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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – Omar Latif Memorial Award for Justice and Peace

Deadline for nominations: 30 October, 2022.
APPLICATION FORM IS HERE

1. Purpose

2022 marks the inauguration of the Omar Latif Memorial Award for Justice and Peace. It is in memory of Omar Latif, the driving force behind the Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians (CPPC).

2. Eligibility

  • Individuals or organisations who are doing progressive work with an eye towards creating systemic change.
  • The nominee(s) should be able to fit within the broader organisational values of the CPPC and should not contravene any of them.
  • Nominees are required to write an essay of 500 word maximum explaining how:
  • Their work fits into CPPC’s vision and values
  • Their work is geared towards or supports creating systemic change

Any individual or Canadian organisation based in Canada is eligible to be nominated to receive the Omar Latif Memorial Award for Justice and Peace. The Award may be granted to more than one individual (for instance, the members of an organisation) where it is clearly demonstrated that the nominees have individually and collectively met the selection criteria.

The award may be given retroactively at the discretion of the jury and the Board.

A nomination can be made posthumously.

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Withdraw the deportation order for Zain Haq

Withdraw the deportation orders of Zain Haq

To: The Honourable Sean Fraser Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship

Dear Mr. Fraser,

Zain Haq, who is an international student from Pakistan in the third-year History Major course at Simon
Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, and is a co-founder of Save Old Growth (SOG), is fearful the
Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) will deport him. CBSA officers visited his apartment twice when
he was not home and left a letter for him with his roommate ordering Haq to attend the CBSA offices
next morning or risk arrest. He received the letter in the morning and did not have time to respond or
seek legal assistance. He intends to present himself to the border agency once he has obtained legal
counsel. The probable reason behind the deportation order is his work and activism with SOG.

Save Old Growth (SOG) is a movement of young climate justice advocates who mobilize masses and try
to raise voices loud enough to reach the legislative authorities and policy makers in the government at
the state level. They organize peaceful civil resistance campaigns as one of the advocacy tools. They are
currently organizing a civil resistance campaign to end old-growth logging in BC with only one demand,
i.e, “Pass legislation to immediately end all Old Growth logging in the province of British Columbia ''.

SOG’s website clearly states their purpose and provides information on their information sessions on
non-violence trainings.

Civil resistance campaigns are common in east and west alike, and are a centuries old tactic for building
pressure on the governments. People who organize these and participate in these campaigns are those
who want to change the world for the better.

Haq and his group members are not committing a crime by organizing peaceful non-violent protests to
save the forests that are at the risk of extinction at the hands of the BC government.

Canada is a democratic country and no democracy restricts the right of peaceful assembly and right of
political opinion. The Canadian government must exercise high levels of democratic ethics. Students
from all over the world come to Canada for education but they also contribute to the culture and
diversity of this country, and Haq is no exception.

Peaceful civil resistance is no crime.
The Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians (CPPC) strongly demands the Government of Canada
withdraw the deportation orders of Zain Haq, and stop CBSA officials from raiding his apartment. He
must be able to complete his education at the SFU and be allowed to participate in the peaceful
mobilization activities with his students group at the university and at Save Old Growth.

Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians
Dated June 21, 2022

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CC: Honourable John Horgan, Premier British Columbia Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Inidgenous Relations Honourable David Eby, Attorney General of British Columbia Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

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For more information on Zain Haq, click here

Omar Latif Memorial Award

https://www.gofundme.com/f/annual-omar-latif-memorial-award?qid=d9f5d43e83b45ee9e6b8aede59c62f48

When our dear comrade Omar Latif passed away on 10 August, 2021, we were devastated. The Executive of the Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians agreed to an annual recognition of activism to an individual or organization who best demonstrates the principles and ideals Omar and the CPPC stand for.

We would like to award this prize annually so Omar’s name and legacy can continue on every year. As part of the process, we would like our audiences to nominate individuals or organisations who best illustrate the principles Omar lived each and every day of his life. Please visit the GoFundMe campaign page to find out more.

Omar Latif crosses over (1952-2021)

10 August, 2021 – The Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians is staggered at the loss of our dear comrade Omar Latif.

To say we are shattered does not express the depth of our loss.As many know, and we have shared, Omar had some health challenges of late, but we were optimistic about his recovery. After surgery, despite complications, he was in stable condition.

A short while ago, doctors removed his breathing tube and were prepared to intervene with a medical procedure, but there were complications.

After speaking with Omar, he asked to stop all interventions and after a while peacefully passed away.

We know he touched many people in many parts of the world and know that you share in the tragedy of his loss.

The CPPC will plan an event to remember Omar – his work, his vision, his activism and his great big heart. We will let you know, but for now we would like to take some time to grieve.

We will post here, on our Facebook page and on our Twitter account when we have details of a funeral or a gathering in his memory. Until then, kindly be patient.

Will Pakistan see political change in 2021 – with Alia Amirali

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpakistanicanadians%2Fvideos%2F423633848755858%2F&show_text=true&width=560

This talk was live-streamed on Facebook

Saturday, Jan 23 -1 pm Ontario & Quebec time
10 am British Columbia, 11 am Mountain, 2 pm Atlantic
(England 6 pm; Pakistan 11 pm; India 11.30 pm)

Link   fb.me/pakistanicanadians

ALIA AMIRALI, an intellectual-activist is a notable figure in the left Awami (Peoples) Workers Party (AWP).

She was actively involved in the Lawyers’ Movement against General Musharraf’s ’emergency’ rule and has been a strong advocate for the restoration of student unions banned by another military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq. She played an active role in the rebuilding of the progressive National Students Federation (NSF) of which she served as former General Secretary (Punjab).

Ms. Amirali is also a feminist scholar currently doing a PhD in Gender Studies.

An Evening with Dimitri Lascaris and the CPPC

The Green Party of Canada is having an election to choose a leader to replace Elizabeth May.

Dimitri Lascaris is one of the candidates for the leadership post. His many bold and radical proposals will be of interest to many, including Pakistani-Canadians, South Asians and other immigrant communities.

Please join us to hear Dimitri on the Environment, Indigenous People’s Rights, Economy Social Justice, Canada’s Military Budget, NATO, Police Reforms, Proportional Representation, Rights of Palestinians, Workers Rights and more.

There will be a question period session too.

MISSING: Enforced Disappearances and Extra-Judicial Killings in Pakistan

Join us via Zoom on our facebook page:
fb.me/pakistanicanadians

Sunday, 20 September, 2020
1:00 pm (EST) • 11:00 am (MST)• 10:00 am (PST)


Harris Khalique
a long-time activist, is the Secretary-General of the premiere human rights organization in the country, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Salman Haider
a poet and writer of note, was abducted and brutalized by Pakistan’s security agencies in 2017. He now lives in Canada.

Muslims Not To Be Trusted?

The Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians (CPPC) is alarmed at the findings of a survey commissioned jointly by the Association for Canadian Studies, Montreal, and the Race Relations Foundation, Toronto. The results of the poll reported by the media, including The Ottawa Citizen and The Vancouver Sun on March 21, 2012 disclose that “more than half of Canadians mistrust Muslims,” and another large proportion of them believe that discrimination against Muslims is “their own fault.”

There is no doubt that these findings represent what sociologists call stereotypes which are defined as  distorted pictures in mind, not based on correct and verifiable information. Yet it is disturbing to note that so many Canadians (52 % according to the survey) hold negative views of Muslims which can generate hatred and even violence against a minority group identified on the basis of religion. Needless to say that such negative stereotypes also pose a serious threat to Canada’s long standing policy of multiculturalism aimed at promoting national unity and social harmony.

Stereotypes are known to be social constructions that serve the interests of those who create and promote them. As such it is important to know why a particular stereotype was created, by whom and for what purpose?

Muslims in North America have been increasingly subjected to such negative stereotyping since 9/11 when the powerful US administration decided to wage its ill-conceived global war on terror. This global war was launched with President George W. Bush declaring famously that “you’re either with us or against us,” thus pre-empting any rational assessment of its objectives and consequences. Today, a decade later and untold thousands of lives lost, mostly those of men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan who had nothing to do with 9/11, the war has produced little by way of peace or security but a lot of angry and frustrated individuals.

The most recent example of this anger and frustration is represented by the actions of Frenchman of Algerian origin, Mohamed Merah who is reported to have shot dead a teacher and two students in a French school along with a few soldiers of his own ethnic background, and the American Army Staff Sgt., Robert Bales, who went on a killing rampage earlier on March 11, shooting to death 17 Afghan farmers including several children.

What is obviously common in the brutal actions of the duo is the malaise of post-9/11 times poisoned deeply by the war on terror. Yet one is astounded by the portrayal of the stories of Roberts and Mohameds of our blighted times in the form of two very different narratives by the world-dominant Western media. Whereas Robert Bale’s killing spree is invariably attributed to his possible suffering from PSTD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) with no reference to his religion or that of his victims, there is rarely a report that fails to identify the religion of Mohamed Merah and four of his Jewish victims. This is stereotyping at its meticulous best aimed at making sure that the connection between the villainous act of Merah and his religion is not lost on anyone.

We at the CPPC believe that the best way to promote peace and harmony in Canada’s multi-ethnic society and to prevent social phobias, including Islamophobia is to abstain from making stereotypical invidious distinctions between people on the basis of religion, colour, class and gender no mater in what situations they are caught.

The Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians (the CPPC) is a non-profit organization of the Canadians of Pakistani origin who are committed to the values and ideals of socialist democracy, pluralism, and peace.

Faiz as a Trade Unionist

Rauf Malik, Surkh Parcham,, March/April, 2011 issue.
Translated from Urdu by Prof. Hassan N. Gardezi

This year Faiz would have been 100 years old were he still alive. Much is being written regarding his literary skills, poetic genius and social thoughts on this centenary of his birth, and more will be written in the future. But this writer is neither a literary critic nor a social analyst to comment on the beauty and value of Faiz’s literary and other enlightening works.

In these lines there will be an account of some aspects of Faiz’s life which have generally remained out of sight. In addition to being a great poet and intellectual Faiz was a member of our society who, not only was keenly aware of the living conditions of various layers and classes, he was also involved in frequent struggles to improve these conditions as an activist. Continue reading