What great news!
Want to know the good news? Yes, I imagine! You just had to be present on January 25, 2020, at
the Lausanne Community Center to find out, as agreed!
Well, if you read me through the end, maybe you’ll be in the know if I give you a second chance. Before presenting this report, we must mention that this magnificent evening was brilliantly animated by the fabulous executive director, Mrs. Dorcas Destinoble. She gave us a brief history of Femmes en Emploi and its accomplishments over the past five years, and she congratulated, once again, the dedication, the commitment and the excellent work that her team does to serve the clientele of Laval and elsewhere.
And by the way, Femmes en Emploi has welcomed a new member to its team: Carène Désir is the new Logistics Manager of FEE.
Moreover, it is remarkable to underline that Femmes en Emploi gives itself the mission to help women to better blossom by integrating the job market. Among other things, this organization is also interested in the cause of responsible consumption and the environment. Also, we were made aware by two guests, Mrs. Danielle Landreville and her colleague Karine Pelletier, of better protecting our environment while creating responsible consumption.
How can we do this? By reducing our waste as much as possible and making it our way of life. They gave us a nice presentation of their initiative that they call consumption: Zero Waste. They emphasized the benefits for our planet and our environment and the economic side of making it a way of life. So, according to them, we will only be winners on the whole line.
And the whole thing was summarized by five axes or 5 R’s
1. Refuse: refuse all plastic, for example, bags, glasses, plates, cups, etc.
2. Reduce: get rid of unnecessary things, or ask yourself: do we really need a new object?
3. Reuse: we reuse the objects we already have at home like glass jars and reusable bags to do our shopping and use zero-waste products.
4. Rot (English): transform our food waste into organic waste, which benefits the earth.
5. Repair: instead of acquiring a new non-essential object, give a second life to our used things.
Indeed, these two women presented us with their creations of everyday items, made from recyclable and reusable materials such as jewelry, towels to remove make-up, snack bags for young people, placemats, washable and reusable paper towels. Interestingly, the paper towel roll in question would replace 17 rolls of disposable paper towels, saving 40%, they say. Impressive, no?
Congratulations to Karine Pelletier and Danièle Landreville for this new collaboration with Femmes en Emploi.
I also loved the canapés and desserts from Bouchées d’Angie; wow, you didn’t only miss the good news.
To get closer to the good news, one of the causes that Femmes en Emploi takes to heart is the over-representation of young black Quebecers, especially those of Haitian origin, at the DPJ, due to abusive reporting. Thus, to address this issue, as usual, Femmes en Emploi, which has always surrounded itself with the best collaborators, called upon the expertise of the sociologist, Mr. Christian Vilney, who presented his conference on the following theme: Policies and practices of integration of young people of Haitian origin and blacks. How to reduce or eliminate the causes of reporting to the DPJ?
From the outset, Mr. Vilney explained that it is essential, even crucial, to make the difference between integration practice and integration policy to deal with this issue. As a policy in Quebec, he recalled section 10 of the Quebec Charter, which condemns discrimination. However, bias is well and truly present in everyday life. So why this overrepresentation of young Quebecers of Haitian origin at the DPJ? He answered by quoting Bernard Léonel, who also took an interest in this question. According to him, the cause of this overrepresentation is purely and simply discrimination based on two things:
– Skin colour (darker). – Poverty.
In school or textbooks, young black people feel discriminated against or feel like outsiders. Nothing in history makes any reference to the achievements of black people; they are excluded. And Vilney pointed out that the result of such a state of affairs, according to Rousseau, is that the young black person distrusts everything that represents authority, and as a result, may adopt marginal behaviours. In addition, in many cases, young blacks find that their educated parents do not hold positions equivalent to their professional training. So they conclude that education is useless. Hence their marginal behaviour, which often leads them to delinquency. They see themselves punished by the same system that is supposed to protect them by its policies. They rebel, realizing that they are treated differently. Mr. Vilney concluded by insisting that to make these young people responsible citizens, parents must teach them frankly the difference between policies and practices and that the interveners must apply the policies in their interventions to integrate young black Quebecers into society properly.
In conclusion, the good news is that Femmes en Emploi has received confirmation from the MIFI (Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Intégration) that the GPIL project (Groupe de partage Interculturel de Laval), conceived to respond to the problem of the over-representation of young Quebecers of Haitian origin at the DPJ, will be financed by the latter.
Twenty-four (24) meetings-exchanges are planned over 12 months with immigrant parents. GPIL is committed to:
-Never impose the educational standards of the host society on immigrant parents;
-Allow parents to discuss the cultural differences between the two societies concerning the education of their children;
Never force a parent to adapt to a pre-established educational model without understanding it; -Helping the parent to convince themselves to use other methods that are more effective than functional.
The MIFI came up with financing for this project, which comes to answer a problem that disturbs the framework of the life of our young Afrodescendants and who are part of tomorrow’s future. The amount of the grant is $94,123.
And so, it is on this good news that this magnificent evening ended!
We look forward to seeing you on February 7 at the Lausanne Community Center from 6 to 8 pm for the first GPIL meeting, under the theme: What if we left some practices at the border!
Danielle De. V.
Photo credit: Frantz Corvil
