FUSION

People. News. Information.

VOLUME 18, ISSUE 1 2021

Group Publisher Sanjay Agnihotri

Editor Ramya Ramanathan rramanathan@metroland.com

Editorial Design Safi Nomani

Sr. Ad Manager Ricky (Kawaljit) Bajaj rbajaj@metroland.com Tel: 905 273 8170

Assistant Manager Laura Jackman ljackman@metroland.com

General Inquiries: info@canadianimmigrant.ca

Circulation/Distribution Inquiries: ljackman@metroland.com

ISSN 1910-4146

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Canadian Immigrant is published five times a year in print. Canadian Immigrant welcomes submissions, but is not responsible for unsolicited material. Canadian Immigrant is a publication of Metroland Media Group, a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Entire contents property of Canadian Immigrant.

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SATHISH BALA

Harnessing the power of digital connectivity

By Ramya Ramanathan

Indian-born Sathish Bala spent his early years in Singapore before moving to Canada with his family. Three decades later, he is an award-winning leader and entrepreneur working in the field of digital marketing, operations management and product development.

Using his strategic leadership skills, he seeks to implement positive change and increase the performance of various enterprises. Bala works to harness digital strategies to define roadmaps, deliver client-centric solutions and identify opportunities for development and advancement. He has pioneered the development and launch of three digital companies, totalling $50M in sales with 150+ staff across 5+ countries.

He is also the co-founder of a South Asian music festival in Toronto, DESIFEST.

Tell us about yourself

My family immigrated to Canada in 1989 from Singapore. While I was born in Tamil Nadu, India, I spent my early life in Singapore where I struggled to find my place in the world. I wasn’t academically strong, and this was a constant source of pain at home. Moving to Canada is the greatest gift my parents gave me.

In Canada, I found mentors who helped me discover my strengths and build my personality and confidence. By the time I graduated from Ryerson University, I had already launched my first startup, Spyder Designs. Since then, I have successfully built and exited from three successful digital startups and held offices in Canada, Latin America and India. Today, I am the CEO and cofounder of Schoolio – we support parents switching to home learning with curriculum, tutoring and support services.

Tell us about DESIFEST

We launched DESIFEST in May 2006, as a part of South Asian Heritage Week, to help battle the cultural bias, stereotypes and gender bias within our community that holds back our youth from excelling.

With music as the glue, DESIFEST creates a platform that helps celebrate our uniqueness without dividing us. We focus on programming to help youth express themselves. Today, as one of Canada’s premier South Asian festivals, we attract over 150,000 attendees from diverse communities across Canada to participate in a week of music and arts-related events.

How has COVID impacted what you do?

While COVID forced us to cancel our 2020 festival, we decided to continue to support our music community with live shows on Facebook. We planned for a few weeks of music, and that turned into 380 shows, 250,000 organic impressions monthly, and a growing Facebook community (from 3,000 to over 12,000). We booked artists from India, Pakistan, Canada, US, Australia and more. In 2020, with TD supporting us and government funding, we continued to employ audio/video teams, digital and social media teams, invest in new hardware and software and teach the industry how to move music programming to the digital space.

What inspires you to keep going?

I believe that the work we are doing with DESIFEST is helping to loosen the tight grasp on culture, and by letting go, we empower our youth to take the best values of our culture and make it their own. We will thrive as ONE community when we celebrate what makes us different and unique. I want to be a part of this change.

What are your future plans?

Our big focus is to work with city officials to reboot the festival and create a safe live music experience. COVID (or versions of COVID) will be around for the foreseeable future, and we need to find the courage to dream up new ideas/processes and safety measures. We need more brave organizations to be a part of the solution and not watch from the sidelines.

What is your advice to immigrants and newcomers to Canada?

Be bold. Don’t fear but embrace the unknown. The future is bright and waiting for you. No matter how dark it seems, know that you can build your dream life in Canada.

news Upcoming offerings from Canadian Immigrant: Let’s go, 2021!

Canadian Immigrant is committed to continuing to offer support to our community of newcomers and immigrants through a range of innovative virtual offerings in 2021, in response to the challenges caused by COVID-19.

In addition to valuable information, tips and resources available at canadianimmigrant.ca and the print magazine, Canadian Immigrant brings you excellent virtual opportunities to connect, network and learn including industry-specific web conferences and virtual fairs.

In addition, Canadian Immigrant in partnership with Windmill Microlending is developing a new Skilled Immigrant Career Guide to help internationally trained professionals to overcome employment barriers compounded by COVID-19.

This guide will feature fresh, strategic and inspiring content, filled with expert advice, success stories as well as interactive exercises. This will provide skilled immigrants with the information they need on job search trends, in-demand career skills, microloans and educational credentials. The four-part guide is free for users and is launching in four batches between January 18 and April 9, 2021 on canadianimmigrant.ca.

The Canadian Immigrant Industryspecific Web Conference Series – free, live, virtual events – will continue to provide newcomers and immigrants with insights, information and inspiration in their specific professions. In 2020, successful sessions were held for internationally educated or trained nurses, lawyers, IT professionals, accountants and engineering professionals.

The first two events this year, to be held on February 25 and March 26, will cover career pathways for internationally trained pharmacists and opportunities for banking professionals.

Newcomers and immigrants looking for information and inspiration in the areas of work, education, immigration and settlement can attend the Canadian Immigrant Virtual Fairs – the free, all-day event for the Central and Eastern Region (Ontario and Nova Scotia) is scheduled for April 16 and the Western Region Fair (British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba) for April 29.

Virtual attendees will have an opportunity to connect with exhibitors at these Fairs including employers, recruiters, immigrant service providers, educational institutions and more. Speakers’ Sessions will be held throughout the day to provide attendees with opportunities to hear from key leaders and experts on topics including diversity and inclusion, career growth and progression, small business, resilience and more. The Fairs will also provide a resumé critiquing feature and other tips and resources.

The 2020 Canadian Virtual Fair in November, sponsored by BMO, was a resounding success with close to 2,600 unique attendees at the events: 1,300 unique visitors each attended the Western Region Fair and Central & Eastern Region Fair.

Sign up to our newsletter at canadianimmigrant.ca for information and ongoing updates.

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Government announces new policy to help former international students live and work in Canada

For many international students who hold a post-graduation work permit (PGWP), the pandemic’s disruption and uncertainty have jeopardized their chances of obtaining the work experience they need to apply for permanent residence.

As part of Canada’s efforts to support international students through this challenging time, on January 8, 2021, the government announced that foreign nationals in Canada affected by the pandemic with an expired or expiring PGWP will have a unique chance to apply for another open work permit. These will be valid for 18 months and allow former international students to remain in Canada, continue to seek employment and build their future in the country.

The government has made significant efforts to encourage international students to settle permanently in Canada as they help create jobs and fill labour shortages so businesses can thrive. They bring strong employment and language skills, bolstered by their Canadian education and work experience, so they are typically well positioned to apply for permanent resident status. More than 58,000 graduates successfully applied to immigrate permanently in 2019, and their decisions to stay in Canada will help to address demographic challenges faced by our country.

The government has indicated that information on eligibility criterion and how to apply will be available on the IRCC website starting on January 27, 2020.