Legal Leaders for Diversity and Inclusion – August, 2017

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Greetings from your new Executive.  We hope you are having a wonderful summer!

We held our first meeting as an Executive and decided to appoint an Executive Sponsor for each of the following 9 Pillars: LFDIN (Ken), Gender (Sarah), LGBTQ (Paul), Racialized Lawyers (TBD), Outreach to Affinity Groups (Fernando), People with Disabilities (Tracy), Indigenous (Jeffery/Terra/Ken), PwD Scholarship Program (Daniel), and Mentoring (Annelle).  Each Pillar owner will be establishing a working committee to address each of the Pillars and they are looking for volunteers.  If there is a particular interest you or a senior member of your team has, don’t be shy!

• Ken Fredeen (Deloitte)-President.
• Sarah Qadeer (Home Depot) Secretary and incoming President as of July 1 2018.
• Barry Tyndall (Shell)- Calgary
• Annelle Wilkins (HSBC)- Vancouver
• Jeffery Hewitt (Chippewas of Rama First Nation)
• Melissa Kennedy (Sunlife)
• Fernando Garcia (Nissan)
• Daniel Desjardins (Bombardier)
• Tracy Ross (Senior VP Law, RBC)
• Paul Noble (Senior VP Law, BMO)
• Terra Rebick (Thomson Reuters)

Thanks to the new members and a big thank you to Dorothy Quann and Mark Hemmingway, who are stepping off of the Executive and both of whom have played critical roles in the formation and growth of LLD.

The Executive also felt that it was time to create an annual $500 membership fee.  Increasingly we need money to create the programing and hold the events, which we think are important to our success, the most recent being the Indigenous project.  In a separate email you will receive information on the fee and directions on how to pay.  This funding is important for our impactful work.

The Executive will also be conducting a member survey.  So stay tuned!

We are still basking in the fading light of our well attended 6^th Anniversary Celebration.  For those of you who missed it, attached is our 6^th Anniversary Report Card.  The Report Card is significant in that it transparently reflects both what we have and have not accomplished in the year!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Diversity observances

• August 1 – Tish’a B’Av (Jewish). It is a day of mourning and fasting to mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E.
• August 6 – Hiroshima Day (Canada, Japan). This solemn day commemorates the day that United States dropped the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. People from different backgrounds unite on this day to declare their commitment to never letting another nuclear bomb be used against humans again.
• August 9 – International Day of the World’s Indigenous People (UN). In 1994, The United Nations General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples shall be observed on 9 August every year. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
• August 12 – International Youth Day (UN). Since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2250 in 2015, there is growing recognition that as agents of change, young people are critical actors in conflict prevention and sustaining peace. International Youth Day 2017 is dedicated to celebrating young people’s contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace. The theme of International Youth Day 2017 is Youth Building Peace.
• August 15 – Assumption (Christian). This refers to Mary’s death and ascent to heaven and is celebrated by Catholic and Orthodox faiths. Sicilian-Canadians hold an outdoor procession for the Madonna del Assunta, Polish-Canadians celebrate the Feast of the Mother of God of the herbs, an early harvest festival, Armenian Orthodox bless the first grapes of the season, Ukrainians take flowers to the church to be blessed.
• August 19 – World Humanitarian Day (UN). World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity to celebrate the spirit that inspires humanitarian work around the globe.
• August 31 – Day of Hajj (Muslim).  Muslims perform the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrimage is one of the five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims are expected to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime if they have the physical and financial capacity. About 6 million Muslims from over 70 countries journey to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. In one of the rites of the Hajj, pilgrims move in a circular, counterclockwise procession around the Ka’bah.

Other religious and cultural dates to note