The Canadian Council for Refugees Winter Working Group meetings will be held in Toronto February 26-27/10. On Fri Feb 26/10, 2 working groups will address Overseas Protection and Sponsorship and Immigration and Settlement. On Sat Feb 27/10, the working group will be meeting on Inland Protection. All working group meetings will include discussion of family reunification. See the page for more information.
Folks who attend the CCR meetings rave about them. Have you ever been?
Category: Events
-
Canadian Council for Refugees winter working group meetings
-
UN declares 2010 International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures
2010 is International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures. The rationale? “…the fostering of cultural diversity and of its corollary, dialogue … constitutes one of the most pressing contemporary issues and is central to the Organization’s comparative advantage”. See the UNESCO website for more information.
-
2010 is Year of the British Home Child in Canada
2010 has been designated as Year of the British Home Child in Canada. It commemorates the child emigration scheme that brought over 100,000 children from Britain to Canada between 1826 and 1939. The plan was sold to Canadians as a way to support children who were orphaned and living in poverty. A great many of these children came to Canada and served as farm labourers and domestic servants and endured lives of abuse from the people who acquired them. immigrantchildren.ca has been vocal about the importance of Canada’s acknowledgment of the wrongs committed against these children and has called for a formal apology from the Federal government. In November, the British government apologized to the home children.
immigrantchildren.ca will maintain a page on the home children and link related items, information, news and events related to the initiative over 2010. -
Holiday gifts for newcomers
1. Subscription to a daily mainstream national newspaper. I recommend The Globe and Mail and/or the National Post. Both often feature items related to immigration and both are well written and present clear points of view on issues of immigration and settlement.
2. Subscription to a local newspaper. Depending on where the newcomer settles, the local paper offers, often painfully accurately, the local environment: it is important for the newcomer to know where they have landed, how they are welcomed (or not) and avenues for settling, integrating, opportunities for employment and recreation, etc in their chosen community.
3. “100 Photos that Changed Canada” is a beautiful ‘coffee-table’ book that illustrates and documents the journey and history of immigration to Canada. Both heartening and heart-breaking stories and histories are included, everything from the “Girl from Canada”, a living exhibit of a young woman on a bicycle outfitted with all the bells and whistles that ostensibly depicted life in Canada as an incentive to British, to the injustice of the Komagata Maru incident, documenting the history of the “one continuous voyage” policy in immigration policy, to the repatriation of Japanese Canadians after internment during WWII, to Canada’s disgrace in refusing Jewish children’s emigration, 100 Photos is an illustrated history of Canada.
4. Rudyard Griffith’s Who We Are: The Citizen’s Manifesto is a current examination of the state of the nation and the place of the newcomer in it.
5. Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is a beautiful, timeless and ageless picture book that illustrates beautifully the immigrant experience. Children and adults alike will marvel at the empathic depictions of what it is like to land on new shores. Readers will find comfort in this volume, which lovingly and accurately depicts the typical newcomer journey: leaving family, reconciling, being a stranger in a strange land.
6. Library cards to the local public and local university libraries. Many Canadian university libraries offer a “research reader” or “community member” card for non-students. Local public libraries have agreements with Citizenship and Immigration Canada and offer Library Settlement Service programs, a support to newcomers.
This list is reading-heavy: What are your suggestions for other/additional best gifts for newcomers? -
Dec 10th is International Human Rights Day
The United Nations website on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
-
forcedmigration.org podcasts
Forced Migration Online has available for downloading a collection of audio podcasts. The latest addition is the Harrell-Bond Lecture by former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, entitled Beyond Blankets: In search of political deals and durable solutions for the displaced.
The Forced Migration Online podcast series includes lectures and discussions between experts from academia, practitioners and policy-makers and displaced persons. -
Welcoming Communities Seminar, Ottawa
Metropolis Canada presents a seminar on Welcoming Communities on Jan 25/10 in Ottawa at Library and Archives Canada. The seminar is free, but an RSVP is required to project-metropolis@cic.gc.ca by January 11, 2010.
The seminar will address how Canadian communities can be more welcoming. From the announcement:“In the years to come, the growth in multiculturalism will have a marked effect on the major urban centres of Vancouver, Montréal and Toronto (where within the next 10 years, 50% of the population will be visible minorities). The effects will also be felt in the smallest municipalities and in remote areas. Because social integration must be a two-way process, it requires an ongoing willingness on the part of both immigrants and the Canadian-born population to adapt. In order for this process to be successful, and for society to be strengthened as a result, Canada’s communities must be truly welcoming. Throughout the course of the day, this collective mission will be borne in mind as we attempt to clarify what “welcoming community” means. The notion of welcoming community will be examined under four themes: 1) the degree of which federal, provincial and municipal governments are proactive; 2) the role of non-governmental organizations; 3) the urban/rural divide; and 4) Francophone and Anglophone minority language communities”.
For more info, including registration, visit the Metropolis Canada website.
-
Make art, not war: Helping refugee children through art
An Iraqi/American mural project is a project of Iraq Art Mile (IAM)/Iraqi Children’s Art Exchange, (IACE) as part of The Art Miles Murals in support of the UNESCO Decade of Peace and Non-Violence among the world’s children. From the ICAE website, this description:
“IAM is sponsoring a series of murals to be painted both in the Middle East and in the US with the theme: Building a Culture of Peace: Who Are We/Who Are They. All the murals created for this project, along with documenting photographs, will be displayed in the US and in the Middle East. The exhibits will illuminate history and culture within the context of the lives, hopes, dreams and expectations of children and youth on both sides of the cultural and political divide that exists at this particular moment in history”.
In September, 2010, the murals will make their way to Egypt to mark the end of the Decade in a gala exhibition and celebration.
-
Nov 20th is National Child Day
Today is National Child Day (Canada) and International Children’s Day (International).
Related post: 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. -
Child trafficking seminar, Toronto
The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto presents a lecture on child trafficking by PhD candidate Antonela Arhin entitled “Children as Commodities: Human Trafficking, Transnational Flows and Markets”. From the announcement: “Explore the concept of human trafficking, its different forms and causes with an emphasis on child trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation within the context of supply and demand. Join us for a thought provoking discussion”.
The event will be held Thurs. Nov 26/09, 2-3:30 at the Jackman Humanities Building rm. 318 at the University of Toronto, 170 St. George St.. rsvp to claire.dunlop@utoronto.ca.