News, events, tips and updates from Editors Canada
In this issue:
- WEBINARS: Train to stay on the cutting edge of your craft
- EDITORS CANADA CONFERENCE: Just seven weeks to go until Editors26!
- CAREER BUILDER: The Hub is live!
- ACADEMIC EDITING: Upcoming events
- BRANCH NEWS: Boost your skills with Editors Québec professional development webinars!
- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Editing Essentials
- MEMBER SERVICES: Connect on Discord
- SHAPE EDITORS CANADA: Leadership opportunities available on the national executive council
- VOLUNTEERCONNECT: Are you up to date?
- MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
- IN MEMORIAM: Olive Koyama
- NEC: Notes from your national executive council
1. WEBINARS: Train to stay on the cutting edge of your craft
The editing field continues to evolve, and training with Editors Canada can help you stay on top of industry developments and keep your skills sharp. Don’t miss our upcoming April webinars:
- April 1: The Feisty Freelance Editor: Starting and Growing Your Business (Suzanne Bowness)
- April 8: AI for Editors: Business Growth Without Compromising Your Standards (Erin Brenner)
- April 14: How to Edit a Comic Anthology (Emily Stewart)
- April 16: Parcours vers la communication accessible: comprendre, rédiger, transformer (Julie Hutsebaut)
- April 22: Editing Poetry: Adding Poetics to Your Practice (Margo LaPierre)
- April 28: Content Marketing for Academic Editors (Letitia Henville)
- April 30: Overcoming Challenges in Editing Creative Nonfiction (Lynne Melcombe)
Register now on our webinars page!
Plus, professional development this spring at SFU
Join our friends at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies for a range of flexible online courses for professional communicators. Register now to save your spot in courses including:
- Indexing: An Essential Art and Science
- Structural Editing
- Document Design and Production for Editors
- Copy Editing
- Plain Language in Health Literacy
- Ethics and Legal Issues in Writing and Publishing
2. EDITORS CANADA CONFERENCE: Just seven weeks to go until Editors26!
The days are flying by and the 2026 Editors Canada conference is getting closer and closer! If you don’t have your ticket yet, there’s still time to register. Head to the conference website to reserve your spot, book your stay and plan your visit.
We hope you’ll consider arriving in Halifax early to attend the pre-conference dinner on Wednesday, May 20, and to participate in the pre-conference activities arranged by Editors Atlantic. We can’t wait to have everyone together to celebrate the joys and challenges of editing the written word!
Speaking of planning, the conference committee is happy to provide attendees with access to travel and accommodations discounts, as well as a wealth of information about things to do while you’re in Halifax.
To help you keep track of events and make navigating your conference experience a breeze, download the conference app!
The conference will take place May 21 to 23, 2026, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Dalhousie University’s downtown campus. The theme of Editors26 is Editing in the Age of Misinformation.
Are you interested in helping to organize the next Editors Canada conference? Email info@editors.ca with the subject line “Conference Volunteer.” Volunteer opportunities are only available to members of Editors Canada.
3. CAREER BUILDER: The Hub is live!
The career builder committee is thrilled to share that the Career Development Hub is now officially live!
Built on the former Find Work web page, the Hub is a refreshed, members-only space that brings together career-centred Editors Canada webinars and training materials, The Editors’ Weekly blog posts and curated career and job resources, all in one user-friendly destination.
We’re excited to present this expanded resource to our members and invite you to explore the Hub today; access it at career.editors.ca.
Please note that career.editors.ca and editors.ca are separate websites. To access the members-only content on the Hub, you will need to either log out of editors.ca first or use a separate browser.
4. ACADEMIC EDITING: Upcoming events
Book Club
April 7 at 4:30 p.m., PT / 7:30 p.m., ET
The Academic Editing book club will meet to discuss The Grant Writing Guide: A Roadmap for Scholars. This event will feature an author Q&A with Betty S. Lai! Join us to learn more about the book, ask questions, and connect with fellow grant editors and writers. Hosted by Letitia Henville.
Register here.
Coffee Chat
Editorial Funding in Academic Publishing
April 16 at 11 a.m., PT / 3 p.m., ET
The coordinates of editorial work in academic publishing have changed a lot over the last few years, to say the least. Join your fellow editors on April 16 to discuss topics around funding for editing in academic publishing, such as workload, fee structures, the future of in-house roles, frequency and reliability of work, and anything else that might be relevant. Please bring your questions and/or topics for discussion. This session will be hosted by Karen Crosby.
Register here.
5. BRANCH NEWS: Boost your skills with Editors Québec professional development webinars!
Here are some of Editors Québec’s upcoming sessions in French.
April 23: ChatGPT from A to Z: Tips and Unexpected Uses (Natasha Tatta)
AI is everywhere, but very few people harness its full power. This webinar offers a comprehensive and practical overview of ChatGPT. You will discover how to use it effectively daily, as well as unexpected applications that can transform the way you work, think, and create.
This webinar will enable you to:
- Understand how ChatGPT works and why it responds the way it does.
- Learn how to formulate effective queries to obtain significantly better results.
- Use ChatGPT to save time, improve the quality of your work, and multiply your capabilities.
- Avoid common mistakes and understand the tool’s limitations.
- Explore concrete cases that can be immediately applied to your professional reality.
Whether you are a beginner or already a user, this webinar will give you a clear, practical, and strategic understanding of ChatGPT, allowing you to move from occasional use to expert knowledge of the tool.
Presenter
Natasha Tatta, language specialist and generative AI infopreneur. Founder of Gen-X Web Solutions, Natasha is a certified bilingual translator and writer. She offers language services integrated with content marketing. She is also the founder of Info IA Québec and supports professionals in adopting generative AI.
Register here.
May 11: Data security and Bill 25—Omissions that cost you dearly (Amina Arab)
Understand your obligations, avoid pitfalls, and adopt the right reflexes to protect your clients and your reputation.
Presenter
Amina Arab is a consultant and trainer in fraud prevention and cybersecurity. She combines psychology and digital security to better understand and prevent cyberattacks. With a background in psychosocial intervention and digital education, she is completing a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity at Polytechnique Montréal.
Register here.
For more information about these webinars, email Editors Québec.
Discover more branch and twig events
Belonging to Editors Canada means you can attend any branch or twig meeting around the country. Check out the national events calendar to find out what’s happening!
6. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Editing Essentials
New to the editing profession? Looking to stand out from the crowd?
Check out the Editing Essentials test offered by Editors Canada!
The Editing Essentials test is a great way to boost your confidence and demonstrate to others that you’ve got what it takes to work as an editor. Based on a selection of standards from the 2016 edition of Professional Editorial Standards, the test evaluates basic competence in:
- structural editing,
- stylistic editing,
- copy editing, and
- proofreading.
The hour-long, 45-question multiple choice test is offered online and can be taken anywhere, anytime! Results are available as soon as you complete the test, and you need a score of at least 75% to pass.
The cost is $75 for Editors Canada members and $100 for non-members.
Visit the Editors Canada Editing Essentials page for more information.
7. MEMBER SERVICES: Connect on Discord
The member services committee has developed this free, simple-to-navigate virtual spot for members and student affiliates to meet up in real time or asynchronously, on any device, to connect over editing, professional development and anything else that comes to mind.
What can you do in the Editors Canada Discord?
- Chit-chat in the water cooler.
- Challenge friends to games.
- Share the latest and greatest articles related to editing in news for editors.
- Increase productivity by using the co-working space. (Virtual body-doubling works!)
- Look for work or share job opportunities.
- Stay connected to your committees in the volunteer and branches and twigs sections.
- Show off your pets, promote your own work or contribute to the stetwalk channel.
- “Lurk” (or be a passive observer) and keep up-to-date on Editors Canada happenings.
- And more!
The cool part about the Editors Canada Discord is that it’s a living place, like a living document—it changes constantly and grows through member use and suggestions. It’s also included with your Editors Canada membership and it is almost completely ad-free (yes, truly).
Visit the member resources section of the website to learn how to join the Editors Canada Discord server today.
Want to find out more about Editors Canada services, including partner discounts? Visit the member services page and the member resources page for exclusive benefits.
Need help logging into the website?
Visit the member portal and click the “Click here if you forgot your password” link.
Looking for tips for using the Editors Canada website? Here are some of the most common issues and workarounds.
8. SHAPE EDITORS CANADA: Leadership opportunities available on the national executive council
Want to help shape Editors Canada at the national level, develop new skills and broaden your professional network? Two positions are open on our national executive council (NEC).
Director of branches and twigs
The volunteer who serves as the director of branches and twigs acts as the liaison between the NEC and all Editors Canada’s branches and twigs. Their main duty is to represent the interests of the branches and twigs.
In the words of a previous director of branches and twigs, filling this position primarily means being an information gopher: you must ask questions, dig for information and unearth the answers. A volunteer who is interested in filling this position should be helpful, approachable and systematic.
The director of branches and twigs facilitates meetings among the branch and twig chairs to discuss local programming strategies and to conduct brainstorming sessions. They also take meeting notes and then distribute them to the branch and twig chairs. Quite often, these meetings are also a space for chairs to raise questions and concerns so the director can get answers and/or more information from the NEC.
Director of volunteer relations
Volunteers are essential for the healthy functioning of Editors Canada. The director of volunteer relations attempts to ensure that the association’s volunteers are provided with meaningful volunteer opportunities and are acknowledged for their service. Part of this work is done by overseeing the volunteer management committee and the member services committee, as well as several national positions, including the Facebook group moderators, the forum monitor and the mediator.
The director of volunteer relations communicates and encourages Editors Canada volunteer opportunities as much as possible and devises methods that reach the entire Editors Canada volunteer pool. Part of this is accomplished by ensuring the volunteer management tool, VolunteerConnect, is kept up to date and used properly. They also look for and make connections with committee chairs, committee volunteers, Editors Canada members and leadership for any projects that are in the works in order to match volunteers with volunteer work that suits their interests.
The director also comes up with ways of expanding the volunteer pool (to include voices from across the country) and keeping committees filled with engaged volunteers and fresh ideas.
The ideal volunteer for this director position is organized, has great communication and people-management skills and is open to collaboration. A sense of humour is also an asset!
Get involved
If you’re driven to create rewarding volunteer experiences while gaining valuable professional development experience and growing your network with other editors across the country, and at different levels of the association, please contact Suzanne Aubin for more information about either of these roles.
9. VOLUNTEERCONNECT: Are you up to date?
If you’ve added yourself to the VolunteerConnect database, now is a good time to check your listing to make sure it’s up to date. Do you have more free time now? Less? Do you have new skills to add? Are you looking for different opportunities? Let us know!
Volunteer leaders, if you’ve posted a task and it has been filled, please make sure to remove it from the database. And don’t forget to add new opportunities as they arise. Thanks!
10. MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
Editors British Columbia member Sharon McInnis, ProofingQueen®, is offering her online “Proofreading for Businesses and Ad Agencies” course via the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). This course gives participants everything they need to launch a corporate proofreading career or to add to an existing editing business. The next five-week course runs from April 29 to June 2, 2026. Check the EFA Course Catalog for more information and visit proofingqueen.com for a US$10 discount code.
Editors Canada Member News is where we share information about members and affiliates who win awards, publish books and make their mark in other important ways.
Do you have an achievement you’d like to share? Are you excited about a new project or opportunity that has come your way? Let us tell the world all about it! Please send your stories to the member news coordinator.
11. IN MEMORIAM: Olive Koyama
We are sorry to report that Olive Koyama, an early and long-time member of the Freelance Editors’ Association of Canada (now Editors Canada), died last summer.
Olive worked both in-house, including for the Art Gallery of Ontario and Oxford University Press, and freelance. In 2003, when she was one of the judges for the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence, the awards committee described her as “a mainstay of the Toronto branch, having held most executive positions, including branch chair.” She was also editor of the association’s national newsletter.
Olive is survived by her sons, Gordon and Andy, and several grandchildren.
12. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
The February NEC meeting covered a range of topics, including project updates, important discussions on AI, and professional development for editors. The NEC met on March 22, 2026. A summary will be provided in the April e-news update.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their feedback on the strategic plan. We appreciate your time and dedication. We will be keeping members informed as we move through the review and revision process.
Kaitlin Littlechild
President
The national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.