Hosted by: SIETAR BC  in partnership with BCCIE 
Sponsored by:  Vancouver Island University     
Platform: GoToWebinar
Cost: Free
 
This webinar will provide a venue to discuss strategies for dealing with xenophobic attitudes and behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly towards ethnic cohorts present throughout Canadian society, including international students, immigrants, or visitors to Canada. This webinar will offer strategies to those who are targeted, bystanders, and those who support and work with them including instructors, student support teams, community and integration support workers, health care professionals and friends and family.

Objective of this webinar
To open up a discussion about how we can build unity through effectively addressing racist attitudes and behaviour as well as how we can best support those targeted. Participants will learn strategies to effectively respond to xenophobic situations from the perspective of the person who is targeted, as a bystander, or as an educator. Participants will receive a downloadable worksheet to support their learning.
 
Background
A recent survey conducted by the Canadian Bureau for International Education reports “increased racial prejudices on campus [and] in local communities” following the onset of COVID-19. The pandemic also tends to have a disproportionate impact on the most marginalized people in our communities, not only from a health perspective, but from one of societal perception. Not only has it led to illness and mortality, it has had a significant impact on the health, well-being, and sense of belonging for the multitudes directly and indirectly affected.
 
Presenters
Jessie Sutherland  
Jessie Sutherland, M.A in Dispute Resolution, is an International Speaker and Trainer, Director of Intercultural Strategies, and founder and innovator of the award-winning “Belonging Matters” dialogue and capacity building program. Jessie is also the author of the best-selling bookWorldview Skills: Transforming Conflict from the Inside Out. Intercultural Strategies offers speaking, training and strategic consulting packages for organizations working with diverse communities on engaging diversity, building a culture of belonging, and fostering intercultural collaboration. Jessie is currently working as the lead consultant on a number of projects.

Queenie Choo
Being a strong advocate for others is a thread that has continued throughout Queenie Choo’s career. She is the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., now the largest non-profit social service organization in Canada, which provides settlement services to new immigrants through 30 locations in BC, and pre-arrival services overseas. Her career in advocacy has seen her appointed to many advisory committees, including the Premier’s Chinese-Canadian Community Advisory Committee, the provincial Minister’s Advisory Forum on Poverty Reduction, OmniTV Community Advisory Board, Diversity Council to the Joint Task Force Pacific (National Defence Public Affairs), and most recently the Premier’s Economic Recovery Task Force. 

Register by 4:00 PM April 27, 2020. For any questions, please contact the organizers at events@bccie.bc.ca