Racism in Canada

Iman Bukhari is the CEO of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation. She is a Masters' candidate in Multimedia Communications and a humans rights supporter. Iman has worked and volunteered in the not-for-profit sector for 10+ years. Iman recently received the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation's 30 under 30 award and Daughter of the Year award 2016. Recently, she produced a documentary titled YYC Colours. It is a documentary that is created to start discussions about racism in Calgary and Canada in general. The film took over a year and a half to produce

Carl E. James is the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora and professor in the Faculty of Education. In his scholarship, he takes up questions of equity and inclusivity in education and employment in relation to the needs, interests, and attainment of racialized people. His recent publications include: Life at the Intersection: Community, Class and Schooling.

Balpreet received his law degree from the University of Ottawa. After articling with a boutique disability and human rights law firm in Toronto, he became legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada in 2009.

His practice focuses on human rights law and religious accommodation. Balpreet Singh has helped resolve several key accommodation issues for Sikhs in Canada, including the accommodation of the kirpan in courthouses in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, on VIA Rail trains, as well as in Canadian embassies and consulates internationally.

He serves as spokesperson for the WSO and is regularly consulted on Sikh issues in Canada by national media outlets.

Balpreet Singh has worked with various public and private sector organizations to create resources and provide training on religious accommodation issues and best practices when interacting with persons of the Sikh faith.

Maurice Switzer is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation, and a member of the Sons of Jacob Congregation in North Bay, Ontario. He was the first Indigenous student at Trent University and the first Indigenous publisher of a daily newspaper in Canada. A lifelong journalist, he served as director of communications for the Assembly of First Nations and the Union of Ontario Indians, and has been a professor of Indigenous issues at a number of post-secondary institutions. Earlier this year he was appointed to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv is the Director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). She joined CCLA in 2002 as a legal researcher. Since 2005 she has directed CCLA’s Expression and Equality programs. Noa has been published, made submissions, appearances and presentations, and advocated on such issues as refugee protection, LGBTQ rights, racial profiling, freedom of expression and religion, and the intersectionality of rights, in particular religious freedom and equality. Noa has coordinated many CCLA interventions in a variety of Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and human rights tribunals; appeared before Parliamentary and provincial legislative committees, governmental and public bodies; and provided written submissions. She has also appeared on panels, at conferences, in press interviews, and provided guest workshops and lessons through CCLET’s public education project. In addition, Noa manages CCLA’s law student volunteer programs. Noa has an LL.B. and LL.M. (cum laude) from the Hebrew University in Israel, and a B.A. (with distinction) from York University. She completed her legal articles at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and was called to the Israeli Bar in 1998. She worked for a few years as an associate at a private law firm in Jerusalem, practicing litigation, labour, commercial, and corporate law. Noa has also served as Field Coordinator for a large research project on eating disorders in women, and as Acting Administrative Director of Hebrew University Law Faculty’s Center for Human Rights.