Curated by Sevan Injejikian and Annie Sakkab

A Scotiabank CONTACT 2013 Featured Exhibition

Featuring Jamelie Hassan, Jin-me Yoon, Brett Gundlock, Annie Sakkab, Khadija Baker, Meral Pasha, and Mona Kamal

May 2 – May 26, 2013
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 2 from 6pm – 9pm

The Riverdale Hub and the Scotiabank CONTACT 2013 Photography Festival are pleased to present Dislocations at the Riverdale Hub Community Art Gallery from May 2 – 26, 2013. Dislocations brings together artists who explore the tenuous relationship between identity and place, and who investigate how movement has become a mode of being in the world during an era of globalization. The month-long exhibition features established and emerging artists from Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver, and highlights their aesthetic engagements with cultural dislocation.

Artists Jamelie Hassan, Jin-me Yoon, Brett Gundlock, Annie Sakkab, Khadija Baker, Meral Pasha, and Mona Kamal consider how we negotiate a place for ourselves from one social environment to another. They examine what travels with us across personal, political, and social borders during different kinds of migratory trajectories, and what we leave behind. As discussions on place and identity have shifted towards more fluid understandings, the artists engage with particular kinds of uprootings and regroundings that are embodied and specific. Their work articulates a pluri-local sense of self which is gendered and cultured, and explores how visual culture informs the way we see ourselves in the world, as well as how others situate us in it.

About The Riverdale Hub
Located in the heart of Little India, The Riverdale Hub is a transformative space and green working environment informed by the values of diversity, sustainability and equality. The Hub’s social enterprises – like its Community Art Gallery – provide invaluable hands-on training opportunities to marginalized women and their families, enabling them to develop sustainable livelihoods.

The Hub focuses on employing the transformative power of art to engage the community in dialogue. This exhibition – like The Hub – aims to create a dialogue between the work of documentary photographers and visual artists, between the Hub and the Little India community, as well as between the women and youth who frequent the centre and the Festival’s diverse public.

The Riverdale Hub Community Art Gallery
1326 Gerrard Street E
Toronto, ON M4L 1Z1
Mon – Fri: 9am – 5pm
Sat: 1pm – 6pm

For more information, please contact Annie Sakkab at annie@anniesakkab.com or visit our website: dislocations2013.wordpress.com

Also, please visit the Featured Exhibitions page on the Festival’s website: www.scotiabankcontactphoto.com

“The government’s focus remains on jobs, economic growth, and long-term prosperity,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Kenney. “Under the new Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canada will be able to attract the skilled immigrants our economy requires, who are the most likely to succeed and contribute their full skill set to the Canadian economy.”

With the re-opening date approaching, future applicants should be aware of several key elements that will have an effect on the application process:

· A new eligible occupations list, with a total of 24 occupations;
· An overall cap of 5,000 new applications for all eligible occupations, including a sub-cap of 300 new applications for each eligible occupation;
· Four organizations have been designated to conduct educational credential assessments (mandatory for applicants submitting foreign educational credentials); and
· Applicants must show proof that they meet the minimum threshold of Canadian Language Benchmark 7 in all four language skill areas: speaking, reading, writing and oral comprehension.

“As a result of the actions taken by the Government to deal with the massive backlogs and unacceptably long wait times, FSW applications will be processed in approximately one year,” said Minister Kenney. “We will not be able to remain competitive and attract the skilled immigrants we need if we allow backlogs and wait times to grow again. That’s why we are capping application intake and focusing on specific occupations that are experiencing labour shortages in Canada. This will also help us transition nicely into the just-in-time immigration system of the future.”
Applications under the new FSWP will be accepted starting May 4, 2013. Until then, however, the FSWP application process does not change – only individuals with qualifying job offers or those applying under the PhD stream are eligible for processing.
All applicants who are considering applying on or after May 4 are invited to consult the Backgrounder . It outlines some of the steps that can be taken now to prepare and includes the eligible occupations list and the organizations designated to conduct educational credential assessments.

Diversity Reporter Editor Mohsin Abbas is soaring high on the wings of a new passion – a documentary film he is making about the remarkable courage of a 15-year-old school girl from his native Pakistan.
Malala: A Girl from Paradise tells the story of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head and neck by a Taliban gunman last October while on a school bus with classmates.
The education activist first came to international attention after writing a diary for the BBC’s Urdu service about her life in Pakistan’s Swat district under Taliban rule. Writing under the pen name, Gul Makai, she chronicled the plight of children in the region after the Taliban outlawed schools for girls.
Malala was critically wounded and flown to Birmingham, England’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she underwent numerous surgeries by specialists in skull reconstruction.”
Abbas recently spent four months in Pakistan with a four-member film crew. They interviewed friends and family of Malala for their documentary. He said insurgency in the volatile tribal regions make it one of the most dangerous areas in South Asia for working journalists.
“The region is still very, very dangerous for journalists. When I go through our footage and my memories of our time spent there, I get goose bumps,” said Abbas.
Abbas, an award-winning Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and press freedom activist, is editor of the Diversity Reporter, a multilingual weekly newspaper for newcomers and immigrants in Canada.
He plans to rejoin his crew in Pakistan in July for the second phase of filming and post-production work. Abbas is attempting to raise $20,000 to complete the film, which he hopes to present to the public this September.
The film explores how the failure to silence Malala has inspired men, women and children, not only in Swat Valley, but beyond the borders of Pakistan. The documentary tells how a young girl from a remote village stood up against Stone Age ideologues, who wanted to take a nation of 200 million back in time. Malala became a shining light and force for change, not only in her Swat Valley, but around the world, said Abbas.
“We have some remarkable interviews about how she has changed the mindsets of people. A prime example is a woman we interviewed whose family business for generations had been (traditional folk) dancing. This woman told us because of Malala, her daughters will not dance, but will go to school.”
He said the females in this woman’s family have never been formally educated but learned how to make money for the home through performance of their traditional folk dances.
The film also explores the political intrigue and conspiracy theories that swirl around the attempted murder of Malala, said Abbas. The documentary, which will be in Urdu with English subtitles, will
explain how the oppression of women, political tensions and social injustices led to the horrendous attack on the young schoolgirl.
At the height of the insurgency, 401 out of 1,576 schools in the Swat Valley were destroyed by the Taliban. About 70% of the destruction targeted schools for girls. Some 60,000 children in the region have been deprived of education, with girls suffering appalling rates of illiteracy.
The Pakistani government’s record on education is also of great concern, with less than 3% of gross domestic product spent on education – among the lowest in the world. The government spends seven times more on its military than on education.
Being a Pakistani-born journalist, said Abbas, he believes he can bring deeper understanding of the culture and political turmoil that resulted in the attack on Malala.
Having survived being shot by the Taliban, Malala recently returned to school in Birmingham, England, where she now lives with her family while receiving treatment. She has also signed a book deal worth a reported $3 million. I am Malala is expected to be published this fall.
She has become the youngest person to ever be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and is a favourite to win because she embodies the causes of women and girls’ right to education, the plight of youth, and the fight against extremism.
Abbas said he intends to direct part of the proceeds from his documentary film to a school for girls in Pakistan to establish a library in Malala’s name.

Today at Douglas College in New Westminster, Susan Fraser was presented with a Child Care Award of Excellence for Lifetime Achievement by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The awards recognize the valuable contributions that are made in support of early learning and child care in British Columbia.

In 1992, Fraser became the editor of Canadian Children, and in 1993 she became one of the first Canadian delegates to visit the now world-famous preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Her book, Authentic Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom, is used in early childhood teacher preparation programs across Canada and the U.S.

May is Child Care Month in B.C., a time to recognize the extraordinary work of child care providers throughout the province.

The Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that supports the prime minister, spent $463,300 last January on a two-year contract with the same ethnic media monitoring company that Citizenship has paid almost $750,000 over the past three years.

The CIC contracts, obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws, make clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ethnic outreach minister Jason Kenney consider ethnic media critical sources of intelligence.

“In fact, both the minister of immigration and the prime minister have been quoted as saying that ‘ethnic media sources are the new mainstream media’ and that ‘more people follow ethnic media than mainstream sources,’” states the backgrounder in a May 2011 contract document.

In addition to searching keywords and subjects of interest and providing summaries, says the contract, “verbatim transcripts, translation of transcripts, and audio-video clips are also required on an ‘as and when requested’ basis.”

Since 2006, Privy Council has signed several contracts with firms engaged in ethnic media monitoring. The first was worth $375,000 a year for a maximum of three years and asked for “a weekly list of the most covered issues in ethnic print and broadcast media sources as they relate to the federal government.”

A second, $435,750 contract was awarded in 2010 and included the provision that the winner must “demonstrate their ability to respond to requests by PCO during non-business hours.”

PCO spokesman Raymond Rivet said in an email that “cultural news outlets are an important source of news for many Canadians.

“We monitor cultural news media to assess the effectiveness of government of Canada communications,” Rivet said.

The reports are shared across the government, he added.

“This approach provides value for money by eliminating the need for all departments to monitor cultural news media.”

The CIC contracts also state the information may be shared with “one or more federal departments.”

Ethnic voices “are finally being reckoned with,” said Madeline Ziniak of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association.

There may be “editorial and opinion that perhaps isn’t always expressed in traditional media,” Ziniak said. “If they’re paying attention to that, that’s good.

“If they’re using it towards political means — and no one’s naive enough to think not — then obviously that’s another issue altogether.”

Ziniak said she’d also like to know how much Ottawa is spending to monitor mainstream French and English media sources.

While the contracts for both Privy Council and Citizenship suggest only ethnic media outlets in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia are to be monitored, the net appears to have been cast far wider.

The reports for Citizenship and Immigration include coverage in the Spanish-language press in Mexico of Prince William and his new bride Kate’s appearance with Kenney at a citizenship ceremony in July 2011.

There is also coverage of marriage fraud issues from the Indian media.

The media monitoring firms are given a list of keywords to scour in ethnic media and the results often go beyond news items directly related to the federal government.

For example, reports from May 2011 detail apparent infighting among members of the Greek community in Montreal, while a July 2011 report includes a story on similar tensions in Toronto’s Ethiopian community.

Art exhibits, awards given to local citizens and fundraising dinners are also caught in the report.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office says the monitoring is done at the discretion of the department. Kenney is the Conservative government’s highly political and highly effective point man on wooing ethnic communities, often cited as a key pillar of the party’s electoral success.

His spokeswoman, Alexis Pavlich, credited paying attention to ethnic media as a strategy that helps to drive policy decisions.

“Ethnic media monitoring has increased significantly over the last few years as our government wants to hear the voices of immigrant communities, rather just those of the mainstream media,” Pavlich said in an email.

“This monitoring has helped us to address many issues that we would not have been aware of were it not for the important stories that are covered by ethnic media outlets.”

But it appears the department has the ability to make special inquiries of its own.

In a report for July 12, 2011, there’s a “requested item” on delays in processing visas for Mexican citizens.

In August 2010, “research for CIC” was conducted that canvassed a number of media outlets for letters to the editor from Kenney.

The report included a full transcript of Kenney’s letter to the Caribbean Camera to chide the paper for saying that former governor general Michaelle Jean’s term had been ended by Harper.

Indeed, the Haiti-born Jean seemed to be something of a departmental pre-occupation for Citizenship and Immigration.

A weekly media summary in May 2010, for instance, noted that “lobbying for the next Governor General is still active,” then listed positive and negative media reports on the issue.

There are also full transcriptions of a Chinese language account of public unrest over Harper’s prorogation of Parliament; Punjabi news stories featuring Liberals Ruby Dhalla and Michael Ignatieff; and a full translation of Chinese coverage of an Ignatieff event in Markham, Ont.

“We’re not saying they shouldn’t pay attention,” Jinny Sims, the NDP immigration critic, said of the government’s ethnic media monitoring.

“I certainly pay attention to what goes on in the media. What we’re saying is, $750,000? When you’re talking about taxpayer dollars that are being used for maybe political ends, then I think it’s an abuse of tax dollars.”

Liberal critic Kevin Lamoureux also jumped on reports that the monitoring continued during the 2011 election campaign.

“Media monitoring of Conservative election campaign events and candidates using departmental resources is a flagrant and shameful abuse of taxpayer dollars,” Lamoureux said in a release.

“Minister Kenney must immediately end this misuse of public funds and apologize to all Canadians.”

The PNP allows the Province to nominate a select number of candidates
each year to apply for accelerated permanent residence through
Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Since 2007, the B.C. PNP has
nominated over 17,000 individuals, including approximately 16,600
skilled workers and 400 business immigrants. Nominees in the business
stream have invested over $700 million and created more than 1,600 new
jobs, half of which have been outside of Metro Vancouver.

Through the Fast Track option, business applicants who have obtained a
PNP-supported work permit and have arrived in B.C. to set up their
business can request immediate nomination for permanent residence if
they post a $125,000 performance bond with the Province. The bond is
returned without interest to Fast Track nominees when they fulfil their
PNP performance agreement, but is forfeited to the Province if they fail
to meet their performance obligations.

This differs from the regular nomination process, where there is no
performance bond, but applicants are only nominated when they have
established a business.

Since 2007, 26 Fast Track nominees have successfully completed their
performance agreements, compared with 261 business applicants nominated
through the regular nomination process. The review will examine whether
the current Fast Track option supports the PNP’s role in regional job
creation and contributes to B.C.’s competitiveness in attracting more
business immigrants.

Suspension of the Fast Track nomination option will not affect the
assessment process for PNP business immigration applications. All
applications will continue to be assessed, and approved applicants will
be able to pursue nomination through the regular nomination process.

The Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Responsible for
Labour expects to complete its review of the Fast Track option within
the next 60 days, and will then implement changes to ensure the ongoing
effectiveness of the business stream of the B.C. PNP.

Jafry’s documentary on South Asian seniors will be shown by Omni TV on Nov. 18 & 25

Syed Ghulam Panjatan Jafry, a prominent broadcaster and producer of numerous
documentaries on varied subjects, added another feather to his cap with his latest interesting production. This time he produced an excellent and useful documentary portraying the life of South Asian Seniors in Canada. The hour long documentary entitled – On Their Own: The Trials of South Asian Seniors, is in five languages – English, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali and Gujarati with each documentary containing DV (descriptive video). All these documentaries will be presented on Omni TV.

The first documentary that will be in English will be shown on November 18, 2012 at 8 p.m.and the second documentary in Gujarati will go on air on November 25, 2012, also at 8 p.m.

This documentary was fully funded by the OMNI Ontario Independent Production Initiative, said Jafry Jawad Jafry and Richard Landau are the co-producers of the documentary.

“On Their Own: The Trials of South Asian Seniors”, examines the plight of senior immigrants of South Asian origins.”Through a focus on some elderly people surviving on their own, the documentary examines the loneliness, abandonment and fear that many of Canada’s immigrant seniors experience,”

Born in the city of Jaipur, , India, on April 15,1939, he established Jafry Communications in 1967, Toronto. Since then he produced 23 TV Series of more than 9000 TV programs and over 3136 one hour Radio programs. Jafry visited 26 Countries and 114 cities in Africa, Asia, Europe & North America. Since 1975 Jafry raised more than seven million dollars for religious & social organizations of Canada. His other achievements include:
- Established first Indian & Pakistani Theater in 1966.
- First Indian & Pakistani Radio Program- 1969
- First Indian & Pakistani Cable TV. program-1969
- First Indian & Pakistani TV Program on Network 1978
- First Canada Wide Live Broadcast from Mississauga, On., Canada, 1993
- First Indian & Pakistani Canada Wide Telethon on TV. 1993
- First Indian & Pakistani USA & CANADA wide Fund Raising for Hospital 1994
- First Indian & Pakistani, Canada & Great Britain TV Programs 1995
- First Shia Majlis on TV in Canada on Vision TV Network, June 08, 1996
- Printed more than 30 Show & Business Directories.
- Ramadan Evening Radio Program on CJRN RADIO 710 AM, BY IMAGE Group.
-Helped Largest number of Radio & TV Broadcasters in Establishment of their Broadcast Business.

“The summit brought together a wide range of participants who were in
agreement: stopping bullying requires a culture change in our schools,
homes and communities,” said Premier Clark. “Community agencies, parents,
educators, and students all need to play a role. The commitment coming
out of today’s meeting is to build on our momentum and work together to
build a culture of kindness, caring and respect where no child has to
wake up in the morning and go to school worrying about what will happen
to them that day.”

At the ERASE (Expect Respect and A Safe Education) Bullying Summit
participants shared their views on how to best deal with bullying and
bring about the changes needed to create safe inclusive schools and
communities. The audience also heard compelling personal stories from
students about the impact bullying has had on their lives.

Summit participants also discussed cyberbullying – the newest form of
bullying, and how the anonymity of technology has given bullies new
weapons like text messaging, chat rooms, and social media outlets to
intimidate people.

“Bullying shouldn’t be a rite of passage for young people,” said Premier
Clark. “We need to make sure that those who target others, whether in a
school hallway or in cyberspace, understand the real world consequences
of their actions and become leaders for changing school culture.”

Education Minister Don McRae provided an update on the province’s 10-
point ERASE Bullying Strategy, which included today’s launch of the new
ERASEBullying.ca web portal and the new ReportBullyingBC.ca online
reporting tool. The new website provides vital information, links and
tips for parents and students while the new online reporting tool
provides students a secure and anonymous way to report instances of
bullying, threats and other safety concerns.

“The reporting tool makes it easier for students to take a stand and
report bullying,” said McRae. “We were pleased to unveil the tool today
at the summit and we received some good feedback and suggestions. More
importantly, the participants will help spread the word among students
that they can easily and anonymously report incidents or threats from a
smartphone or computer when and where they feel safe to do so.”

Log on to the new erase bullying portal at www.Erasebullying.ca

The new anonymous reporting tool for students is also now active at
https://reportbullyingbc.edudata.ca/apps/bullying/

Under B.C.’s Family Agenda, prevention of bullying in schools, on our
playgrounds, and online, is a key government priority. Bullying is not
acceptable. To learn more about programs to protect vulnerable children,
visit www.familiesfirstbc.ca