DiversiPro

Happy Autism Awareness Day! There are many ways of thinking and seeing the world and the more we include the bigger and more beautiful our lives and workplaces can be!!

Celebrating Sikh Heritage Month with this note from Gurpreet Kaur Sodhi, DiversiPro Associate:

As a Sikh Canadian woman born and raised on this wonderful land, I have had my struggles with racism due to my faith and skin colour. I have been subjected to micro-aggressions, the most common being getting asked where I am from originally. (For the record, I am from Bowmanville, Ontario!) In recent years I have been able to use my voice to educate organizations and individuals on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism. When someone tries to downplay the racism I have experienced throughout my life, I remember what Hamlin Grange, the Founder and Principal Consultant of DiversiPro, reminds us “To fix it, you must uncover and name it.” I will not ignore it.

Naming it also mean acknowledging the role of Sikhs in the history and heritage of Canada. One of the most profound part of Canadian history and heritage was when Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald penned a letter to a friend in India in 1867 in which he wrote “War will come someday between England and the United States and India can do us yeoman's service by sending an army of Sikhs ... across the Pacific to San Francisco and holding that beautiful and immortal city with the surrounding California — as security for Montreal and Canada." Then in 2015, our Defence Department was led by a Sikh man.

The historic Canadian election in 2015 elected 14 Sikh members to the Parliament of Canada with 4 in Cabinet. The Cabinet members included Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan, a former police officer and military veteran; Amarjeet Sohi, the spokesperson for the Local 569 of the Amalgamated Transit Union became the Minister of Infrastructure; Navdeep Bains, 38, a business school professor became the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic development; and Bardish Chagger, 35, the Special Projects Coordinator became in as Minister of Small Business and Tourism.