Calgary Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes - October 29, 2019

Calgary Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes - October 29, 2019

In attendance

Tabassom Javadi – Chair – UNE

Shanon Hicks – Treasurer – CIU

Kathy Ajram – Secretary – UTE

Angelo Mangatal – CEIU

Ade Fayemiwo – CFIA

Dolly Ablitt – PSAC Staff (Regional Office)

Calgary Area HRC Meeting

October 29, 2019

Called to order at 6:00 PM

• Agenda
  • Review and adoption of agenda
    • Agenda passed by acclamation.
  • Approval of last meeting minutes
    • Minutes passed by acclamation.
  • Old Business
    • Orange Shirt Day: On Sept 30, the committee held awareness sessions on Orange Shirt Day  at both Harry Hays (atrium) and the Calgary International Airport (white hat lounge). Harry Hays event took place in the morning, and the Airport event took place in the afternoon. The committee served bannock made by an Kokom’s Bannock Kitchen in support of Indigenous entrepreneurship. This was the committees first event, and it included a montage of orange shirt cut outs signed by each component and local that was able to attend. There was also a display that encompassed everything orange with educational bookmarks as takeaways. We discussed ideas to make next year better, and this included potentially moving locations in the airport to be more accommodating of the location of airport members.
  • Financial Report
    • An update to the committees finances was provided by Treasurer Shanon Hicks. Expenses of the committee included Orange Shirt Day, meals for meetings, bank charges, and parking required for meetings and Orange Shirt Day. The current account balance is $869.09.
    • There has been additional clarification requested from the Prairie Regional Office to ensure complete compliance of the established Committee. The additional information has been submitted to REVP, Marianne Hladun, for further review.
  • New Business
    • Human Rights Day – the intention of the meeting included choosing a movie to watch on the evening of December 10, 2019. There were a few options available on Netflix, but the committee had discussions that resulted in the conclusion that watching a movie wasn’t interactive enough. We learned through Regional representative, Dolly Ablitt, that REVP Marianne Hladun is involved in an organized called NASHI. A charitable organization that helps remove individuals from human trafficking situations. We talked about a potential fundraiser for NASHI through a perogy potluck and the committee agreed that this was more meaningful and was an idea to look in to further. Potential documentary to watch is One Perogy at a Time.

During our discussions around NASHI, we discussed how this issue relates to Canada and the crisis of children, many of whom are Indigenous,being housed in hotels across the Prairie provinces through social assistance agencies.

The committee felt that if our REVP wasn’t available for December 10th, we could look at an alternative option, including having someone from The Calgary Police Service come down to provide a presentation or information on local human trafficking because the issue is closer than we might realize. Angelo talked about his experience with the Calgary Police Service and stated that trafficking is a big problem throughout the City of Calgary.

Another option that the committee discussed was The Secret Marathon. Dolly provided some insight on the marathon which includes the founders of an organization called Right to Play. This is a group in Cochrane, AB who support Muslim women in Afghanistan is running a marathon in a secret location, so that they are not targeted for leaving their homes without being in full hijab in order to exercise. The committee decided to finalize a plan in an upcoming meeting.

• Round Table: The committee had discussions surrounding Human Rights in general terms and how term employment relates to them as well as the topics we discussed pertaining to Human Rights Day. We discussed each Committee Executive researching one of the Prairie provinces statistics on trafficking.

Another item of importance that was discussed was the upcoming Conference for Racially Visible Members (Nov 1-4) in Calgary, where Resolutions will be debated. The resolutions will be discussed in our subsequent meetings to see what we may need to draft for submission to our Triennial Convention.

• Next Meeting: November 20, 2019 @ 6:00 PM – Calgary Regional Office

• Meeting adjourned @ 7:20 PM