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.

Flanked with about a dozen volunteers, motorists waved and honked back at the enthusiastic Bishop who said, “People on the doorstep are telling me they are ready for change. With the official start of the election campaign today, momentum is building to the May 14 voting day.”

Bishop went on to say NDP leader Adrian Dix’s positive message for change is what appeals to voters. “The voters are tired of negative personal attack ads and want to hear about what we’re going to do. They understand change for the better is going to come one practical step at a time.”

The provincial election voting day is Tuesday, May 14.

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.

This week is an opportunity to acknowledge that violence against women
has serious adverse physical, psychological, sexual, financial and
cultural impacts on women, children, families and communities. It also
provides the chance to let women know they are not alone and that help
and support are available to women who are victims of all types of
violence.

Community groups throughout the province will be holding events to send
the message that violence against women is not acceptable in our province
and that all women have the right to feel safe and live free from
violence.

Just one example of the many community-led initiatives happening during
the week is the Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society’s Clothes Line Project.
The project gives the public the chance to decorate a shirt with anti-
violence messages to display all week at the Whistler Public Library.
Staff and volunteers will be on hand to support victims of violence who
would like to reach out for help. Full details of other community events
can be found at:
www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/crimeprevention/calendar/doc/PVAW_Week_Calendar_2013.pdf

The B.C. government has shown a clear commitment to preventing violence
against women and supporting female victims through more than 100
transition house programs and over 400 victim service and violence-
against-women counselling and outreach programs. Government has also
established the Provincial Office of Domestic Violence and is currently
developing a comprehensive, three-year domestic violence plan for
implementation this year.

If you have been the victim of violence, or know someone who has, support
is available at any time. Call your local police or access help by
calling VictimLink BC – a toll-free, confidential telephone service
available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in more than 110 languages,
at 1 800 563-0808.

Rishi Kapoor Agneepath

Best Debut – Female

Ileana D’Cruz Barfii

Best Debut – Male

Ayushman Khurana Vicky Donor

Best Actress – Supporting Role

Dolly Ahluwalia Vicky Donor

Best Actor – Supporting Role

Annu Kapoor Vicky Donor

Best Actor – Comic Role

Abhishek Bol Bachchan

Best Playback – Female

Shalmali Kholgade Ishaqzaade

Best Playback – Male

Sonu Nigam Agneepath

Best Lyrics

Gulzar Jab Tak Hai Jaan

Best Music Director

Ajay Atul Agneepath

Best Debut Director – Critics

Gauri Schinde English Vinglish

Best Film – Critics

Gangs of Wasseypur

Best Actor Female – Critics

Deepika Cocktail

Best Actor Male – Critics

Irfaan Khan Paan Singh Tomar

Best Director – Popular

Anurag Basu Barfii

Best Film – Popular

Barfii

Best Actor – Female

Priyanka Chopra Barfii

Best Actor – Male

Ranbir Kapoor Barfii