Anti-racism activists offer inspiration

BY LEIGH ANNE WILLIAMS

More than a year ago, diocesan youth co-ordinator Donna Rourke attended a webinar with information on how apply to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for funding for anti-racism work with youth. “I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I know people that I could partner with, and we could imagine an event that would be awesome,” she told Crosstalk.

With support from the Diocese and some familiar faces — including Breanna Pizzuto, who delivers leadership sessions for the Youth Internship Program, and former YIP intern Li Xiu—the event came together on March 25 in the Parish Hall of Julian of Norwich.

Brave and Safe: A Place for Courageous Conversations brought four powerful speakers as well as talented performers together for a day to educate and inspire anti-racism activism.

Susan Young helped Rourke create the event, and she was also the first of the four speakers. A registered social service worker, who works full-time for the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre and part-time for the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services, Young gave bracing accounts of the kinds of racism she and her Carribean-Canadian family members have faced in Canada. From terrifying experiences such as the police racially profiling and nearly arresting her 16-year-old brother to infuriating microaggressions like people asking her if her hair is real and whether she thinks her recent promotion was due to the government’s affirmative action policies, Young shared vivid evidence that racism is an everyday experience for people of colour in Canada.

In the break, Young wowed all who attended with her beautiful voice, performing a few songs as Suzie Q (her stage name) with her partner Sean Duhaime.

Don Kwan is a queer thirdgeneration Chinese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist. Through his art, Kwan “explores legacies of inclusion and exclusion, rooted in land-based settler colonialism.” In his presentation, he showed and spoke about some of his artwok that has delved into his own family’s history, such as the racist head tax his grandfather was forced to pay when he came to Canada.

Annette Bouzi, is a lawyer and professor in the school of business at Algonquin College. She told the audience that in all her years at university, she only had three Black professors, and spoke of her

 Anti-racism program, p. 13