A Media Advisory from Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario
The Niagara Social Justice Forum returns to Brock University this month for a full day of workshops and information sharing on themes of local and global activism in times of austerity.
Brock University’s iconic tower complex overlooking the Niagara Escarpment in St. Catharines, Ontario. File phot
The seventh instalment of this one-day community event takes place this coming Saturday, January 25th. 2014.
Hosted by Brock’s Social Justice and Equity Studies program, the day is an open forum for individuals and groups working for social change in Niagara to connect. This year’s event includes an info fair over the noon hour featuring more than 20 community groups.
The event is free, accessible and open to everyone. Participants are asked to register in advance online. (A link for registering is available at the end of this post.)
Programming for the day begins at 9:30 a.m. in Pond Inlet with an opening plenary featuring Niagara’s own Ohnia:Kara Singers First Nations drum and dance group.
The day will then break out into nine interactive workshops taking place over two concurrent sessions from 10:30 to 11:50 a.m. and to 1:30 to 2:50 p.m.
Examples of workshops include:
* Wipe Out Poverty in Niagara
* Migrant Agricultural Workers in Niagara
* Injured Workers in Ontario: An Interactive History
* Beyond Survival: Raising Incomes of Low Wage Workers
* Building Citizen Advocacy for Affordable Housing in Niagara
The afternoon’s closing keynote panel from 3 to 4:30 p.m. will feature Abby Deshman from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other activists talking about the criminalization of dissent. Deshman recently co-authored the report, “Take back the streets: Repression and criminalization of protest around the world.”
The day finishes off with a screening of the film They Were Promised the Sea: Arab Jews between Homeland and Promised Land in Academic South 215 from 5 to 7 p.m.
This documentary by Canadian filmmaker Kathy Wazana examines why hundreds of thousands of Jews left Morocco in the 1960s, believing their Arab homeland had become enemy territory. Wazana’s research into her family origins in Morocco unleashes a complex web of questions about dual identity, political opportunism, and the challenges faced by those torn between Homeland and Promised Land. Wazana will be on hand for an audience Q&A after the screening. A light vegan Moroccan meal will also be served.
Free parking, light vegan meals and childcare are provided at the Niagara Social justice Forum with registration.
For more info on schedules and workshops, and to register:
http://brocku.ca/niagara-social-justice-forum
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