Wednesday, February 1, 2023

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• Waterloo marks Black History Month
• Making space for racialized voices
• Facilitating a sense of belonging in the workplace
• WatSPEED brings you up to speed on ChatGPT
• FASS tells you the Other Side of the Story and other notes

Waterloo marks Black History Month

A message from Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor.

The beginning of February marks the start of Black History Month 2023. The University of Waterloo is pleased to celebrate the diversity of people of African descent in Canada and their importance to the history and prosperity of this country. 

While Canada is the strong and thriving country it is today largely because of the incredible diversity of people residing here, there is no doubt that Black people have made, and continue to make significant contributions to the growth and development of our country. 

In 1995, former MP Dr. Jean Augustine, the first Black woman to be elected to parliament, introduced a motion to recognize February as Black History Month, across Canada. Today, Black History Month helps to provide a more complete account of the contributions that generations of Black people have made to Canada, which has historically been ignored. 

Black History Month is a time to celebrate Black Excellence, a term used to describe the individual achievements and successes, contributions and perseverance of the Black community. As we celebrate Black Excellence, we must also reflect on the centuries of struggle and sacrifice that they have endured as a people and continue to face today. The tragic murder of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police and other incidents of hate-motivated violence recently in the news are a terrible and visceral reminder of the plague of racism in our society. 

Beyond the 28 days of February, I urge you to remember that Black people live their Blackness every day. Collectively, they are subjected to racism, discrimination, suspicion, profiling and a myriad of inequities, because of the colour of their skin. I encourage you to reflect on the courage and resilience of our Black community, who have prevailed and thrived in the face of oppression and injustice.  

Although UWaterloo has shown its commitment to confronting Anti-Black racism by signing on to the Scarborough Charter and working to implement the recommendations of the President’s Anti-racism Taskforce (PART), I recognize the tremendous amount of work that we have yet to do to continue to advance Black inclusion.  

Racism and oppression have no room in our community. We must work together to help end racial profiling, eradicate barriers to employment and advancement and dismantle policies and processes that perpetuate disparities during Black History Month, and beyond.  

We need the full commitment and support from the University community to continue to build and sustain a welcoming community that embraces diversity and inclusion. Together, we will overcome discrimination and oppression and create a fairer and more inclusive Canada for all.  

Please take this opportunity to learn more about Black History Month. Visit our Black History Month 2023 website for the latest events and stories.

Making space for racialized voices

This article was originally published as part of the Global Futures report.

Celine Isimbi is an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Environment and works to support equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives across campus. She was formerly the environmental education co-director with Black Girl Environmentalist, a non-profit aimed at creating space for underrepresented voices in the mainstream environmental movement.

The sustainability of our quality of life is intricately connected to our social, economic and environmental well-being. However, the realities of the climate crisis have not impacted everyone equally. We asked Isimbi how we should enact the intersectional changes required to ensure a prosperous future for the planet and everyone on it.

Opinion by Celene Isimbi:

Growing up in South Africa, I saw the lasting impacts of apartheid-era policies. It had been years since the apartheid system ended, yet many Indigenous South Africans and racialized people still did not have access to basic rights and resources to sustain themselves. I constantly wondered how a country could be so abundant in nature while its residents could not easily access clean drinking water or green spaces without being racialized. Those years in South Africa played a significant role in shaping my academics today and my future goals of working towards sustainability and environmental liberation.

There are multiple ways we can rebuild our communities to become more diverse and sustainable. There are steps we can take to address social and political challenges such as addressing unjust government policies that continue the legacy of colonialism and segregation that harm racialized communities, and understanding how our institutions can redress the exclusion of Black, Indigenous and racialized people within academic spaces.

Community-centred and place-based solutions

During my co-op work terms, I worked at the University of Waterloo as an equity project lead in the Centre for Career Action, where I helped implement an EDI framework that centralized the services and resources offered to students. Then as an educational programming assistant in the office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-racism, I assisted with training and staff workshops on EDI and anti-racism in the workplace. Through both placements, I could understand how an institution plans, develops and executes policies and programs around EDI initiatives.

In the summer term of 2020, due to long-time student advocacy and organizing, we witnessed the University create the President’s Anti-racism Taskforce (PART). At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, students were able to encourage the University to take action. As a result, faculty members, students and staff have established a framework to engage the community and address systemic racism across Waterloo campuses. Our individual experiences and intersectional identities allowed us to address the issues on campus and make change happen. Now, the University holds a particular responsibility to students to build sustainable and diverse communities on campus.

I have learned the importance of community-centred and place-based solutions. Advocating for marginalized groups can start small by setting up community fridges and making housing more accessible in local areas. It can allow students with multiple marginalized identities to contribute to EDI initiatives and policymaking. It is imperative to make space for Black, Indigenous and other racialized students to break existing cycles of oppression.

I envision a world where future generations will face fewer barriers in all aspects of life, and that begins with acknowledging how to make space for racialized voices in the sustainability movement. If we can understand the interconnectedness between humanity and nature and acknowledge the history of colonialism and systemic racism, I am hopeful we can finally move toward healing our relationship with nature to create sustainable, diverse communities. I believe hope sustains us in difficult moments while we strive to build a more sustainable future so humanity and the planet can thrive.

Facilitating a sense of belonging in the workplace

This article was originally published in The Catalyst.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and belonging in the workplace to combat bias and discrimination, and to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive, will be a key feature of the Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) inaugural virtual Employer Impact Conference: The Talent Revolution, on February 15, 2023. 

The Employer Impact Conference will provide a platform for attendees to ask questions and engage in meaningful conversations about implementing direct actions to foster belonging, creating an environment of trust and understanding between employees, and building a culture of inclusion and respect, among other topics. 

CEE’s Colleen Phillips-Davis, associate director, EDI and Anti-racism and Bryanne Smart, associate director, Indigenous Relations will both be speakers on “The Journey Forward: Building awareness and capacity for an EDI-R and Indigenization strategy in your organization.” This session will highlight how creating a sense of belonging in the workplace can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction, engagement, and productivity, which will benefit an organization overall. 

“Having conversations about EDI and implementing sustainable direct actions to nurture belonging can create an environment of trust and understanding between employees and support a culture of inclusion and respect,” said Colleen Phillips-Davis. “It is important for employers to make space for these dialogues as this is a key factor in building a diverse and inclusive workplace.” 

“Indigenous communities often say, ‘nothing about us without us’ so including these voices in the evolution of the workplace is important,” said Bryanne Smart. “Acknowledging other ways of knowing and doing is a collective responsibility and we all have a responsibility to move forward with what we know now, and not relying only on the colonized approach to systems.” 

Both Phillips-Davis and Smart look forward to further integrating EDI into outreach and community events and hope that future conferences can focus on increasing representation of traditionally marginalized groups in leadership roles, including speakers, panelists, and keynotes. 

David Markin, senior manager, R&D Algorithms & Analytics, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging lead at Lumentum will be the guest speaker at this session. To register or to learn more about the event, please click here.

Sign up for The Catalyst

WatSPEED brings you up to speed on ChatGPT

A message from WatSPEED.

Join this free webinar, hosted by WatSPEED, on February 16 at 12 noon ET to learn about how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting businesses, governments, and our society. Designed specifically for executives but open to all, this event will highlight the evolution of AI technologies like ChatGPT and their impact on Canada's workforce.  

You will also have an opportunity to get your questions answered by Waterloo.AI expert Jimmy Lin, during a live Q&A session.  

Register now. 

FASS tells you the Other Side of the Story and other notes

History is written by winners, but what about the losers? The FASS Theatre Company (emphatically not made up of losers, according to FASS company coordinator Thomas Broadley) diabolically presents The Other Side of the Story, a not-so-malicious musical comedy redeeming all your favourite villains, from the Big Bad Wolf to Waluigi. Packed to the brim with musical parodies, puns, plot holes, and an alarming amount of cannibalism, FASS’s Winter 2023 performance is sure to huff, puff, and bring the house down.

With this performance, FASS celebrates 61 years of presenting amateur, amateur theatre to the University of Waterloo and the Kitchener-Waterloo region.

The shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. in the Theatre of the Arts. Thursday is pay-what-you-can at the door. Tickets for Friday and Saturday are available online, over the phone (519-888-4908, Monday through Friday, 12 noon to 5:00 p.m.), or at the door. 

FASS's website is down for the count at present, but they are active on Instagram.

Conrad Grebel University College's Noon Hour Concert Series continues today with Navré de ton dart...

The Anima Ensemble, led by Daniel Cabena, will be performing songs of Gilles Binchois and John Bedyngham, with their associated parody Masses — and new adaptations of poetry by Christine de Pizan — this program tells a late-medieval transition story, which is also a story of the progress of love, both sacred and profane.

The event takes place at 12:30 p.m. in the Conrad Grebel University College Chapel and is free and open to the public.

The Ecohydrology Research Group is hosting the 11^th Annual World Wetlands Day Research Symposium as part of World Wetlands Day.

World Wetlands Day (WWD) is celebrated each year on February 2, which marks the day when the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. The Convention is an international government agreement acknowledging the importance of wetlands and plays a central role in the wise use and conservation of these critical ecosystems. To learn more about the Convention, visit https://www.ramsar.org/.

The University of Waterloo’s WWD event is being held in person tonight from 5:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at Federation Hall. The event will consist of a poster session and reception followed by a distinguished lecture by Dr. Line Rochefort and a panel discussion from wetland expert panelists on the topic of Wetland Restoration moderated by Dr. Rochefort.

Dr. Line Rochefort has been a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Université Laval since 1991. She is the leader in peatland ecological restoration in Canada and one of the world's pioneers in this field. She has nearly 170 peer-reviewed scientific papers to her credit. In 1992-1993, Dr. Rochefort founded the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG). This group brings together researchers from several universities, industrial partners and federal and provincial government agencies, creating a fertile and stimulating field of exchange for students and researchers.

Panelists include Dianna Kopansky (United Nations Environment Programme), Marie-Claire LeBlanc (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association), Kristyn Mayner (Ducks Unlimited Canada), Line Rochefort (Université Laval), and Rebecca Rooney (University of Waterloo).

There's still time to register for the lecture and panel discussion.

Also tonight, Dr. Jatin Nathwani and the Balsillie School of International Affairs are hosting “The Age of Anarchy: Navigating a World Where Everyone is Connected and No One is in Charge."

"The old international system may be struggling but a new more decentralized, diffused and democratized global system is emerging," says the note from the Balsillie School. "John Hancock will examine how unprecedented access to information, technological empowerment, and global integration is reshaping world politics – and ask what we can expect from a complex, turbulent global system that’s increasingly run, not by the G7 or the G20, but by the G8 billion."

John Hancock works at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he has served as senior policy advisor to the Director-General, representative to the IMF and World Bank, and head of policy development. He spearheaded the launch of the WTO’s Aid-for-Trade Initiative, as well as the recent ‘Joint Initiatives’ on investment facilitation and other emerging issues. John is a Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. 

The event is open to the public and is being offered in-person at the Balsillie School's CIGI Auditorium and online via Zoom. Register now.

The Board of Trustees at St. Mary’s General Hospital is currently recruiting new Board and Board Committee members.  

"We are seeking applicants from all areas of our diverse community, including members from all faiths, with an emphasis on individuals who have experience in clinical/health systems, quality and safety, DEI and/or faith community leadership experience," says a message from the SMGH Board. "Our governance structure consists of a Board, three formal Board Committees, and one non-standing Board Committee. Currently, we are looking for Board and Board Committee members, to fill a minimum of two vacant positions.

For more information on SMGH and the Board, please visit the website at https://www.smgh.ca/about-us/board-of-trustees/join-our-board-of-trustees andview a video message from Marion Thomson Howell, Board Chair. The deadline to apply is end of day, Friday, February 24, 2023.

Anyone with questions is invited to contact Carol Lammers via email to clammers@smgh.ca.