President-Elect: Prince Kumar Vice-President: Jayson Phelps
Treasurer: Rick Goldsmith
Executive Director: Carol Hutchinson
RI President
Holger Knaack, Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany
District Governor
Mark Chipman, Whitby Sunrise
Editor of the week: Maureen Bird
MEMBER NOTICE: THE ROTARY CLUB OF TORONTO
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING PART TWO:
ELECTION OF VICE PRESIDENT, DIRECTORS AND TREASURER
As announced at last Friday’s Virtual Meeting held on Friday Jan. 22, 2021, the Club’s Annual General Meeting (part 2) for the purpose of electing a Vice President and three Directors for a three-year term commencing July 1, 2021; and one Director and a Treasurer for the year 2021-2022 will be held at the end of the regular lunch meeting on Friday, January 29th, 2021.
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LIMITED SEATING ONLY ON A FIRST COME BASIS ON GOOGLE MEET, If you are NOT admitted on Google Meet, please join us at 12:15 on YouTube LIVE. https://youtu.be/b18_DyT4-xo (see button below)
Members ONLY - PLEASE Stay on Google Meet after the meeting for Part 2 of our Annual General Meeting to appoint the Incoming Vice President and our New Board Directors. Those members on YouTube can move to Google Meet now.
by Steven Smith, Chair, Indigenous Service Committee
How boring would a garden be with just one flower? A beautiful garden must be made up of many diverse flowers!
Posed by one of our guests today, Imran Amil, described a world based on tolerance and inclusion, embracing and celebrating all cultures, races, creeds, sexual orientation in our society. Sadly, this is an ideal and not surprisingly, this is not the world in which we live. Racism infects and permeates our society, in Canada and around the world, causing injury, oppression and justified anger and activism. It is a blight on society and we as Rotarians are called to action.
Enough is Enough: Stop Racism! As part of our efforts to acknowledge, to gain a better understanding and our desire to become part of the solution in battling racism, Rotarians, Sylvia Geist and Geoffrey Johnson have developed this special three part series, beginning with today’s topic, The Reality of Racism Today – Story Telling About Lived Experiences Today.
We were honoured to have 3 wonderful speakers to launch the first in a series of three meetings addressing racism, Stacia Loft, Imran Amil and Knia Singh.
After thanking Brigitte and Glenn for their beautiful prelude of music and acknowledging the traditional Indigenous Lands upon which we meet, President John thanked visiting Rotarians and guests for attending the meeting. The series on Racism has attracted much interest from Rotarians in Canada as well as abroad. Guests also included representatives from Colleges, Universities, Religious organizations, Libraries and Media. The meeting was well attended with about 230 people joining via Google Meet and YouTube.
John thanked the coordinators of the Racism Series, Sylvia Geist and Geoffrey Johnson for the hard work and dedication to putting together such an important program.
Mayor John Tory welcomed us to the Racism Series and thanked The Rotary Club of Toronto for our important contributions to the City of Toronto and our positive impact for over 100 years. He noted how important it is to acknowledge and battle against racism in our society and that this series is an important step forward.
Geoffrey Johnson formally introduced the series, Enough is Enough: Stop Racism!. He noted that this series will be conducted over three sessions and that today’s topic is The Reality of Racism Today – Story Telling About Lived Experiences Today.
Stacia Loft is the Deputy Grand Chief of AIA (Association of Iroquois and Allied Nations). She is currently articling and expects to be called to the bar in 2021. Stacia, speaking as a professional, a mother, a wife, and an auntie, related a number of experiences in which she and many other indigenous people were subject to racism. She recognized the many Indigenous people who have lost their lives as a result of racism including, but certainly no limited to, residential schools, political activism and Missing and Murdered Women.
She noted that she experiences racism “every single day of her life”. She has been closely watched in retails stores, has been subject of racist taunts and been in subject to suspicion by authorities for no justifiable reason. She also discussed non-indigenous perspectives, attitudes, and outright racism. The effects on her personally, but shared by almost all indigenous people, include a sense of injury, confusion, anger and frustration. It has, at times, led to feelings of complacency, despair and helplessness. Despite these terrible situations and the effects, she believes that this has made her a stronger woman. She hopes for a better future for her and her children. Her message is that we must acknowledge the inequities and affect change for a just society where racism is defeated.
Imram Amil, is a former MG-19 fighter pilot from Pakistan. He and his family emigrated to Canada 21 years ago. He talked about the devastating effects of stereotyping and racial slurs. He described them as belittling, demeaning and hurtful. As a new Canadian, notwithstanding his professional accomplishments, he, like many other immigrants were/are marginalized. Like others (many of whom drive cabs then and today) he had to start from the bottom and work his way up.
He and his family were the subject of severe racial profiling and abuse. He recounts his family’s story of interrogation and harassment by Canadian and U.S. authorities after 9-11.
He provided detail of the ominous experience that left his family terrified and isolated as he was questioned about his military training and expertise, associations with militants and Al-Qaeda (none!). To add insult to injury he became the butt of jokes in his workplace, referred to as their "resident terrorist". He notes that for him and many Muslims this was a very dangerous time. In fact, it still is a dangerous time to be a Muslim and that racism has had a very detrimental effect on Muslims. It has led to reduced numbers at mosques and persistent feelings of persecution by many Muslims.
Knia Singh is a Lawyer and a Social Activist. He has run for office a number of times, most recently as a mayoral candidate in 2018. He fights to protect the rights of those whose lives are in jeopardy due to systemic and institutional racism. He spoke of the way that black people are perceived.
Notwithstanding the fact that people of colour come from a diverse group of rich cultural backgrounds (he cited Africa where more than 2000 languages are spoken), black people, unlike many other distinct cultures are all “lumped into one group”.
Knia impressed upon us the realities of being a young black person and the prejudices suffered at the hands of authorities. He talked about “feeling responsible for others who look like him” and the perception of black people as criminals, sexual predators or someone not to be trusted. He noted that he has never had a criminal record in 40 years and that he worked his way through law school as a mature student and has run for office in hopes of improving the lives of others. His life’s work is focused on helping others fight for justice. Yet when he applied for the Ride Along program with the police department, he was denied. The reason: he allegedly associated with the criminal element. In fact, he ran a charitable venture that focused on music for black youth. Notwithstanding outrage and support by two Judges that he studied under, he was still denied. His case is pending in the Human Rights Tribunal. Knia noted, as did our other speakers, that as non-whites they had to work ten times as hard to achieve their goals. And continue to do so.
Geoffrey relayed many questions from Rotarians and guests for our speakers striving for better understanding of the injustice of racism and its terrible effects and how we can be part of the solution. It is evident that we, as Rotarians, and everyone in society must open our eyes to the history of, and ongoing injustices due to Racism. We have only scratched the surface and it is imperative we heed the call to action. We must all be part of the solution to the pervasive inequities by acknowledging injustice, resolving to be part of the end of systemic and institutional racism. Enough is Enough: Stop Racism series continues next week with the topic, Exploring Systemic Racism Today. Join us!
The full meeting (and others) are available for viewing at
We are here for the long term so please join in. All events are listed on our Google Calendar accessible through your @rotarytoronto.com account or find the emails sent out in advance. Contact Maureen Bird to set up your access. 416-804-3726.
SERVICE ABOVE SELF
The Rotary Club of Toronto, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, H Level
