The Alberta Somali Community Center and the Canadian Somali Congress recently hosted an advocacy awareness event for the Canadian Somali community in Alberta. This event was meant to present three urgent tasks that the community will focus on in order to deal with some of the challenges that it is facing in Alberta.
Advocacy tools presented by the Canadian Somali Congress will be utilized in order to achieve the desired results in the near future. The three main tasks are:
1. Raising the mandatory school attendance age from 16 to 18 years of age in the province of Alberta. This measure has already been successfully introduced in Ontario. Under this plan, a 16 year old who refuses to attend regular classes may be exempted from doing so but will still be compelled to obtain training in a trade such as carpentry, metalwork, welding etc.
2. Work with the Alberta Attorney General and Solicitor General to ensure the allocation of adequate resources necessary to deploy prosecutors and homicide detectives in order to resolve the murder cases of 24 young Canadian Somali men in Alberta
3. Work with the city of Edmonton, the province of Alberta and the government of Canada to enable the full funding of much needed services in the Canadian Somali community in Alberta. The focus of the community will be on those services that will lead to the full integration of Canadian Somalis into the mainstream of Canadian society.
The community will engage elected officials and media in order to publicize these issues. Petitions, telethons, parliamentary submissions, voter registration drives, email days of action, letters to the editor, demonstrations and many other advocacy tools will be utilized in this endeavour.
The Speech – Part 1
Speech Part 2
Click here to view photos of the event:
Watch Videos:
Unveiling the faces of the Canadian Somali Community Edmonton
Part 1
Part 2
part 3
Part 4
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On the Web: www.canadiansomalicongress.com
