Building Solidarity Across Movements: An Event with Newcomer Students' Association
Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto and The Newcomer Students’ Association are hosting a series of public forums aimed at mobilizing the immigrant and refugee communities to get involved with different social and environmental justice movements. Building Solidarity Across Movements will feature diverse social justice and grassroots movements to learn how they educate, organize, and mobilize their communities and how they build solidarity across differences and across movements.
Moderator
Andrea Lewis is a Caribbean immigrant and currently a student at the Sister2Sister program at the Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto. She worked with RBC Royal Bank of Canada - Antigua branch for 19+ years, before coming to Canada in 2013. While there, she gained the prestigious title of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Terrorist Financing Specialists (ACAMS). She was the 1st female Retail Banker to hold this title in Antigua. She was also Co-chair of the 1st ever ACAMS Antigua Chapter in 2012. Although Andrea appreciates the experience and knowledge gained via the financial sector, she has now embarked on a different career path. Andrea is channeling her attention towards impacting the life of others in a more direct manner.
Speakers
Nour Alideeb is a Syrian Muslim woman based in Mississauga. She is currently the Executive Director at the UTM Students' Union which represents over 15,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Prior to taking on a staff role, she was an elected representative and served as the Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario from 2017 to 2019. Now as a recent graduate and new mother, she continues to fight for a free, high-quality post-secondary education, publicly owned and funded services like childcare, transit and healthcare, and decent work for all.
Elsie Ikhariale is a Project Lawyer with the Barbra Schlifer Clinic’s #AndMeToo project which provides legal services to women with precarious work or immigration status that experience workplace sexual harassment or assault.
Veronica Zaragoza is a Mexican immigrant who identifies as a lesbian, feminist and activist woman. She graduated from law school in Mexico, and then came to Canada in 2005 as a refugee. Veronica has worked in several precarious jobs, including as a cleaner, factory worker, and in construction. For five years, she fought for and finally gained legal status in Canada. She joined the first Feminist Latin-American Group for Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, Intersex and Trans, Immigrant women in Canada, and now participates in many Latin-American feminist movements. Veronica is currently in the Assaulted Women’s and Children’s Counsellor/Advocate program at George Brown College. She is an organizer at the Workers’ Action Centre, working closely with the Latina Community, undocumented workers, and workers with precarious jobs.
Pascale Diverlus is born of a lineage of Haitian freedom fighters. She is an award-winning community organizer and educator. Pascale’s practice is rooted in reimagining, redefining, and rebuilding a different, better world— liberation through all methods. For nearly a decade, Pascale has stood on the frontlines calling for justice; she is a co-founder and former lead organizer for Black Lives Matter -Toronto, the first international iteration of the Black Lives Matter movement. During her time, Pascale led the movement’s community engagement, curriculum development, public education, and direct action coordination. Previously, she was a student activist on multiple Toronto campuses calling for free education, robust sexual violence policies and police-free campuses. Pascale is the recipient of the J.S Woodsworth Human Rights Award, the Viola Desmond Award and the Evelyn Myrie Political Action Award.