Asian Labour: Local & Global Solidarity

Join us for an evening of intra-Asian solidarity building, featuring leaders advancing justice in BC's labour movement and beyond!

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, rise in white supremacy, and the current political climate we are in, there is an immediate need for Asian workers to come together in a multi-racial struggle towards liberatory justice. What are Asian workers doing to organize their workplaces and the broader labour movement? How does class, race, and gender affect Asian workers organizing in settler-colonial states, and not just Canada? How do we build an intra-Asian coalition locally and globally as we fight for justice in the landscape we’re currently in? Join us in conversation as we explore these questions, featuring leaders advancing justice in BC’s labour movement and beyond.

RSVP: https://asianlabour.eventbrite.ca

*Only registered attendees will receive the Zoom link, which will be emailed prior to the panel.

*This panel will not be recorded. We ask participants to respect others’ privacy by not recording any part of the event (e.g. via video, photography, screenshotting, etc.) unless consent is requested and given.

Featuring:

Hanna Kawas

Hanna Kawas is a Palestinian activist, writer, and journalist who was born in Bethlehem, Palestine. Hanna is the Chairperson of the Canada Palestine Association www.cpavancouver.org and has also been active in anti-war struggles and support work for liberation movements. He has presented to conferences and workshops in UBC, SFU and Kwantlen.

Julie Diesta

My name is Julie Diesta. I’m a founding and a steering committee member of the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights or CDWCR. CDWCR was formed in 1992 as a volunteer, community-based, non-profit organization that provides assistance to foreign care workers in seeking improvements to their employment conditions and immigration status. CDWCR’s mission is shaped by the belief that foreign care workers deserve respect and recognition for the valuable services they provide and their important contributions to the betterment of the Canadian society.

I left the Philippines in 1986 right after the former Dictator President Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown by a peaceful People Power Revolution in Manila, after ruling the country for over 20 years. I worked in Singapore for four years as a domestic worker. When my contract ended in 1990, I applied to work in Canada as a temporary foreign domestic worker under an immigration policy called the Foreign Domestic Movement Program or FDM. While under the program, I joined the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association (DWA) where I became a steering committee member. I met many domestic workers since then.

In 1992, together with other like-minded domestic workers and community activists, we formed the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights or CDWCR. Since 1979, domestic workers and now, care workers, have been calling for Landed Status Now upon arrival in Canada with a slogan, “If we’re good enough to work, we’re good enough to stay.” The increasing solidarity among documented and undocumented migrants under the Canada-wide Migrant Rights Network, led us to collectively call for migrants’ justice rights – Full and Permanent Immigration Status for all migrants who are already here and those upon arrival in Canada.

I now work at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House (SVNH), first as a volunteer since 2012, and now as a fulltime Community Engagement Programmer and Migrant Workers Program Team Lead.

Reah Arora

Reah is a community builder and organizer with a background in electoral politics and cross-pollination with labour. She is one of two daughters of immigrants from Panjab, India, born and raised in Vancouver. Her sense of organizing for justice was instilled in her through her mother's advocacy for the rights of South Asian nurses in the 1970's 80's through the Hospital Employees Union.

She's spent the last decade campaigning across Canada to help elect progressive governments. Reah is passionate about campaigns, worker rights, race equity and engaging and creating space for more progressive racialized women in politics and labour.

She has supported the implementation of key policies that uplift marginalized communities serving in government in the Office of the Premier of Alberta and has organized in community through the legislative assembly in both Edmonton and Burnaby. Reah currently works for the BC Federation of Labour as their Director of Organizing and Campaigns.

Reah's experience has led her to recognize that electoral politics and the labour movement are where the lived and shared experiences of racialized people have maximum impact with respect to equitable legislation and building power through community.

Harinder Mahil

Harinder Mahil has been an anti-racism and human rights activist since 1970’s. Over the last 45 years he has worked for the New Westminster local of the IWA, Province of British Columbia and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).

He was one of the founders of the Canadian Farmworkers’ Union in 1980. He was also one of the founding members of the BC Organization to Fight Racism (BCOFR) which was active in British Columbia during 1980’s and 1990’s.

Presently he is on a pre-retirement leave from his position as Regional Team Lead with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. Since 2003, he has represented professionals employed by the government of Canada.

He served as Chair of the British Columbia Council of Human Rights from 1992-1997 and as Deputy Chief Commissioner of the British Columbia Human Rights Commission from 1997 to 2002. He was acting Chief Commissioner of the British Columbia Human Rights Commission when the previous British Columbia government enacted legislation to dismantle the Commission.

Harinder was a member of the Canadian delegation to the 1993 United Nations’ World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

Presently he is Board member and Secretary of the Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation.