{"id":25877,"date":"2020-02-07T12:35:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25877"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:35:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:35:37","slug":"being-black-in-canada-discussion-should-spur-action-says-panellist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/being-black-in-canada-discussion-should-spur-action-says-panellist\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Black in Canada: Discussion should spur action, says panellist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is important to have conversations, but it is so\nimportant to move beyond conversations to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the view of Jacqueline Benn-John, Executive Director\nof the Women\u2019s Support Network of York Region. On Thursday, February 20, Ms.\nBenn-John will join musician Glenn Marais and former York Region District\nSchool Board trustee Tessa Benn-Ireland on stage at the Aurora Public Library\nfor In Conversation: Being Black in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held in conjunction with Black History Month, Being Black\nin Canada will delve into contemporary challenges and celebrations experienced\nby Black people today \u2013 including race and economic mobility, systemic\ndiscrimination and the arts and culture scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to participate in this panel because I thought\nit is very important to profile the contributions of Black people in Canada,\nbut also talk about some of the ongoing challenges and issues that Black people\nface today in Canada,\u201d says Ms. Benn-John. \u201cI really liked the fact there was\nan opportunity to create this awareness. Black History Month is often a time\nwhen people are talking about all the wonderful contributions of Black people\nin Canada and I think, in addition, there continues to be a number of\nchallenges and I just loved the chance to be a part of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Benn-John has been working in the women\u2019s\nanti-violence sector for more than two decades and has a passion about\naddressing gender-based violence, equity and access for all women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She first joined the Women\u2019s Support Network of York\nRegion, York Region\u2019s only sexual violence crisis centre, in 2012, a stint\nwhich lasted until 2014. She returned to the organization as Executive Director\nthis past fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was excited to be back with an organization that cares\nso deeply about gender-based violence and bringing an end to it, but also\nhaving the opportunity to really raise awareness about the issues of sexual\nviolence in York Region and sex trafficking,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought it was a\ngreat opportunity to be a part of an organization that has actually been a\nleader in Ontario with the Safe Passages Program in addressing sex trafficking,\nbut also to look at how to end these forms of violence against women. We\ncontinue providing counselling and support to victims who have been affected by\nthese crimes, but I think it is equally important to raise awareness and try to\nbring an end and protect against these forms of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education, she says, will go a long way in this regard,\nwhich is also why she says the February 20 panel is important to her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOftentimes you hear \u2018Oh, slavery has ended,\u2019 and with\ncolonialism, they think these aren\u2019t issues we\u2019re still dealing with today, but\nI think they manifest in different forms,\u201d she says. \u201cThese are issues that are\nstill taking place\u2026in our communities today. It is not another part of our\nworld, we have these problems right here in York Region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One only has to look as far as the Women\u2019s Support\nNetwork for examples of this. While Ms. Benn-John says that violence effects\nall women in all communities, with survivors of violence representing every\nbackground, gender and sexual orientation, access to justice can be another\nstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some groups have less access to not only justice, but\ncommunity resources and support systems. English might not be their first\nlanguage, which adds another layer of challenge \u2013 particularly with the healing\nprocess, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a very low conviction rate when it comes to\nsexual assault, she adds, noting it is also the most under-reported crime.\nSurvivors often don\u2019t want to be \u201cre-victimized by engaging with the justice\nsystem\u201d if there is inequality to contend with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think an opportunity to have this type of conversation\nis very valuable,\u201d she says. \u201cThis panel discussion is for the entire\ncommunity, not just for Black people and I think it can be inspirational to\nhear the other panellists and to glean insights from their unique experiences,\nwhich can be valuable for teens and adults. From my social justice roots, I\nthink it is important to move beyond conversations. When we think about how we\ncan use our privilege to bring about changes, to be allies and supportive of\nothers and their work, or what is taking place because, again, we can come out\nand hear a really interesting panel discussion but hopefully it can inspire\nfolks to stay engaged in conversation and also in addressing some of the\nchallenges that still persist in our community for Black people in Canada and\nothers. The feature of this panel might be focused on Black history, but we\nknow there are a number of challenges and barriers out there that other\nracialized and marginalized communities experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being Black in Canada will take place at the Aurora Public Library on Thursday, February 20, from 7 \u2013 8.30 p.m. Admission is free, but registration is encouraged to reserve a seat. To do so, visit aurorapl.ca or call 905-727-9494 x230.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is important to have conversations, but it is so important to move beyond conversations to take action. This is the view of Jacqueline Benn-John, Executive Director of the Women\u2019s Support Network of York Region. On Thursday, February 20, Ms. Benn-John will join musician Glenn Marais and former York Region District School Board trustee Tessa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Jn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 16:00:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}