Immigrant and refugee-serving organizations, as well as other organizations working with immigrants, are often system navigators and points of reference for newcomers and local communities. During the pandemic and the shift to remote and digital work, this role had two important sides. One was helping newcomers understand the support available to them from the government and understanding how they could access support from agencies. The second was providing useful, authoritative, up-to-date, and relevant information about COVID itself, and how to deal with the pandemic.
The second has been and still remains a significant challenge. Misinformation and disinformation has flowed at unprecedented rates during the pandemic. Community organizations, health care providers, and communities themselves have struggled with both, a lack of formal system support from government, as well as a changing information landscape. This Language Advocacy Day panel focused on promising practices and lessons learned during the past year, including gaps and unaddressed issues, as well as the creation and distribution of effective multilingual information.
Questions we started with:
Moderator: me!
Panelists:
Background
Inspired by over 40 years of continuous effort by the Joint National Committee for Languages, the objective of the first virtual Canadian Language Advocacy Day (LAD) on February 4th, 2021 is to strengthen the informal coalition between participating language rights advocates, individuals and organizations. The event also aims to establish an ongoing policy forum to explore the role of language within the context of social justice, education, economic recovery and improved access for Canada's changing demographics.
One of the pioneers of advocacy for language rights in Canada, Language Advocacy Day (LAD) began in 2020 as a grassroots initiative committed to creating speaking and networking opportunities that contribute to shaping Canadian language policy and advocacy by including a wide range of perspectives.
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