About me

Year 2012: Moments to Share

The year 2011 was memorable for what we lost!

He was a leader, a visionary and a political man consumed by the pursuit of social justice – - he was Jack Layton, national leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. He was not only a consummate politician, but a necessary player in Twenty-First Century politics and only the fourth person of my life time who inspired widespread public hope. Jack was the political entity Canada awaited for decades in order to complete the work of clarifying Canadian political identity. Canada, a nation floundering in ideological diffusion since post-Trudeau era needed a Jack Layton. But, when Jack arrived on the national political scene too few Canadians were ready to embrace his vision wholeheartedly. Yet, Jack Layton gave the New Democratic Party its first-in-history Official Opposition status in Canadian Parliament. Canada’s history will record the regret of the nation following his death. Although we lost Jack to illness, his vision will be forever with us.

In 2011 also, many of us and many to come from far-away refugee camps and out of the grey oblivion of statelessness, lost Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO). SISO was the publicly and privately funded giant among post-migration institutions located in Hamilton, Ontario, a city with an instructive social and labour history. SISO’s mandate included settlement, advocacy, public education and the incomprehensibly illusive integration. Historians will, I hope, record that SISO was a modern-day nation-builder for Canada serving as the bridge between newcomers and longer-term Canadian residents as we worked to realign citizenship with obligations. The politically delicate work of readying newcomers and longer-term residents for unpredictable social interface in the Canadian labour market was brilliantly imagined by the organization’s executive team and mastered by the nearly 250 paid front line staff and hundreds of volunteers. The (still) emerging Canadian institutions related to immigrant settlement suffered a great loss with the woeful social implosion which ended the organization’s reign.

In 2011, opposition parties in the Canadian House of Commons took an unnecessary and unwise step in forcing general elections which replaced a minority government with a majority. Notable on this new majority agenda in 2012 are plans for the federal government to restructure Canada’s ‘sacred’ health care policy arrangements with the provinces. The predictions are troubling. Jack Layton, we needed your voice on this issue!

Also on the current agenda of the majority Conservative Canadian government is the restructuring of immigration to favour highly credentialed persons and to diminish the family reunification program. This policy rearrangement promises to bring more of the highly trained, job ready to work for less than longer term residents in the Canadian labour force. But regrettably, families wishing to join relatives in Canada as is prioritized in the objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001, 3(1) (d) have been relegated to a contingent agenda. There will be disagreements with our government; as these debates ensue, South Western Ontario will sorely miss SISO as a strong voice and very able advocate.

In 2011 the social equality grassroots advocacy community in Ontario lost an ‘unsung community stalwart’, John Fitzgerald Vieira. A teacher in the Greater Toronto Area for decades, John will be remembered for his contribution to Canadian society ‘above and beyond’. John’s name will not be found on Walls of Fame, but, it should be. During the troublesome 1980s when the integration of racial minority immigrants in Ontario was at its most problematic John Vieira took action to circumvent bureaucratic filibusters by acting on the most politically-urgent issue facing racial minority and disadvantaged students in elementary and high schools in Ontario’s largest city, Toronto. John with some aid from others established intra-institutional educational structures for remedial education known as the Saturday Morning Remedial School’ operated under the auspices of the Canadian Alliance of Black Educators, (CABE). This politically timely institution created and distributed learning opportunities to thousands of youth who would otherwise have been discarded as collateral victims of an unequal society.

We will remember John as a man with quiet determination and a focussed vision. He was not given to posturing, self-acclamatory debate or pompous orations. He had a measured passion which guided his work with youth. His passion was forged out of his understanding of social relations in Canada for those who are first and second generation ethno-racial minority immigrants. John understood that excellence was the only option and that the pursuit of excellence was the work we all had to commit to. His contribution to the creation and enlargement of the Saturday morning school for those who needed a hand up through adjusted teaching style was driven by this understanding. But John’s work also signalled a deeper understanding of other issues.

I interpreted John’s leadership in community mobilization and capacity building to be guided by four general ideas. First; the racial minority community had to develop a voice which was informed and coherent; second, we needed to work at holding our community accountable for forging our way forward; third if first and second generation Black immigrants were to emancipate themselves from social tyranny, we had to perfect the strategy of out-performance; and finally, it was desirable for us to exist as political allies. John was an early mentor in my political maturity and was instructive in the development of my interest in minority population issues.

As we enter year 2012 it would be nice to record that by the end of 2011 we also lost the remnants of tyranny. In spite of an increasingly strident international civil society, democracy remains elusive for many. The human toll derived from this struggle is staggering; lost lives, lost homelands, lost futures, lost hope! In addition, year 2012 promises even more uncertainty as the United Sates again embark on general elections with no sign of ‘civility’ entering their political discourse! The only certainty derived from the tone of their political discourse to date is that the flirtation with the notion of ‘post-racial society’ has ended.

My collaborative work on social policy issues continues. In 2011some of us convened in Finland to review our work in progress leading to a future publication on post-migration issues in the most progressive welfare states. We are refining our thoughts at the very period when people displacement from nations struggling for the illusive democracy has intensified.

Some recent titles found on my website and elsewhere are: A Strategy for Change; September 2010; Integration: More than a Strategy; April 2010. Canada: New Ideology and Social Assistance in Post-industrial Society found in The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society: A Global Perspective (2009) ISBN 978-1-4419-0066-1, Powell & Hendricks [eds.] (Springer) and Social Protection of Refugee Women: Paradoxes, Tensions and Directions found in Not Born A Refugee Woman . . . . edited by Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Khanlou & Moussa (Berghahn Books 2008) now in soft cover. More coming soon!