Cross Cultures commemoration of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 31 March 2016

Greetings, here’s an update for the Thursday schedule …

there may be slight last minute variations

this is an open invitation to the entire community to participate and attend … FREE Public Event

spread the word! share with friends, community, network ..

with THREE entirely different but equally thrilling segments
9:00 am – 1:30 pm
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm

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8:30 arrivals

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9:00 Opening Ceremonies:

· Elder Jean Becker leads indigenous opening prayer

· followed by O’Canada, in English and in French with Daniel Kelley

· Dignitaries bringing greetings

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9:30 Harold Albrecht MP on Politics and Faith

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9:40 Catherine Fife, MPP for Kitchener Waterloo

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10:00 Break:
students browse the displays

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10:15 Musical presentation of peace
(Grade 7 or 8 class) WCDSB :

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10:30 Carla Beharry
a proud Inter-Cultural Canadian, born and raised with a Guyanese Father, and a British Mother. Carla began mentoring women and girls in Guyana and Belize, 13 years ago. Her work abroad encompasses teaching sexual health & HIV education, leading women’s empowerment groups, and encouraging women to have a voice in standing up to end domestic violence. Most recently, Carla started her own mentorship group, Girls in the World, designed for teen girls in Canada to have a space to discuss gender, identity, race, self-confidence and self-worth. The groups are lead with the intention of supporting teens in rising up against discrimination, while cultivating courage, kindness, and compassion.

Carla’s talk will be an interactive forum for teens. All attendees will be given an opportunity to ask anonymous questions about culture, race, identity, and equality. We will work together, as a group to create clarity, and will work within the belief that educating children and teens, holding space for honest questions, and honouring our diverse, multicultural world is the only path to true freedom and liberation for all beings

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11:00 Student Senate will lead a panel discussion WCDSB

Politics vs Religion, The Challenges to promoting Peace and the need for Equity

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11:30 Lunch

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12:00 Lincoln Heights students WRDSB

Lincoln Heights is honoured to be joining the events for this years day to Eliminate Racial Discrimination. This is a topic that they are very passionate about and they have prepared short speeches of their opinions on this years theme Politics vs religion

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12:20 Presentation on Politics vs Religion:
a student from Resurrection will do a PowerPoint, and Blue scarf campaign

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1:00 Greetings from Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener

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1:10 Islamic School of Cambridge

six different presentation

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1:30 Wrap up activity
Game: Join the Dots, Resurrection to lead in this activity

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1:45 Students leave for buses

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2:00 Politics vs Religion panel

* Professor Norman Klassen
The Western Separation of Religion and Politics: A Paradox of Christian Humanism . . . building on his comments from last year’s discussion about the medieval Christian poet Geoffrey Chaucer: that his vision is for the togetherness of a pilgrimaging community. He gives a picture of what it means to recognize endless depths in one another: a responsibility to stay in dialogue with them. This year Professor Klassen builds on that with reference to another Christian writer, the influential novelist Marilynne Robinson. She likewise starts from the idea that “people are images of God” and ends with democracy as “the inevitable consequence of this kind of religious humanism”. Professor Klassen will ponder the effectiveness of these two writers as writers, precisely because they recognize the importance of freedom both for their characters and their readers. So freedom, including political freedom, is paradoxically bound up with a religious vision that has developed in the West as Christian humanism

* Doug Thomas
Doug Thomas is the president of Secular Connexion Séculière, a national organization that acts as a communication nexus for secular humanists, advocates for secular humanist rights in Canada, and speaks out for persecuted atheists around the world. Doug Thomas on the Subject of Politics vs Religion:

He sees the concept of “politics vs religion” as an unfortunate idea that implies that they cannot co-exist and that one must somehow supersede the other. Doug promotes the idea that democratic governments must avoid interference at the systemic level by religions, but that individuals should be able to bring their religious beliefs to the table as long as they do not insist on imposing their religion on other believers or on non-believers. At the same time, laws should avoid impeding the expression of personal belief or non-belief by individuals. The gold standard should be the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the case law developed from it by the Supreme Court of Canada

* BobJonkman
co chair, Fair Vote Canada, Waterloo Region Chapter
Bob has been advocating for electoral reform since the 2007 Ontario referendum on Proportional Representation. Bob would like to see a voting system based on Proportional Representation at all levels of government. In today’s panel discussion Bob will focus on how Proportional Representation isn’t only for political parties, but also for ethnic, religious and gender diversity

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3:00 WLU Diversity Team presentations

3:30 Brenda Halloran joins us and will be
speaking to a group of students about politics, their responsibilities, answer questions etc

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4:00 Hate Crimes Prevention Project
Coalition of Muslim Women
Sarah Shafiq
a unique grass roots project based in the Region of Waterloo, aiming to education Muslim women on how to recognize, respond and resolve a hate crime or incident. Some details on how the goal had to be modified from victim support after an incident, to educating the importance of reporting the incident to police and documenting it

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4:30 Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter
Bob Jonkman, will expand on proportional representation and will show slides

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5:00 Colleen Sargeant James
Colleen is the co-founder and CEO of Divonify, She works with businesses to provide holistic solutions that meet global diversity and inclusion benchmarks. Colleen is committed to helping empower businesses to establish diversity and inclusion best practices and creating a corporate culture of authenticity and inclusiveness. Colleen is a dedicated member of the community, she has over ten years experience working in public administration and the not-for-profit sector. She is an active member of Zonta International, a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. Colleen writes a regular blog that specializes in diversity and inclusion awareness and is a graduate of the University of Toronto

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6:00 Jane Richard
KW Right to Life is an educational prolife non profit charity, one of hundreds of like organizations across Canada that promote the value of human Life from conception to natural death.

Sketch of talk content … followed by discussion from the floor: Following the preamble of the Canadian Bill of Rights, the protection of moral and spiritual values based on the supremacy of God – the dignity and worth of the human person and the position of the family – time honoured – changing to a secular approach where people become their own moral agent – legally allowing abortion and assisted suicide on demand. – the implications on individuals and Canadian society

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6:00
PEACE CONCERT
. . . this annual general arts and culture extravaganza encompasses the broader sense of the word culture !
song, dance, instrument, drama, poetry, visual art & photography display, CD & DVD etc

including:
* Mark Evans and the band
CANOES EYE VIEW

* 2yLite Tha Titan is a Palestinian-Canadian rapper and producer who stands for social equality and freedom among all people. He has been making music for a total of 16 years and has 4 CDs released with performances in several cities in Canada. He will be performing some of his latest music from his soon to be released album “Evolve Or Dissolve”
p.s. if you are wondering, my name is pronounced Twilight The Titan

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for those who have not joined us over the years:

Cross Cultures has been organizing Waterloo Region’s full day FREE event to commemorate the

UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

for educators, students, organizations and the general public ..

PS
since March 21st this year falls on the Monday back from March Break and holy Easter week
the consensus has been that we go with March 31st instead

Please feel free to connect with me by phone or email:
looking forward to hearing from you
Gehan


Gehan D. Sabry
Editor / Publisher
Cross Cultures magazine (since 1991)
POB 20002 Kitchener ON N2P 2B4
Tel: (519) 748-9520
Fax: (519) 893-4259
email: crosscultures@bellnet.ca
www.crosscultures.ca

This item was mirrored from the Cross Cultures Facebook Event.

Infinite Hope – Nonviolence Festival’s 9th Annual MLK Day Celebration — Monday, 18 January 2016

Nonviolence Festival’s 9th Annual
Martin Luther King Day Celebration
Infinite Hope
Discovering Inspiration In Ourselves & Others

Join us for a evening of reflection and planning as we highlight the positive forces in our world.

Music ⌇ Speakers ⌇ Discussion

Monday January 18, 2016 7:00 p.m.
Kitchener City Hall Rotunda
Free Admission
Donations Welcome: Articles of clothing and non-perishable food donations towards Waterloo Region Welcome Refugees

Supported by:
Kitchener City of Kitchener Nonviolence Festival Nonviolence Festival KW Peace KW Peace

Facebook event: Infinite Hope: Discovering Inspiration in Ourselves and Others

Nonviolence Festival's 9th Annual Martin Luther King Day Celebration - Infinite Hope - Discovering Inspiration In Ourselves and Others

Download the poster (.jpg format, 2550px × 3300px, 981 kBytes)

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Peace and Justice — Saturday, 5 December 2015

Found on the University of Waterloo events calendar:

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Peace and Justice: Part Three

Join us for Session Three presentations by Shakil Choudhury, Educator and Consultant, Anima Leadership, Nancy Kelly, retired Lutheran pastor, and Louisa D’Amato, a news reporter from the The Record and member of the local Jewish community.

Free parking at Renison.

Host: Renison University College

Event website: SI Events

Cost: Free but registration required

Location:
REN – Renison University College Map
Room 1303
240 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G4
Canada

Welcome to the new home for KWPeace

KWPeace logo
KWPeace
Thanks to the sponsorship of Educators for Justice and the generosity of web hosting provider CCj/Clearline the KW Peace blog has moved to a new site at http://kwpeace.ca/.

An initiative of the Kitchener Waterloo Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium, the new site gives more flexibility to add things like a comprehensive calendar of all Peace and Social Justice events in the Kitchener–Waterloo area, and mailing lists for the KW Peace groups to coordinate those events.

Thank you for joining us on our new site!

–Bob Jonkman,
KWPeace Blog System Administrator.

Kitchener Waterloo Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium, 29 October 2015

Minutes of the Symposium are now online!

20 Oct 2015: Note from Emily Mininger:

We are pushing the symposium back a half hour because of a book launch that Project Ploughshares is hosting. Project Ploughshares and the Centre for Peace Advancement are presenting the launch of Ernie Regehr’s book, “Disarming Conflict: Why peace cannot be won on the battlefield.” This event is on the 4th floor of the Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel in the gallery space. Feel free to stop by before our symposium event!

The symposium will be held from 5:30-7:30, also on the 4th floor of Conrad Grebel in the Centre for Peace Advancement, in the Fretz Seminar Room.

Who’s involved in the Kitchener-Waterloo Peace and Social Justice community? And do we all know each other? Emily Mininger from PeaceQuestKW wants to meet us all, and is hosting a Peace and Social Justice Symposium:

From: Emily Mininger <e.mininger@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 20:40:54
Subject: Kitchener Waterloo Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium

Hello!

You’re invited to a Peace and Social Justice Community Symposium. We’re inviting different groups active in the area of peace and social justice in the KW community to come together, share their work and experiences, and brainstorm about future possibilities for collaboration in an effort to obtain a “snapshot” of the KW Peace and Justice community as it is currently. We have many people in the KW community working for peace and justice, and there is a wealth of knowledge to be shared. Come participate in this community conversation and help us learn together.

This event is taking place at Conrad Grebel University College on October 29th. The program of the evening will run from 5-7pm 5:30pm – 7:30pm and include introductions, a brief roundtable about who people are and what work they do, discussions about challenges and strengths of working in the KW community, and brainstorming common goals and possible avenues for collaboration.

Please RSVP to Emily at peacequestkw@gmail.com by October 22nd.

A light dinner of vegetarian chili and bread will be provided free of cost — please let me know if you have any dietary restrictions.

Cheers,

Emily

Emily Mininger
PeaceQuest KW Affiliate Facilitator

Email: e.mininger@gmail.com
Phone: 519-568-3879
Twitter: @PeaceQuestKW
Facebook: PeaceQuest.ca | Facebook
Website: http://peacequest.ca/

I’m planning to attend — hope to see you there!

–Bob.


Conrad Grebel University College Map
140 Westmount Road,
Waterloo, Ontario

Film about Missing Mexican Students — Cinema Politica, Wednesday, 23 September 2015 at 7:00pm

Almost missed this. Via e-mail:

Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 13:24:09 -0400
Subject: Film about Missing Mexican Students
From: Group Nine <groupnine9@gmail.com>

Here’s an event not to miss: Cinema Politica is showing Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime in room 301 of the RCH Building at the University of Waterloo on Wednesday, 23 September 2015 at 7:00pm. This film is an exposé of the Mexican police and military authorities in the armed kidnapping and disappearance of 43 students. This is one of the cases that Group 9 featured at our table this summer.

Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime | cinema politica


This is the official Group Nine e-mail address.

Group Nine is the local chapter of Amnesty International Canada in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. We normally meet at 7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of every month in Room 4224 (The Fretz Seminar Room) at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo (140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo N2L 3G6). Please confirm by email or on our Facebook page.

www.amnesty.ca
groupnine9@gmail.com

Project Ploughshares: Canada and the Global Arms Trade – Monday, 21 September 2015

Project Ploughshares, in partnership with the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement, Conrad Grebel University College and St. Jerome’s University, presents

Canada and the Global Arms Trade

How weapons exports may fuel human rights violations and armed conflict

Chair: Cesar Jaramillo, Project Ploughshares

Panelists

  • Hilary Homes, Amnesty International Canada
  • Steven Chase, The Globe and Mail
  • Kenneth Epps, policy advisor to Project Ploughshares

When: 6:30 p.m. Monday, 21 September 21 (UN-established International Day of
Peace
)

Where: Theatre of the Arts Map,
Modern Languages, University of Waterloo

See Canada and the Global Arms Trade | Project Ploughshares for more information.

Peace Quest KW Hosts Panel Discussion “Is War Ever Black and White?” — 30 April 2015

Is War Ever Black and White?
Is War Ever Black and White?
For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Emily Mininger, e.mininger@gmail.com

Local Peace Group Hosts Panel Discussion “Is War Ever Black and White?”

By Emily Mininger
April 14, 2015

Waterloo, ON — Local peace group PeaceQuest KW is hosting a panel discussion event “Is War Ever Black and White? Recolourizing the Reality of War on April 30th at Stirling Mennonite Church.” This free public event is features speakers Marlene Epp, professor of History and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Waterloo; John Siebert, Executive Director of Project Ploughshares; and Andrew Thompson, Director, Amnesty International Canada Board.

As we are currently in the midst of commemorating the 100th anniversary of World War I, PeaceQuest wants to use this as an opportunity to raise conversations about working towards peace. April 22nd- May 25th marks the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of 2nd Ypres, and so PeaceQuest KW seeks to hold a conversation about the complex nature of war around this prominent anniversary. To quote PeaceQuest KW facilitator Emily Mininger, “Instead of glorifying our past conflicts, we should be motivated by horrific violence to ensure that it never happens again. PeaceQuest encourages Canadians to reflect on how we can learn from these tragedies to build a brighter future.”

Much of the time, news and popular media, war is painted as a black and white image- us vs. them, evil vs. good, hero vs. villain. As we’re commemorating the 100th anniversary of WWI, the “Great War” is often depicted as a just and noble war in which we heroically defeated the evils of the Central Powers. But is that really the case? Can a conflict that caused the deaths of over 9 million combatants and 7 million citizens truly be noble?

This panel discussion hopes to dig into a complicated reality, as we replace the monochromatic commemorative narrative with a full colour version that illustrates the true complexity of war from WWI to our present conflicts.

This event is being hosted in collaboration with PeaceQuest, Stirling Mennonite Church’s Peace and Justice Working Group, the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College, and Educators for Justice.

-end of release-

Is War Ever Black and White? Recolourizing the Reality of War
Poster – Is War Ever Black and White?

Download poster (.PDF file, 535 KBytes)

Facebook page: Is War Ever Black and White? Recolourizing the Reality of War | Facebook

FREEDOMS …. Saturday March 21 2015 … all day at Kitchener City Hall

Received via e-mail:

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 08:11:21 -0400
From: CROSS CULTURES <crosscultures@bellnet.ca>
Subject: FREEDOMS …. Saturday March 21 2015 … all day at Kitchener City Hall

please join us (even by Skype – that can be arranged):

Cross Culture’s annual commemoration of the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

a FREE all day public event

at the Kitchener City Hall

Saturday March 21 2015

10:00 am
opening ceremony

followed by

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

1:00 pm
interactive PANEL DISCUSSION on FREEDOM of speech, thought, religion …
where each panelist will give a 5-7 minute perspective and then engage in dialogue with the audience and the other panelists .. (not Q & A)

  • definition of freedom
  • religious cartoons
  • distinction between freedom of speech and hate speech
  • historic and global examples
  • impact on minorities
  • Bill C-51

booths

more speakers

and of course . . .

6:00 pm

PEACE concert

and the visual artists show …

please feel free to call or email me for further details


Gehan D. Sabry
Editor / Publisher
Cross Cultures magazine (since 1991)
POB 20002 Kitchener ON N2P 2B4
Tel: (519) 748-9520
Fax: (519) 893-4259
email: crosscultures@bellnet.ca
http://www.crosscultures.ca

UN day

Remembrance for Peace – Monday, 10 November 2014 at 7:00pm

Received by e-mail:

Subject: Event notice
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 14:59:33 +0000
From: Debbie Hughes <dhughes@ploughshares.ca>

Project Ploughshares is co-sponsoring the following event and would like to bring it to your attention.

Remembrance for Peace — How can we commemorate the tragedy of World War 1 by emphasizing peace?

Monday November 10th , 7 pm

Conrad Grebel University College Chapel, 140 Westmount Rd North, Waterloo.

This is a presentation and discussion featuring Jamie Swift, co-author of Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety.

Debbie Hughes

Assistant to the Directors

Project Ploughshares

November 10, 2014 - Remembrance for Peace

Join us for a presentation and discussion.

Featuring Jamie Swift, co-author of Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety

Canada’s Vimy Ridge war memorial features the statue Breaking of the Sword. Has this peace message been eclipsed by a glorious, birth-of-a-nation war story?

How can we commemorate the tragedy of World War I by emphasizing peace?

Let us colletively explore these questions by starting a PeaceQuest affiliate group in Waterloo!

Refreshments will be served.

For more information please contact congreb@uwaterloo.ca

7:00pm – Monday November 10th
Conrad Grebel University College Chapel
140 Westmount Road North

PeaceQuest is a grassroots organization dedicated to stimulating public conversations about peace and Canada’s role in peacemaking during the WWI centenaries.

This event is co-sponsored by Peace & Conflict Studies and the MSCU Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College, and Project Ploughshares.