her concerns with Manitoba’s two-tiered retail licensing system that allows big box stores and convenience stores to sell cannabis products.
Rubicon Organics announced their new CEO, Margaret Brodie. Brodie has been with Rubicon since it was founded in 2015 and began her tenure as the company’s CFO. She was appointed Interim CEO on January 1, 2023.
A new study published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research says that exposure to cannabidiol (CBD) in pregnancy reduces heart function in young male offspring. The team included Western University researchers Mina Nashed, Sebastian Vanin, Mohammed Sarikahya, and Steven Laviolette, and Queen’s University researcher David Natale.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia released a paper on how cannabis use can help manage stimulant cravings among people who use unregulated drugs like crystal meth, cocaine and crack.
Benzinga did a writeup on Decibel Cannabis and its success in the pre-roll market in Canada.
About 200 farmers, industrialists, and policy experts will be at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel this Feb. 21 to 23 for the Future is Here Conference on Industrial Hemp. Organized by the Alberta Hemp Alliance, the conference aims to promote the growth of Alberta’s industrial hemp sector.
There were 64 filings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) in 2023, a 64% year-over-year increase. Of these, five were from the cannabis industry.
The actual report shows that the illicit market continues to decline significantly, with the legal market becoming increasingly competitive in terms of price and variety. For some reason, the National Post really seems to want weed to stay illegal, I guess.
A micro producer in BC has filed a notice of claim in provincial court alleging a third-party processor did not pay him for products they sold into the Ontario market.
Laine Keyes, the owner of Pineapple Buds Inc., a micro cultivator and processor in Oliver, BC, filed the claim in a Penticton Court, naming several people connected to BC cannabis producer Embark Health and their parent company BevCanna.
Keyes alleges that Pineapple Buds Inc. provided cannabis to the defendants to sell to the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) and was not paid for the product, despite selling out in what Keyes says was “record time.”
“The defendants did not pay us for the product,” wrote Keyes in the statement. “We were told by the defendants, and given personal guarantees, that when they get paid we will be paid.”
The statement also specifically names Martino Ciambrelli, who was listed as the Responsible Person In Charge (RPIC) with the OCS by BevCanna Enterprises Inc.
“Fortunately I have recordings of our conversations,” continued Keye’s statement. “Martino and Bevcanna Enterprises Inc. controlled the bank accounts for Embark Health Inc. and Embark Delta Inc. Later we found out that for months Martino was misleading us by continuing to say that they hadn’t been paid, while in fact the entire time they were lying to us and were paid. Furthermore, after they received deposited funds from the OCS that were designated for Pineapple Bud Inc. Martino and Marcello paid themselves out of the Bevcanna account with the funds from the OCS designated for Pineapple Buds Inc.”
Keyes says he is seeking $35,000, which is, essentially, a limit under small claims court. Under BC’s rules, claims for more than $35,000 generally go to the BC Supreme Court. One can still make a claim for more than $35,000 in Small Claims Court, but if you do, you must abandon the amount over $35,000.
Keyes tells StratCann he is owed $70,000, but the costs associated with taking the case to the Supreme Court rather than through small claims court were too high.
Pineapple Buds received its micro processing licence in April 2023. A processing licence is required to sell products into provincial markets. Keyes tells StratCann that Pineapple secured their deal with Embark to sell into Ontario before receiving its processing licence. The micro producer now handles its own packaging and processing.
StratCann reached out to BevCanna for comment, but they were not immediately available as of press time. Embark Health’s website is currently listed as expired.
Featured image of Laine Keyes and Kyra Horvath, the owners of Pineapple buds.
We live in a mental fog. Our minds are crammed with tons of ideas and information. Most human beings have driven in or have experienced being in an actual fog. Sometimes it’s so thick you can’t continue to drive in it. You can’t see anything, which of course would make the drive dangerous. It’s exactly the same with our minds. Evil counts on us to do nothing but think so then it can fool us, torment us, hurt us, make us sick, keep us miserable, etc. Even if you try to think so-called “positive thoughts” it will always flip over to the opposite because its nature is earthly.
Only when the fog lifts does the sun shine through. The sun will even burn off the haze. So too will the spiritual light dawning within us clear up all the confusion and other negative states. It’s not natural for us to be afraid, or worry, or be anxious, or get angry. These are all unnatural mental and emotional states. We have mechanically and unconsciously picked up all of these reactions from other lost human beings over the years and we suffer terribly by living from them.
All negative states live in our habitual thoughts and emotions. We have either never observed this or we flatly refuse to see it. These ideas, opinions, beliefs and conditionings presently run our lives instead of something higher in us being in charge. Thoughts, not Truth, are at the top of the pyramid. Truth is supposed to rule the kingdom within (our essence), not our mental, emotional, physical and sex centers. Vernon told us on numerous occasions there’s something higher than food, sex and money.
Recently I had to hire a plumber to fix a leak we had in a drainpipe. It had to be accessed from an outside wall off the back deck. In fact part of the deck, which had recently been stained, had to be removed. I needed to be there to help as it was a difficult job for one person to do. At a certain point the plumber had all his tools laid out on the deck along with the parts and glue needed to repair the problem. As he was trying to do something he accidentally knocked over the purple primer onto one of the deck boards. There was a split second before he reacted the way he had learned to react over the years. He got upset and went into self-condemnation. I didn’t respond the way I would have at one time. Though the deck had just been stained, I didn’t get all bent out of shape and angry that he had made a mess. It was very interesting to watch the whole scenario unfold.
In fact, I told him to let it go. It wasn’t a problem, and it wasn’t. It was refreshing because I was watching myself and didn’t go into the usual negative reaction. Something else handled it for me. All the years of coming to class and trying to put into practice higher instructions came into fruition. The Truth will do the work for us if we love it more than we love being in an agitated state.
But the plumber didn’t want to let it go. He was getting a false thrill out of being a blundering and unaware human being. He was wrongly vibrating over the incident. He didn’t have anything higher to draw upon to help him in that situation. On a practical level it occurred to me to go get a rag and wipe it up, which I did and amazingly almost all of it came up.
Yes, it wasted time, energy and money and could have been avoided, but why use up a bunch of extra time and energy on calling yourself an idiot and getting a false identity out of being a careless human being?
I recently listened to a great talk from June 6, 1992.* In it we are told “It is never necessary to follow one stupid blunder with another stupid blunder.” And Vernon Howard exclaimed, “You don’t have to suffer! You must not suffer!”
You see, by being aware and staying in the present moment, we can avoid situations like this in which accidents and problems can and do happen. We can begin to change and rise above the level of thought by refusing to remain in a mental fog. We simply don’t see things as they are in reality. We are not aware that we can live a completely different kind of life. When we follow heavenly instructions, we no longer behave mechanically but begin to flow consciously.
In a recent Secrets of Life quote from The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power it is stated, “It is a heroic business to personally experience a reality as a reality.” We begin by caring for what Truth is telling us more than we want to protect the conflicted and divided nature that continually must be propped up by an array of negative reactions.
If we watch carefully, we’ll notice that even while sleeping, the mind never shuts up. That’s the main reason we don’t experience restful sleep and wake up refreshed. We’re always being barraged by imaginary scenarios, many of which have a bleak outcome. What we also don’t see is that we’re allowing ourselves to be in a constant state of agitation. We actually think this is the only way to get things done.
What does the news do all the time? It stirs the pot. Once upon a time, only a handful of stations broadcast the 5 o’clock or 6 o’clock news. Now it’s 24/7 news on the Internet or TV or podcasts or radio or satellite radio. We’re bombarded by it. It’s nonstop if one so chooses to watch and listen. If you choose to notice, to see clearly, the news is almost always focused on some sort of a tragedy, fateful event, a war, a riot, a shooting, climate change, a ‘new’ devastating disease, a friction between this person and that person or this group of people and that group of people.
It reminds me of the old Chicken Little story depicted by Walt Disney in a short film in 1943. Through the cunning of a sly fox, Chicken Little has been led to believe the sky is falling. The fox plays on the gullibility and stupidity of the avian community tricking them into believing outrageous schemes by which the world is coming to an end. The point of the film was to expose the evils of mass hysteria and to see how easily fooled we are.
Something that we need to start catching in ourselves is this constant overreaction to events. We tend to jump to conclusions because of this. I don’t know how many times I have caught this mechanical nature doing just that. It paints the worst-case scenario just like in the story above. You make a mountain out of a molehill. The world wants you to vibrate insanely about all these happenings. They can be small things that occur between just two people or something on a bigger scale within the state or country you live in. Or maybe it’s only in your mind. The outcome is to set you off and to drain away your energy.
Malicious, destructive forces want to keep us in a continuous state of turmoil so we’re always in pain, always suffering. They also want to keep us distracted with frivolous, absurd things, so we don’t explore the possibility that there actually, factually is a way out. Evil wants us to have our attention exclusively focused on earthly matters, to try and convince us they are more important than cosmic matters. We must remember this is a spiritual battle between good and evil. And even though we have been assured that God has already won the battle, much inner work must be done to make this a personal certainty.
I mentioned something earlier in this article about carelessness. Vernon Howard wrote a short essay on Carelessness, which you can read in his book Your Power of Natural Knowing. He said, “You have been careless in acquiring and possessing energy: spiritual energy, energy about your mind, energy about human nature, energy about the incredible evil that rules this world.” We spend much of our time thinking about and vibrating over nonsensical matters. If we want a real life, we have no business habitually reaching out for these kinds of thrills to fill up the empty space inside.
Human beings love to make up problems where there are none and then believe this is living. We can learn something entirely different where we always live in the bright sunlight above the utter madness and chaos of this world we inhabit.
Because this is the answer to all of life’s mysteries, you wish you could tell the whole world about it, though you know most will refuse to listen. But you’ve begun to understand that nothing and no one can ever hurt you again. Once you get a glimpse of another way to handle things, nothing and no one can dissuade you from discovering and living the higher life. In “The Mystery of the Secret World”, Vernon Howard puts it this way, “Your Secret World has total power over the false world. Know this!”
A set of fresh marijuana incubators and mentorship initiatives now offer support and practical training to small-scale cannabis brands and newcomers, aiming to promote equity and create opportunities for individuals affected by the consequences of the drug war. In exchange, organizers anticipate gaining advantages from local community ties and affordable labor while also inspiring employees with purpose-driven tasks.
With the decline in available capital in the marijuana sector, most operators feel compelled to accomplish more with limited resources. Oscar Carrillo, who had served four years in prison for drug sales, found it discouraging that large multistate operators (MSOs) dominated the recreational cannabis industry in New Jersey when it first opened for business in 2022.
Carrillo eventually received a social-equity license, which he perceived as validation. However, he encountered new challenges. His venture, Magic Garden Botanicals, funded through his successful telecommunications enterprise, aimed for vertical integration. Yet, obtaining suitable real estate posed a significant obstacle.
Just when Carrillo’s intentions to purchase beachfront real estate in Penns Grove, New Jersey, failed, he met Cannabiz Incubator founder Alan Trzuskoski. Trzuskoski was seeking tenants from various segments of the marijuana supply chain for his new establishment in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Inspired by his experiences in the Silicon Valley tech industry, Trzuskoski currently operates Cannabiz Incubator as a landlord offering consulting services, intending to turn the operation into an accelerator model.
Recognizing real estate as a major obstacle for startups, Trzuskoski concentrated on obtaining property in Bridgeton, an area designated for impact, and obtained permission from the local government to house up to 15 companies at the Cannabiz Incubator location. He currently rents the space to 6 tenants. His ultimate goal is to create an ecosystem of more manageable, resource-constrained businesses that can take on the market leaders.Aspiring business owners and those who have previously engaged in the markets sometimes have close relationships with the community, which allows them to customize their services.
For example, Carrillo intends to take advantage of the popularity of outlet stores in New Jersey by providing low-cost cannabis items in nonbranded packaging in a dispensary designed to resemble one.
Elsewhere, Zenbarn Farms, based in Waterbury Center, Vermont, expanded its presence by acquiring various marijuana facilities from the departing Curaleaf Holdings, focusing on regenerative farming practices to align with local preferences. With funding from the Pennywise Foundation, the founders hope to grow their incubator program to offer extensive knowledge in the whole supply chain while highlighting reciprocal benefits through worker development programs. The new owners intend to use live soil and wildflowers planted around the greenhouse’s perimeter to broaden their regenerative farming practices to cater more to local interests as farmers.
Meanwhile, in Humboldt County, Cookies, a California marijuana brand that operates Cookies University, hosts five students every summer under strict social-equity criteria. The program, led by industry veterans such as Lindsey Renner, immerses students in all aspects of the supply chain during two months, providing an alternative to entrepreneurship for those more inclined towards employment in retail, manufacturing and cultivation.
After graduation, some students stay on to work with Cookies, while others land jobs at other cannabis companies. Others go back to their old markets or carry on with their activism in areas where marijuana is still illegal.
As more people access the kind of training that the likes of Cookies University offers, industry actors such as SNDL Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDL) could have a sizeable pool of well-trained job seekers to choose from.
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(Globe Newswire) Vancouver — Rubicon Organics Inc., a licensed producer focused on cultivating and selling organic certified, premium cannabis, is pleased to announce the appointment of CEO, CFO, and grants restricted share units (RSUs).
Appointment of chief executive officer
The board of directors of the company is pleased to announce the appointment of Margaret Brodie as the chief executive officer of the company, effective immediately. Since January 1, 2023, Ms. Brodie has acted as the interim CEO and CFO. This appointment comes after the board completed a search and evaluation of both internal and external candidates to lead the company.
“We are delighted to appoint Margaret as our CEO. Margaret has been the CFO of Rubicon since our inception and she also served as our interim CEO over the past year. She has distinguished herself as a very capable and respected leader with a deep understanding of the regulated Canadian cannabis sector. We are confident that her strategic skills will play a pivotal role in the continued success of Rubicon,” expressed Len Boggio, board chair.
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“Rubicon Organics is taking its position as a Canadian leader in premium and organic cannabis and I am proud to take on the role as the CEO. As I transition from the role of CFO to helm the company’s strategic direction, I am energized by the tremendous opportunities that lie before us in 2024 and beyond. I am committed to leading our talented team towards continued innovation, sustained growth, and the realization of our collective vision for success. Together, we will embark on an exciting journey as we navigate the next phase of Rubicon’s evolution,” said Margaret Brodie, CEO.
About Margaret Brodie
Margaret Brodie has been instrumental in building Rubicon Organics since it was founded in 2015. She began her tenure as the CFO of the company and was appointed interim CEO on January 1, 2023. As Interim CEO and CFO, Ms. Brodie led the company to achieving six consecutive quarters of AEBITDA profitability and five consecutive quarters of positive operating cashflow. Under her leadership in 2023 Rubicon was awarded the prestigious KIND Awards of “Cannabis Company of the Year” and “People’s Choice Best Weed,” and produced two of the top three most popular brands as recommended by Canadian Budtenders in a third-party evaluation. She has over 20 years of experience in finance and executive leadership, of which 10 were spent with KMPG working in the UK and Canada for global beverage and global mining companies. Ms. Brodie has also held numerous corporate development and CFO roles for listed companies.
Appointment of chief financial officer and corporate secretary
The company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Janis Risbin as CFO and corporate secretary of the company effective immediately. Serving first as director of finance, and then as vice president of finance since 2019, Ms. Risbin has been instrumental in the success of the company from the early start-up of the Canadian business to delivering one of Canada’s profitable cannabis companies. Through keen insights and financial strategies, Ms. Risbin has played a pivotal role in shaping Rubicon’s strong financial performance to date.
“I am thrilled to extend a warm welcome to Janis in her new capacity as CFO,” announced Margaret Brodie, CEO. “Janis brings an abundance of experience and demonstrated judgment to our leadership team, positioning her as a valuable asset in steering our company forward as a prominent player among Canada’s leading cannabis enterprises.”
“I am honoured to assume the role of CFO and am excited to lead with vision, strategy and dedication towards the execution of Rubicon’s business strategy. My commitment is to generate sustainable value for all stakeholders, and to continue driving the financial success for the company,” expressed Janis Risbin, CFO.
About Janis Risbin
With a career spanning over two decades in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, Janis Risbin has amassed extensive experience across diverse product categories such as laundry, personal beauty, soft drinks, and frozen foods. Demonstrating a consistent ability to enhance profitability, she has effectively leveraged her financial expertise to propel growth and efficiency throughout her professional journey. Equipped with a wealth of industry knowledge and a proven track record of delivering impactful results, her strategic acumen and financial proficiency will be instrumental in steering growth and maximizing profitability within the dynamic cannabis landscape.
RSU Grant
The company has granted an aggregate of 1,361,106 restricted share units in accordance with the company’s equity incentive plan to certain executives of the company. The vesting conditions of the RSUs are as follows: (i) 50 per cent vesting between one and three years from the date of grant; and (ii) 50 per cent vesting at the end of 3 years based on achievement of 3-year targets.
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