June 20 is World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to commemorate the strength and resilience of refugees around the world and to prompt discussion around refugee human rights and access to health care and education.
We’d like to take this opportunity to re-share our powerful 2016 video series, “Uncommon Courage,” where you can hear the stories of former refugees who came to Campbell River and the Comox Valley.
Elsewhere in B.C., the successes and accomplishments of refugees in Canada are being celebrated by a series of virtual events from June 17-20 organized by the Multi-Agency Partnership (MAP) B.C. The theme of the series is Stories Told – And the Memories They Leave Behind.
The next event (a partnership between MAP BC and the Vancouver Public Library) is June 17 at 7 p.m.: The Power of Stories – A Conversation on Refugees and Literature. Join them for a conversation with three writers who share their stories.
A bit about the writers, shared by MAP BC:
Kim Thuy was born in 1968 in Vietnam, but fled with her family with the boat people at the age of ten, eventually settling in Quebec. Her first novel, Ru, won Canada Reads in 2015. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec.
Samra Habib was born in Pakistan, but fled with her family to Canada at the age of ten after facing religious persecution. She is a writer, photographer, and activist, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate. Her first book, We Have Always Been Here, won Canada Reads in 2020.
Kamal Al-Solaylee is a professor of journalism and literary non-fiction at Ryerson University in Toronto. His nationally bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes won the 2013 Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction as well as the Trillium Book Award. He is also a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards.
Register in advance (free). For more online events to commemorate World Refugee Day, visit the MAP BC website here
