Equality work done in Africa

Executive Director and Founder of Equality Effect, Fiona Sampson was in Winnipeg to deliver one of the keynote address at LEAF Manitoba's 22nd Annual Person's Day Breakfast at the Convention centre.  Mary Eberts was the other keynote speaker. Both speakers were dynamic and substantial.
The equality effect uses human rights law to improve the lives of women and girls. Fiona originally conceived of the equality effect in 2005, in collaboration with friends and colleagues from Africa at the Osgoode Hall Law School graduate program.
Fiona shared some poignant stories of young girls being raped by the people who should be protecting them e.g. their family members and even the police. These stories are heart-wrenching. In 2012, women and girls must not be facing these horrors. The world needs to stop and take notice. We have to remove the wool of a life of comfort and extravagance and look beyond that to see and contribute to this struggle. None of us is free until we all are free said Harriet Tubman.

Mary Eberts is well known around the world for her groundbreaking work on behalf of women’s equality, Aboriginal rights, and the Charter.
She has practiced law for over 35 years, as a partner in a large firm, and the founder of her own small specialized litigation firm. In 2010, she was appointment Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights at
the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan.
In 1980, Mary was retained by the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women to provide advice on the draft Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and became deeply involved in the improvement of the Charter’s guarantees of equality. She is a co-founder of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and acted as counsel in some of its early cases.
Check out this website
 http://theequalityeffect.org

Another website to check out

http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/category/blogs/sister-to-sister/

See the work young and older women are doing in the world to bring equality and justice to women. This is a great website with information and stories that are inspiring. Perhaps you can find something here to inspire you work for women's equality and justice in your neck of the woods.

http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/meet-the-laureates/

By The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – 1 hour 46 minutes ago

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Some newlyweds now face a new rule the government says is designed to combat marriage fraud.

The regulation applies to Canadians or permanent residents who bring their spouse to Canada from overseas.

They'll now have to live together in what the government calls a legitimate relationship for two years or the sponsored spouse could lose permanent resident status.

The rule will only apply to those who have been married less than two years and have no children together at the time of their application.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says sometimes the sponsor in Canada is being duped and sometimes the marriage is actually a commercial transaction.

He says implementing a two-year conditional permanent residence period will help deter fraud and the victimization of Canadians.

The conditional status will be waived in cases where there is evidence of abuse or neglect or where the spouse already in Canada dies.

The new regulation will apply to all applications received after today.

It follows measures introduced earlier this year also aimed at sponsored spouses.

Those rules require a sponsored spouse to be a permanent resident for five years before they in turn could bring a partner or spouse to Canada.

__._,_.___

Refugee Women Stabbed to Death

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/refugee-stabbed-to-death-in-toronto-remembered-by-friends-family-1.1008408

An Eritrean refugee who was seemingly stabbed to death at random in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood is being remembered by friends and colleagues as a kind woman and a hard worker.
Police identified the victim as 55-year-old Nighisti Semret, a mother of four, during a press conference Wednesday. Semret had only been in the country for about three years.
“She’s a very nice lady,” said friend Saba Belay, as she wiped away tears. “She’s very nice. She’s a hard worker.”
“She worked midnights, she would come home early in the morning, quiet as a church mouse,” said neighbour John Gray. “That’s why it’s unbelievable what happened to the poor lady.”


Read more: http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/refugee-stabbed-to-death-in-toronto-remembered-by-friends-family-1.1008408#ixzz2AK4KWJoW

Philippine Migration Study

Hello - My name is Catherine Bryan, and I am doing a research project called, "Separated but Connected: A Study of Philippine Migration and Care Labour".

Originally from Winnipeg, I am a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I am studying the connection between migrants and non-migrants, through their experiences as domestic workers in Manitoba, and their families in the Philippines.

I want to know how domestic workers meet the needs of their family and employers, both in Manitoba and back home, and how they maintain ongoing support to them. I also want to learn about the effects of migration on those who remain "at home".

To do this research, I will conduct interviews in Manitoba and in the Philippines, where I hope to meet the family members of some of the people I meet in Manitoba.

I am currently recruiting participants in Manitoba - both in and outside of Winnipeg.

Participants must be temporary foreign workers, permanent residents, or Canadian citizens. Their employment in Canada can be formal or informal, full or part-time. Men and women are welcome, and their work could include cooking, cleaning, care giving and maintenance work.

Each interview will last 1-2 hours. All answers will remain confidential and anonymous. The information will be kept for statistical and research purposes only.

This project has received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and has undergone an ethics review process.

If you would like to participate in the project, please contact Catherine at c.bryan@dal.ca or 204-290-9279.

Thanks very much,

Catherine Bryan, PhD Candidate

Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Dalhousie University

6135 University Avenue

Halifax NS / B3H 4R2

c.bryan@dal.ca / (902) 292 2609

In Manitoba: (204) 960 9279

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/is-it-a-crime-to-want-to-live-133057938.html

Is it a crime to want to live?

By: Marina Nemat

Posted: 11/2/2011 1:00 AM |

It could have been a perfect love story with a happy ending -- and maybe, with your help, it still can be.

Antonella Mega is an Italian-born Canadian who married an Iranian-Canadian man, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, in Toronto. It was love at first sight, and they were a perfect match.
But in May 2008, when Hamid went to Iran to visit his ailing mother, he was arrested. The accusations against him are vague and have to do with spying.
For three and a half years, Antonella has tried to get her husband released and back home to Canada, to no avail. When I wrote a piece about her story a while back, some people commented that Hamid should have known better; he shouldn't have gone back to Iran.
True. But his father had died while he was in Canada and his mother was ill. It is easy for those who have been born in Canada and lived here all their lives to make such judgments. Yet, our love for our family sometimes makes us do illogical things.
Antonella needs the support of her fellow Canadians at this time of need. She doesn't expect Canada to invade Iran and is not asking for military intervention. All she needs us to do is to raise our voices to Iranian officials and to let them know that we are very upset that a Canadian citizen is behind bars in Iran.
Antonella, with the help of Amnesty International, has now begun a postcard campaign and hopes that Canadians would support her by mailing the postcards ask for Hamid's release to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa.
In October 2011, I was invited by one of the members of a club in Toronto to speak at one of their meetings. I am an author and a speaker and give four or five talks a week.
I had already been booked for that evening and, considering that the topic has to do with the condition of political prisoners in Iran, I asked Antonella Mega and Mary Jo Leddy, a well-known Canadian author, professor, and activist, to take my place and speak for that club, which prides itself in providing humanitarian service, encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations, and helping build goodwill and peace in the world. So you can imagine my shock when the club wrote back to me, saying that they believed they were well informed about the general situation in Iran, and they didn't want to hear about it again.
I was dumbfounded. Do we Canadians really know enough about the horrific disregard for basic human rights in many parts of the world? Do we understand what it means to be in constant fear of arrest and torture because of a few sentences we happened to utter to criticize our government? To be lashed because we were wearing the wrong kind of clothes? To be thrown in jail only because of our religion or beliefs? To be incarcerated for reading "illegal" books? To be put in solitary confinement or even be hanged because we are gay or lesbian?
There is an important question that we Canadians need to ask ourselves: Why do some people leave their homes and families, spend years in refugee camps, or, out of sheer desperation, pay human smugglers to come to Canada?
Many of us know the answer to this question because we ourselves are refugees or immigrants. Some of us arrived here with only the clothes on our backs, shrapnel in our bodies, and lash marks on the soles of our feet, not to mention emotional and psychological scars.
I'm sure many of you remember MV Ocean Lady, a ship that arrived off the British Columbia coast in 2009, carrying 76 orphans, women who had been raped, traumatized people, two priests, and a respected journalist. The passengers of that ship, most of whom were survivors of unimaginable trauma, were immediately put in detention and interrogated, and they have since been treated like criminals.
As Mary Jo Leddy explains it in her article, Years from Now, Canadians will Apologize, published in Embassy Magazine on Sept. 28, 2011, one of the survivors of MV Ocean Lady asked her, "Is it a crime to want to live?"
I came to Canada in 1991 because I wanted to live, and I'm grateful to this beautiful and amazing country and its good people for giving me a home and support when I had nowhere to go. But not everyone is as lucky as I was, and now that I am a Canadian, I feel that it is my duty to stand up for others like me who are practically or literally condemned to death in the country of their birth.
Every day is an opportunity for all of us to show our love for our neighbour, any neighbour, regardless of their place of birth, colour of skin or religion, whether it be the passengers of MV Ocean Lady seeking to build a new life for themselves and their families here in Canada, or Hamid Ghassemi-Shall and other prisoners in Iranian prisons.
Let's stand up for goodness and humanity and against injustice, no matter where or how it is committed.

Marina Nemat is author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran. She is keynote speaker for the Strangers in New Homelands conference at University of Manitoba Nov. 3-4 and will also sign books at McNally Robinson Booksellers Nov. 3

Accreditation of Foreign Credentials Made Easier

October 12, 2012

NEW MICROLOANS PROGRAM WILL HELP INTERNATIONALLY EDUCATED NEWCOMERS WORK IN THEIR FIELDS SOONER: MELNICK

A new microloans program called Recognition Counts! Micro Loans for Skilled Immigrants will help skilled immigrants put their education to work more quickly by helping remove barriers to getting Canadian certification, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Christine Melnick announced today.

“Recognition Counts! gives our province’s newcomers the resources they need to get their qualifications recognized, enter our labour market sooner and build a life for their families,” said Melnick.  “These microloans are good for our economy and they’ll make a real difference in the lives of these families.”

Recognition Counts! offers loans of up to $10,000, to cover everything from the cost of new tools to paying for certification exams or for additional training.  The program also gives low-income,
high-skilled newcomers valuable career and financial counselling to help address challenges with entering the labour market.

The Manitoba government is contributing $250,000 to the program for administration costs over three years.  Highlights of Recognition Counts! include:

• loans can be up to $10, 000, with payments as little as $10 a month;
• loans can be used to cover costs associated with certifications including registration and exam fees, living allowance during study time or to cover household expenses like child care;
• recipients will have up to five years to repay loans and will only pay the interest during the
  re-certification period; and
• recipients will have 90 days after finding employment to begin paying back the principal, making it a uniquely flexible and affordable loan.

Recognition Counts! will be delivered by SEED Winnipeg and Assiniboine Credit Union, with support from the Manitoba government.  The program is jointly funded by the governments of Manitoba and Canada.

“Our government’s top priorities are job creation and economic growth and we need to address the growing skills and labour shortages faced by many regions of the country,” said federal Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley.  “By partnering with the Government of Manitoba and organizations like SEED Winnipeg to help internationally trained professionals put their skills to work sooner, we are working together for Canada’s long-term prosperity.” 

Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism has an ongoing role in providing information and assistance to internationally educated individuals and is working collaboratively with Manitoba Advanced Education and Literacy, Manitoba Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade and Manitoba Health to develop a coherent and integrated system for providing qualifications recognition programming for skilled immigrants in Manitoba’s colleges and universities. 

Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for the status of women (third from right) welcomed five dynamic speakers who presented their views on the importance of mentorship and women as role models at the celebration of Women’s History Month.

(l to r ) Shelley Hart, Janice Ristock, Ariana Yaftali, Minister Jennifer Howard, Jenna Wirch, Alana Gauthier)

October 3, 2012

MENTORS' KNOWLEDGE SEED TO SUCCEED: HOWARD

– – –
Province Celebrates Women's History Month

Women’s History Month 2012 focuses on the importance of mentors and role models who empower others through their work and help young women plan and accomplish success in their lives, Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for the status of women said today.
“This year, we are honouring women in our province who act as role models and mentors,” said Howard.  “The knowledge they have accumulated is the seed they plant for the success of others.  Knowledge gained first-hand through a lifetime of experience is a gift that grows in value each time it is shared.”
Five speakers at a special event to be held today at noon at the Legislative Building will speak about their experiences with mentoring, how female mentors have helped them and will offer words of advice to inspire young women in the province.  Each of today’s speakers is an outstanding Manitoba woman with a unique view on the benefits of mentoring and an exceptional role model for others, said Howard.
The success of each of these women serves to inspire and encourage others to follow in their footsteps, make a difference and discover the value of mentoring the next generation in their own communities, the minister said.
“It is gratifying to meet so many valuable role models and mentors who work to encourage and nurture other young women in our province,” said Howard.  “Role models and mentors can be found in all areas of our province, in rural, urban and northern communities and across a wide number of fields from business and social services to academia, to name just a few.  We applaud their generosity in sharing their wisdom.”
Women’s History Month is held nationally in October to celebrate the advances and contributions of women in all aspects of Canadian society.  This annual event provides an opportunity to recognize the many achievements of women in Manitoba and to reflect on the continuing evolution of women’s roles in today’s society, said the minister.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ATTACHED

Job vacancy

Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker (NISW) – Seven Oaks

Position Description:

The Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker (NISW) provides support to refugee and immigrant newcomers who are settling primarily into the Seven Oaks community. The NISW reports directly to the Seven Oaks Adult Learning Centre and works cooperatively with the Centre to support all of their programming goals.

Duties and Responsibilities:

·       Identify, welcome and support immigrants and refugees moving into or residing in the area through home or office visits, accurate information and excellent referral services  

·       Build the community through trusting and respectful relationships with newcomers and providing ongoing, culturally- sensitive, outreach and support. 

·       Connect with service providers, agencies, schools, and other stake-holders on an on-going basis, to determine current resources, programs, and available services for newcomers

·       Contribute to program development through ongoing assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation.  This includes identifying gaps in services and creatively working within a team to meet these needs, under the direction of the supervisor

·       Coordinate, develop, and help to facilitate community meetings, events, presentations and workshops

·       Provide monthly written reports on activities and expenditures and keep accurate, confidential data of clients.  Present reports at Seven Oaks Diversity Committee meetings,  and other meetings as required

·       Attending Friday morning team meetings to plan, share resources and coordinate activities

Qualifications and Skills Required:

·       High school graduate; post-secondary education in a related field preferred

·       Understanding and awareness of the newcomer experience including an awareness of diversity issues and an ability to work within a cross-cultural perspective

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills; fluency in a second/third language an asset

·       Must have the ability to work on a team as well as in unsupervised situations

·       Experience working with families in a supportive role is an asset

·       Ability to work closely with professionals in service providing systems and agencies

·       Experience with event and program planning an asset.

·       Knowledge of programs, resources, and services available to newcomer and established Canadians

·       Child Abuse Registry  clearance, and a Criminal Record Check are conditions of employment

·       A valid driver’s licence and a vehicle is a requirement.

·       Must have resided in Winnipeg for a minimum of 4 years

Hours of Work

·       37.5 hours/week (EFT)- flexible hours that includes evenings and weekends

Salary: 

·       $17 -19/ hour with benefits, 3 weeks vacation/year

This is a term position ending June, 2013

 To apply for this position, please email your resume to Fran Taylor @ nispreferral@7oaks.org

Application Deadline: 

Friday, October 5, 2012 @ 12:00 noon

7 Oaks Adult Learning Centre – 1330 Jefferson Ave

Maples Collegiate - Seaford Bld. 2nd Floor

632-1716

*Successful applicants will be contacted to schedule interview times

Are recent immigrants demanding too much rights in their new countries that are making the locals tire of their demands.
   When we are welcome in another country as immigrant or refugees, we bring our cultures with us and practice it if we will but do we have the right to ask the Americans, British or Canadians to change the way they do things to accommodate our culture. What culture are we talking about anyway- is it the right to practice our religion? to speak our language in the workplace?  The right to eat the foods we are accustomed to or the right to live in peace? These rights are reasonable but at the same time we have to realize that there is a culture that is practiced in these countries by the majority that we must respect. 
   The Mayor of Maine sounds like a man who is frustrated and has lost his cool and says openly what many Americans, Canadians, British and Australians citizens might want to tell those immigrants who fight for rights which locals feel may be unreasonable.
    The local citizens of the western countries must be aware that the rights immigrants fight for are the rights that are promised in their policies and constitution.  They are human rights. If the constitution gives one certain rights it would be foolish not to expect those rights.
    Human rights however is not  apart of the culture in many of the nations recent immigrants come from and that is why they left in the first place.
    It is true that an immigrant to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Iran for example cannot go to those countries and operate against the norms of the religious beliefs of those countries. Expatriate must respect the culture in public and practice their own culture at home or in private clubs. Is this what some people expect immigrants to do?
Unlike in Western countries, those countries mentioned above, do not promise exclusive rights to newcomers, in fact you cannot even get citizenship in some of these countries but that does not mean we have to punish newcomers from such and other contries.
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/maine-mayor-loses-it-tells-immigrants-you-have-accept-our-culture?

Power your day with this Amazing powerpoint

http://www.slideshare.net/Cascard/create-an-awesome-life