With the Mosaic Institute of Toronto I am administering a survey for South Asian and Caribbean communities on topics dealing with reconciliation. The project is “Communities of Colour and Reconciliation in Canada” (http://mosaicinstitute.ca/research-page/cocrec/). I worked with Keith Neumann from Environics to compose the survey, which is currently hosted on the Qualtrics platform (https://qsharingeu.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9tMxODNeANTZPGB). We identified approximately 50 organizations in the GTA to whom we have solicited respondents. We are also planning 5-10 focus groups for the upcoming summer semester, with my GSRA Malissa Bryan facilitating these, to be held at Mosaic headquarters in Toronto..
In light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report, their ‘calls to action’ and the wrongs of the Indian Residential Schools, the Mosaic Institute is collaborating with me to launch a new project titled ‘Communities of Colour and Reconciliation in Canada.’ Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, this project involves accessing, surveying, and dialoguing with individuals living in the Greater Toronto Area who identify with the South Asian and/or the Caribbean communities. This project aims to ascertain their understandings and opinions about Canada’s ongoing reconciliation process with Indigenous peoples living in Canada.
Based on Mosaic’s Model of Dialogue, the project will conduct surveys to gauge what extent now, and to what extent in the future, diverse communities living in Canada can contribute to the reconciliation process, if at all. As Canada continues to grow in diversity, we hope to work with relatively new immigrants and second and third generation communities within the GTA, through an understanding of shared experiences of multiculturalism. We are interested in determining what impediments are currently present in Canada, that need to be overcome to allow for contributions to reconciliation to be possible.
