COMMUNITY DIGEST

Young speechmakers speak out for a better world at Ismaili Centre

Omar al-Azawi (right) a quadraplegic who overcame his disability to become a graphic designer, listens as Nick Young (left) gives his speech on “Nothing.” (Photo by Steve Bowell)

by Steve Bowell

BURNABY -- Seven young people gave their opinions on how to build a beter world at a World Speech Day event held March 14 at the Ismaili Cen-tre in Burnaby.

Michael Gogo, direc-tor of a church choir in Richmond, said “The world would be a better place if everyone knew, not just what their gifts and talents are, but be-came more attuned to where their desires and passions lie.

“Recognizing, cul-tivating and sharing your passion makes life worth living,” he said. “It inspires others to share their unique passions too.”

Anson Yu, a Grade 10 student and veteran of speech tournaments, spoke on the ill effects

that past and present government policies have had on the in-

digenous population of Canada.

April 2018

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Duane Howard, a survivor of the residential schools, plays his traditional flute at the Truth and Reconciliation seminar sponsored by Stenberg College. (Photo by Steve Bowell)

Indigenous peoples present their case at Stenberg College seminarby Michael Lamey

NEW WESTMINSTER -- Reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous population requires listening to their needs as they see them, and acting in co-operation with them.

That was the chief message of a conference on Truth and Reconciliation held March 15 at the Anvil Centre in New Westmnster

It was one of a four-part, two-day seminar

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by Gerry Bowler

“White privilege” or simply elite posturing?Parents in the interior of British Columbia were shocked recently when their children came home from school with news of a new social awareness campaign: posters put up

throughout School District 74 featuring administrators commenting on racism.

In one of the posters, district superintendent Teresa Downs (who appears to be a white woman) is shown beside a quote reading, “I have unfairly benefitted from the colour of my skin. White privilege is not acceptable.”

Those parents who objected to such a contentious debate being implemented without any consultation were met with abuse on social media and bland assurances from administrators “that anything that furthers that discussion and understanding amongst our students is a good thing.”

There was no acknowledgement that parents might want to have had a say in what their children were being indoc-trinated into or that the whole notion of “white privilege”

is highly controversial and divisive.

Here’s a good way to test the notion of white privilege in action: if Downs sincerely believes that she has “unfairly benefitted from the colour of [her] skin,” then she needs to take steps in her life and career.

Downs’ situation is similar to one faced by King Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Claudius feels guilty about his sin and seeks God’s pardon. Claudius knows, however, that he can’t legitimately ask God for forgiveness because he still possesses the fruits of his crimes. He asks the rhetorical question, “May one be pardoned and retain the offence?” while clearly understanding that one cannot.

In the end, Claudius recognizes his hypocrisy in wanting forgiveness, yet also wanting to retain his ill-gotten gains – his brother’s wife and the throne of Denmark. He knows his words are empty: “My words fly up, my thoughts re-main below.”

If Downs is sincerely remorseful for benefiting from white privilege, then she must resign her undeserved position as superintendent of schools, allowing her position to be taken up by one of those more worthy for whom skin colour so cruelly deprived them of the job. To do penance, she should repay a good portion of the salary she’s unjustly received over the years.

If she refuses to do these things, then she’s implicitly ad-mitting that she’s a hypocrite and that her appearing on the poster is just virtue-signalling.

Perhaps Downs means well and perhaps she thinks this white privilege campaign will make society better.

It won’t. Instead, it will lead to a society in which every-thing is viewed in terms of race. And that will divide our nation and breed resentment.

Martin Luther King dreamed of a future society where peo-ple “will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” This white privilege campaign is in stark contrast to King’s inspiring vision of the future.

Unfortunately, when the public reacted negatively to the poster campaign, media outlets like the CBC reported, “B.C. school district under fire after launching anti-racism campaign.” The implication is that people objecting to the campaign were motivated by racism.

A more likely explanation is that they were offended by moral posturing of privileged social elites.Gerry Bowler is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

© 2018 Distributed by Troy Media

Gerry Bowler

NOTICE TO READERSCommunity Digest/Nouvelles Communautaires assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies or misinformation in the adver-tising copy submited to it. By printing such copy, we are act-ing solely in the capacity of a medium for our advertisers.

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COVER STORY

Chief Ernie Crey

Continued from Page 1 (“Indigenous people present their . . .”)

by Michael Lamey

hosted by Stenberg College. The other sections were on homelessness, the opioid crisis, and “Resistance, Relilience and Recovery.”Judy Darcy, provincial minister of mental health and addic-tions, gave a keynote speech saying that previous provincial policy on drug overdose “fails indigenous communities” as well as the non-indigenous poor.The New Democratic government intends to create “a seamless and co-ordinated mental health system,” she said.Dina Lambright, a Métis from Kamloops and an Aboriginal health leader with Fraser Health, summarized the history of white Canada’s relationship with the people who had lived here for thousands of years.“Europeans looked upon Aboriginals as a problem,” she said. To them, “‘Indian culture’ was a contradiction in terms.”Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy superintendant of Indian affairs from 1913 to 1932, declared openly that it was his policy to wipe out Aboriginal culture and “get rid of the Indian Problem.” Thus, the residential schools.The result was the kind of experience suffered by Duane Howard, spiritual advisor and actor, who spent a year in a resi-dential school. “That year felt like a whole lifetime,” he said.From compulsory morning prayers “to a God I didn’t even know who He was,” through a day in which he was forbidden to speak his own language, Howard was traumatized to the point that he turned to drink and drugs when he was released.With the help of elders, Howard was able to overcome his “Skid Row kid” identity and learn about his culture.“If they really wanted to take our culture away from us, they weren’t very smart,” he said. “They should have taken away our elders, not our children.”Ernie Crey, chief of the Cheam First Nation, said his band’s policy is to work out ways of co-operating with non-indigenous communities.“We worked with the sport fishing community,” he sa id . “A shor t while ago we were shooting at each other.”

Kwantlen Drummers open the Truth and Reconciliation Conference at Anvil Centre March 16. (Photo by Steve Bowell)

Crey’s band now organizes common events, like commu-nity meals, with the Sardis Community Church, he said, but that’s because the church first approached the band.To the question of why so many off-reserve Aboriginals live in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Crey said, “Most provincial social services are located there. That’s where our people have been driven to.”In their social spending policies, the federal and provincial governments “keep making the same mistakes year in and year out,” he said.


“Indigenous youth are still disproportionately... more likely to drop out of high school, to be unemployed, to suffer from poor health, to wind up in prison, or even to commit self-harm,” she said.“Are we going to be bystanders to these injustices which we continue to perpetuate, in generation after generation, or are we going to be active change makers?”Adam Mawji spoke of his experience building a school in a small village on the Amazon and becoming friends with a 16-year-old boy, Cristobal.“We came from two completely dif-ferent worlds,” he said. “To Cristobal, the biggest thing he could want... wasn’t (what he could learn in school), but simply the opportunity to go to school and to get that education.”Raagini Appadurai, an M.A. in teach-ing from the University of Toronto, spoke on social justice education, which she called “more than a way of teaching; it’s a way of being.”

True education, she said, is “very little about reproducing the status quo and checking boxes, but rather about the unfolding and nurturing of the unique potential within the individual and within the child... to help students develop the critical thinking and global perspective necessary to foster a better society for all people.”11th-grader Nick Young spoke on “nothing: zero, zip, zilch, nada,” but through gestures and rhetorical tricks made it sound like he was saying something meaningful.If he could get away with that, he said, “What about the people in the news? What about the sources that we trust to give us the truth? Truth is fragile.”Daniel Wack, a youth minister at a Catholic church in Langley, spoke on the necessity of interaction. “and I don’t mean interaction via Snapchat, via text, Instagram message, e-mail. I mean interaction in real life, face to face.”Omar al-Azawi, born in Iraq, told how his aspirations were stalled by the war there. It was not war but a swimming ac-cident that left him a quadraplegic, confined to a wheelchair.But after becoming a refugee and entering Canada, “I de-cided to start living again,” he said. He became a graphics design student at the B.C. Institute of Technology.“It was a crazy idea, but... nothing is impossible, you can do anything with the right tools,” he said.

COVER STORY by Steve Bowell

Continued from Page 1 (“Young speechmakers speak out . . .”)

Left to right: Omar al-Azawi, Michael Goco, Anson Yu, Raaqini Appadurai, Adam Mawju, Nick Young, Daniel Wack

Raaquni Appadurai


VANCOUVER by A. Thobhani

Vancouver city council wants more murals like this.

City invites mural proposals from indigenous artistsVANCOUVER -- Indigenous artists are invited to submit proposals to create exterior murals and two-dimensional artwork as part of ongoing City of Reconciliation program-ming through the City of Vancouver.

“Through this call, we hope to provide new opportunities for Indigenous recognition, celebration, and participa-tion,” says Branislav Henselmann, Managing Director of Cultural Services.

“Public art provides exposure for contemporary artists working today, while also serving as a public connection to our life in a city that is home to many Indigenous peoples and situated on the unceded and ancestral homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.”

Artist proposals must be submitted by 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Apply online at the Vancouver website.

Artwork must be: unique, original work, accessible to the public and successfully completed by fall 2018.

A range of media can be proposed, including but not limited to brush or aerosol paint, graphic prints or other two-dimen-sional approaches that can be semi-permanently affixed.

Musqueam Elder Shayne Point (right) and Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell (left) are seen at the opening of the Saa-ust Centre March 19.

Special centre opened where grieving Aboriginals can healVANCOUVER -- The city of Vancouver has opened a temporary space in the Downtown Eastside where families and survivors affected by the hearings into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls can access cultural and emotional support.

The Saa-ust Centre, which means “to lift up” in the Coast Salish language, will offer trauma-informed counselling, ceremony space, art and cultural activities, and access to both Indigenous elders and knowledge-keepers from March 19 to late April.

“This is a truly a pivotal moment in Canadian history, an opportunity for us to honour our life givers and to support the families who have gone through so much grief and loss,” said Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell at the centre’s official opening March 19. “So, having a space like this in our shared territories is welcomed.”

The opening comes ahead of Richmond community hear-ings by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women from April 4-8. The inquiry launched in September 2016 after years of calls from Indigenous organizations to address shocking levels of violence ex-perienced by Indigenous women and girls.

The Saa-ust Centre, which features colourful murals by Indigenous artists, was brought to life by the Urban Indig-enous Peoples Advisory Committee

The centre will be open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until late April. Support services will also be available on-site during the hearings in Richmond.


VANCOUVER

by A. Thobhani

The way it was, from a 1907 editorial cartoon

City to apologize for anti-Chinese discriminationVANCOUVER -- On Sunday, April 22, Vancouver City Council will convene a special council meeting in China-town where Mayor Gregor Robertson will deliver a formal apology for past discrimination against residents of Chinese descent by previous Vacouver city councils.

The formal apology will be part of a larger Chinatown Cul-ture Day event, which will take place between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. throughout Chinatown. It will include historical walk-ing tours, tai chi demonstrations, calligraphy demonstra-tions, traditional lion dance lessons and street food stalls,

The apology will take place at 2 p.m. at the Chinese Cultural Centre at 50 East Pender St.

The apology will be read in both English and Chinese. The English version will be read by Mayor Robertson, and the Chinese version by former city councillors Bill Yee and Maggie Ip.

There will also be three community speakers representing voices from the past, present and future; a war veteran who grew up in Vancouver; the president of the Chinese Benevo-lent Association; and a young Vancouverite of Chinese de-scent speaking to her vision for a vibrant Chinese community.

by A. Thobhani


by N. EbrahimSUBURBS

All photos by N. Ebrahim

North Vancouver Jamatkhana celebrates Navroz

The Jawani group of musicians entertained the crowd at the Ismaili Jamatkhana of North Vancouver on March 23 in celebration of Navroz, the Muslim observance of the coming of spring. Belting out Bollywood music and tunes were singers Amin Dhanani (right), Sheila and Rehan.

The sound system was capably handled by two lovely ladies: Anoushka (left) and Engela (right).

The non-stop live music kept the crowd on their feet playing, singing and dancing in a circle.


THE

by A. ThobhaniSUBURBS

Baltej Singh Dhillon, Canada’s first turbaned Sikh Mountie, addresses an anti-racism forum in Surrey March 23.

Surrey anti-racism forum highlights discrimination against immigrants, refugeesSURREY -- Baltej Singh Dhillon, the first RCMP officer to wear a turban on duty, was one of a group of community leaders participating in an anti-racism forum in Surrey March 23.The event was held to stimulate ideas for a new community plan that aims to provide support for people who experience racism and discrimination.According to a survey from Surrey’s Local Immigrant Part-nership, over half of the city’s residents have experienced some form of racism and discrimination.Ninu Kang, communications director for the anti-racism organization Mosaic, says the city’s newest residents are among the most vulnerable.

“Surrey has been home to a lot of the refugees who are re-settling and are welcomed into Canada,” she said. “[We’ve seen backlash] against the Muslim community, some back-lash towards Syrian refugees settling here.”

“It’s a concern,” she said, noting that the issue isn’t unique to the city but rather a symptom of Islamophobic rhetoric that’s been perpetuated by certain media outlets, hate groups and politicians.

Kang says the anti-racism network connects local govern-ment, charities, community support groups and non-profits to raise awareness against hate speech and crimes.

Their goal is to develop a large support network victims can turn to once they’ve experienced incidents of racism of discrimination.

Dhillon says Canada has made strides since his efforts to wear a turban as a police officer sparked both support and outrage.

“The story ends well,” he said. “We are becoming more aware. We’re learning. We’re educating ... we’re maturing as a country as a whole.”

“[But] we cannot create safe spaces for words, language, speech, voice that has hatred in it,” he said.


by M. Lamey

PROVINCE

by Steve Bowell

by S. Juma

Carver Tanis (Simon James) takes a photo of the newly restored Parksville Kwakiutl bear totem pole at the Parksville Civic and Technology Centre Friday, March 23

Parksville’s totem pole moved, half-restoredPARKSVILLE -- Parksville’s 51-year-old Kwakiutl bear totem pole has been shifted from outside the Visitors’ Centre to inside the Civic and Technology Centre. It has also been restored, or half-restored, by the stepson of the man who carved it.

The pole, originally carved in 1966 by Kwakwaka’wakw carver Jack James, was aging and decaying. The city want-ed it restored, but James’ stepson Tanis James “wanted to let cedar tell its story,” he said. “No matter how old it gets or how long it lasts, it is destined to go back to the earth.”

So he compromised: on one side the pole appears newly carved and painted, with a sleek, glossy look. But the op-posite side reveals a weathered, aged and cracked pole, with faded paint.

Last year, after city council approved funding through a Canada 150 grant go toward possible restoration of the totem pole, Tanis was called upon to inspection it where it stood before the Visitors’ Centre at the south end of Parksville.

After determining the wood had been infiltrated by an un-known number of insects, Tanis suggested it be taken down and fumigated. It was initially housed in a building at the Parksville Museum, then moved to a Parksville Volunteer Fire Department storage unit.

“It was absolute core rot; there was a whole ecosystem living in that pole, and we couldn’t see it,” said Tanis.


PROVINCE

Golden Jubilee of Mauritius’ Independence Day celebrated on B.C. Legislative Assembly grounds

Mauritian-Canadians gather outside B.C. Legislative Assembly building in Victoria.

VICTORIA -- Immigrants from Mauritius, an island na-tion in the Indian Ocean, along with Canadian friends and families, raised the flag of their country on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebration of their Independence on the grounds of the B.C. Legislative Assembly in Victoria on Sunday, March 11.

The Independence Day of Mauritius falls on March 12 and the flag flew until the dawn of March 12.

Sousheela Ramsamy Sok Appadu, Executive Director of the Mauritian Canadian Multicultural Association B.C. that organized the event, said: “This day is a significant day for Mauritians in BC. The fact that we celebrated our Golden

Jubilee with a flag-raising ceremony at the B.C. Legislature has given the Mauritian community much pride.”

Canada is home to approximately 35,000 Mauritians, with the largest population being in Montreal-Quebec followed by the Greater Toronto Area. The rest of the Mauritians are settled in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Saska-toon and Manitoba.

Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) off the southeast coast of the African continent. It is a multiethnic society, mainly of people of Indian (mostly Bihari), African, Chinese and European (mostly French) origin.

by S. Juma


Representatives of Malahat Nation and B.C. government

YOUTH

by S. Juma

Land purchase advances Malahats toward a treatyVICTORIA -- British Columbia is taking action to ad-vance treaty negotiations with Malahat Nation through the purchase of private land.

The province has purchased approximately 230 hectares for $9 million on southern Vancouver Island, which is intended to become part of Malahat Nation’s treaty lands when a treaty is concluded and comes into effect.

The land is within the Malahat Lands, formerly known as Bamberton, located about 40 kilometres north of Victoria. Malahat Nation has renamed the site Malahat Lands to reflect the First Nation’s ownership and a new beginning for the property.

“Our government is committed to making meaningful progress on treaties and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This land purchase is a tangible demonstration of how the Province is doing things differently and taking an approach with Indigenous communities, based on partner-ship, respect and recognition of rights,” said Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.

“We’ll see the benefits of this investment in Malahat Nation as we complete and implement a treaty, and as the nation develops its lands in ways that create jobs and support the economic, social and cultural needs of its people. When a First Nation prospers, its neighbours prosper.”

“Malahat Nation is working hard to build a strong, lasting government that will provide a sustainable economy, better-ing families and focusing on our children to come. The treaty land acquisition will triple our land base and better enable us to provide this,” said Malahat Nation Councillor Matt Harry.

PROVINCE


THE EAST by G. Jiwa

Markville Secondary School students, left to right: Helen Wong, Michael Wilson, Cheryl Cheung, Arthur Chen, Damien Ho, Mishaal Lakhani, Robert Cai

Markham high school students win Canadian history awardsMARKHAM, Ont. -- Seven students from Markville Secondary School showed their true Canadian spirit with essays that earned awards from Canada’s History Society.

Robert Cai, Arthur Chen, Helen Wong, Cheryl Cheung, Michael Wilson, Mishaal Lakhani and Damien Ho were honoured with a ceremony at the Unionville school recently as seven of just 192 across the country for their essays.

“They had to answer one of five questions about important Canadian topics and they had to submit a research paper or project,” said Joanna Dawson, the community engagement co-ordinator for Canada’s History Society.

Adrienne Chong, department head of history at Markville Secondary, said “we really encourage our students to take part. This year is the biggest in terms of awards with seven. It’s amazing. They are definitely keen students.”

Raahyma Ahmad applies henna tattoos at the multicultural festival at the MacMorran Community Centre in St. John’s March 22.

Community Centre Alliance hosts multicultural event in St. John’sST. JOHN’S, Nfld. -- The MacMorran Community Centre in St. John’s was packed March 22 for the Community Cen-tre Alliance’s (CCA) first multicultural festival, perfectly timed during the city’s Multicultural Week.

Nehal Alshikh is the settlement and integration facilitator with CCA, a new position created by the alliance of five community centres in order to do more outreach work for new Canadians in the city.

The festival was organized in partnership with other com-munity centres across the city, including Virginia Park, Buckmaster Circle, Froude Avenue and Rabbittown.

It included displays about traditions in many different countries, such as the Day of the Dead in Mexico. There were musical and dance performances, henna tattoos, and face-painting for children.


WORLD by S. Merali

Australian girls’ cricket is ultra-multiculturalSYDNEY, Australia -- Each Friday afternoon at Graf Park in Yagoona, a suburb of Sydney, almost 300 primary school girls from a spread of cultural backgrounds have been gathering to pursue their love of cricket.

The six-week program, run by Cricket New South Wales, has attracted girls from ten different schools, bringing together participants of Middle Eastern, Asian and Sub-continental descent, among others.

Underpinning the program is Cricket Australia’s Growing Cricket For Girls fund, a four-year $6m commitment to aid clubs, school and associations in promoting the growth of the sport.

“My favourite thing is probably batting,” Rukaya Issa, who plays wearing a head scarf and attends Malek Fahad Islamic School.

Female cricket is booming and over the past year, participa-tion has almost doubled from 161 to 310 teams in Sydney Thunder and Sixers girls-only leagues.

The girls play modified rules during the Friday afternoon sessions which means every player faces and bowls the same amount of balls.

Week one was made up of drills as an introduction to the sport, and now the girls are playing competitive games.

For recently retired Australian cricketer and Sydney Thun-der captain Alex Blackwell, watching so many girls come together to play cricket makes her believe she’s left the game in excellent hands.

“There’s kids from multiple different schools and very different backgrounds, this is cricket as we see it today,” Blackwell said. “We know that it’s a game that’s growing all around the world.”

The junior cricket team from Malek Fahd Islamic School, Greenacre, Australia


Lean on PeteBritish writer-director Andrew Haigh manages to get a new take on the old Boy-and-his-Horse or Girl-and-her Horse story (The Littlest Outlaw, Black Beauty). Lean on Pete is the name of a failing racehorse, and Charlie Plummer plays Charley Thompson, the 15-year boy who befriends him.

Charlie is definitely from the American underclass, with a vulgar, beer-bellied single father (Travis Fimmel) who moves from one job to another. His latest job takes him to Portland, Oregon, where Charlie is intrigued by a nearby racetrack, a trainer (Steve Buscemi), and a horse in danger of being sent to the knacker’s yard.

Chloë Sevigny plays female jockey Bonnie, who shows kindness to Charlie. But eventually he runs away with Lean on Pete in a stolen car and horse trailer to find his long-lost aunt and try to save the horse from being slaughtered.

A good plot with a well executed screenplay makes the film enjoyable, if not verey upbeat, with a wonderful score by James Edward Barker. The sets, including race courses, stables and desert landscape, are well done.

Lean on Pete is funny at times but mostly sad, showing the intimate dark side of life and coming of age.

Charlie Plummer and his horse in Lean on Pete

Isle of DogsIsle of Dogs (Fox Searchlight Pictures) is not about the once-poor, now-rich district of London. It’s a stop-motion animated fantasy and, although set in Japan, is not another example of Japanese anime, but a joint U.S./German pro-duction, co-written and directed by Wes Anderson (The Fantastic Mr. Fox).The premise is: an outbreak of a disease making all dogs dangerously contagious leads to a decision to quarantine them all on an island that has up to now been reserved for dumping an entire city’s garbage. One of the dogs belongs to Atari (voiced by Koyu Rankin), the 12-year-old ward of the mayor who ordered the quarantine, and he embarks on an odyssey to rescue his beloved Spots.He gets help from a pack of misfit canines led by Chief (Bry-an Cranston) and an American girl with a crush on him, Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig). Other voices are provided by such Oscar-winning actors as Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum.One odd feature is that the dogs speak English while the Japanese humans speak Japanese. Also, the score, mostly by Alexandre Desplat, includes quotations from past classic movies, including Fumio Hayasaka’s music from Seven Samurai (1954) and Sergei Prokofieff’s music from Lieutenant Kije (1936).The story-telling is well done, but a lot of the good mate-rial is lost in translation and may not ideally be enjoyed by either children or any particular target audience. The graphics, special effects and score are decent, but the best features are the voice-over perfomance of the actors and Anderson’s direction.Whoever likes animation, Japanese culture and, of course, dogs, will say “I love Isle of Dogs.”

with Nick JumaAT THE MOVIES

On their way to the Isle of Dogs


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