Project finds common ground among P.A. multicultural groups

Cay laid out the agenda for the rest of the project, which will conclude in March but expects to be renewed.

After already taking part in Tapestrama and the Newcomers Round Dance earlier in the fall, Cay wants to hold a bingo and games social to help the groups mingle.

A speed talking event is next. It’s modelled after speed dating, just without the romantic aspect.

Conversation at the meeting was intense but not aggressive, and the project itself was not free from criticism.

Janet Carriere, executive director at the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre, brought up that the project was perhaps being too broad when describing the issues between First Nations and newcomers, and was painting First Nations in a negative light.

“I think we tend to paint people with a wide paint brush,” she said after the meeting finished. “I think if we could just start seeing each other as human beings, period, things would be much better.

“We have to stop saying all Muslims kill people, because of what I know it’s a loving, kind, and caring religion and it’s the extremists who are doing this.”

Carriere noted that she had not witnessed any negativity towards First Nations from newcomers, but had seen it going the other way.

“I’ve heard discussions from some of the aboriginal community not wanting newcomers to come. A lot of it is fear.”

That fear goes both ways.

Amin Makki, an immigrant from Iran, spoke about the fear he experienced when he first arrived in Canada.

“I was told to be careful late at night, don’t walk, and if a First Nations (person) approaches me they can rob me.”

Yet Makki never had a problem. He works as an addiction rehab worker at the Metis Addiction Council Treatment Centre, and interacts with First Nations people all day.

“I am very proud to work with First Nations…they have all been very friendly for me, they’re my friends and I never saw any threat or anything that makes me fearful of them.”

Makki said he is more fearful of what he does, than what others do.

“When I came here…it was mostly fear about if I can behave as I like, having a background in an area that is very prone to terrorist activities. I was very scared to even go to mosque.”

He still hasn’t visited a mosque since arriving in Canada in June 2011.

“I’ve never gone to mosque because I don’t want to be blamed for going there. We hide ourselves. They can’t get any real truths about us, so we need to stop hiding ourselves because of fear of what’s going to happen to us.”

One of the myths Cay wants to dispel about newcomers is that immigrants are coming over to take jobs away from Canadians.

“I find it ironic,” Cay said, “because First Nations people are often painted as lazy, and not wanting jobs, so they’re suffering the same persecution as newcomers. We want to bring them together and show that they’re similar.”

“We have always been a welcoming people, but we don’t know the people who are coming,” Metis elder Julie Pitzel said. “In the world we are recognized as peaceful people, but I think we still have a lot of work to do within our own.”

Dates for the next events have yet to be set. They will be posted on the Common Ground Facebook page once they are available.

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit

by Spencer Sterritt

Project finds common ground among P.A. multicultural groups

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