Tri-Cities Refugee Support Forum

I recently had the enormous honour of delivering the keynote to the Tri-Cities Refugee Support Forum, a collaborative effort to bring together all the agencies and organizations in the Tri-Cities to connect and brainstorm how they can be more effective in supporting refugees, primarily coming from Syria. Special thanks to Wendy McCulloch, Co-Chair of the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership Council and Director of Operations for S.U.C.C.E.S.S., and Sylvia Ceacero. Co-Chair of the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership Council and CEO for SHARE Family and Community Services for the invitation. HUGE THANKS to Amy Cheng, Strategic Initiatives and Integration Manager at S.U.C.C.E.S.S. for helping me with the research on Syrian refugees in B.C. 

> READ my keynote address

Citizenship Week 2016

Photo: Alden E. Habacon. Citizenship Ceremony October 11, 2016

I had the wonderful privilege of addressing two groups of New Canadians during this year's Citizenship Week. The group pictured above was the first, and included 56 New Canadians coming from 20 different countries. Someone mentioned that Canada is one of the few countries in the world that actually has a formal ceremony. I realized later that I have actually been speaking at Citizenship Ceremonies since 2007. This was especially meaningful for me, as I was involved in the early promotion of Citizenship Week when I worked at CBC Television. One of our initiatives was to have CBC host ceremonies at production centres across Canada during Citizenship Week. 

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