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Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation

Renison Lecture and Book Launch

VIRTUAL

Millions of people are displaced each year by war, persecution, and famine and the global refugee population continues to grow. Canada has often been regarded as a benevolent country, welcoming refugees from around the globe. However, refugees have encountered varying kinds of reception in Canada. Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation (AUP, 2021) is a collection of personal narratives about the refugee experience in Canada. It includes critical perspectives from authors from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, advocates, front-line workers, private sponsors, and civil servants. The evening will be hosted by CBC Toronto radio host, Ismaila Alfa.

This project was supported by research grant from the Renison University College affiliated with the University of Waterloo.

Author Biographies:

Shelley Campagnola is the executive director at COMPASS Refugee Centre. She is a leader in advocating for organizations who can respond to ensure that refugees are welcomed with compassion and inclusion. Her chapter, Finding Welcome off the Refugee Highway focuses on how the day-to-day challenges of being a refugee in Canada are impacted by government policy.

Matida Dafeh, anti-FGM and feminist activist from Republic of The Gambia, West Africa, is the co-founder of The Girls Agenda, a grassroots feminist movement working to end FGM and other traditional practices that violates the rights of women and girls. Daffeh’s chapter Fleeing The Gambia describes her struggle for women’s rights in Gambia.

Michael Molloy joined the Immigration Foreign Service in 1968 and served in Tokyo, Beirut, Kampala, and Minneapolis before returning to Ottawa in 1976 where he was director, Refugee Policy. Molloy’s first-hand account, The Ugandan Asian Expulsion, 1972: A Personal Memoir, documents how his experience with the Ismailis deportations in Uganda impacted his interpretation of Canada’s refugee processing system.

Christina Parker is an Assistant Professor in Social Development Studies at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo. In her chapter, she discusses how refugee children strive to be included in Canadian classrooms, and the ways in which schools could better support refugee children and their families to facilitate inclusion and integration. She is the co-Editor of Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation and is the co-creator and moderator for the Refugee Story Bank of Canada: www.refugeestorybank.ca

Cyrus Sundar Singh is a Gemini Award-winning filmmaker. He is also a musician, poet, storyteller, and change maker pursuing a doctorate in the Communications and Culture program. His chapter engages in a critical exploration of male Sri Lankan refugees who arrived to Canada in a lifeboat; a boat that he eventually found as part of his research for a documentary. In his chapter, Floating to the Lure of the Promised Land: Tamil Refugees in Canada he discusses many hidden injustices faced by refugees as they become part of the low-wage economy.

This program is presented in partnership with Renison University College and CBC Toronto.

Please register on Eventbrite by clicking here. Registrants will receive an e-mail 24 hours before the start of the program with an invitation to join.

Hosted by: Nancy

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