Gibril Koroma, editor and publisher of the Patriotic Vanguard and Afri-Can magazine, attended a dialogue session in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, over the weekend on Canada’s role in the world. The dialogue was organized by Canada’s World, a Canadian non-govermental organization.
The session was held at the University of Ottawa. Here is the purpose of the dialogue as outlined by Elodie Jacquet, Canada’s World’s Outreach Coordinator:
The national dialogue session, ... held in Ottawa at the end of January, (brought) together 40 citizens from across the country to discuss a new narrative for Canada in the world. The citizens have been selected based on three criteria:
1. Demographics
2. Participation in a previous Canada’s World dialogue
3. Ability to constructively participate in a citizen led dialogue.
The session (was) facilitated by professionals and ... (focused) on building on the work of our regional dialogues in creating a robust, future oriented vision for Canada in the world. This new story of Canada in the World will be formally launched and communicated to Canadians, government policy makers, the media and businesses.
Canada’s World is housed at the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. The Centre for Dialogue is an intellectual home and an advocate for dialogue - the process of interaction whereby open discussion leads to mutual understanding and positive action. Instead of producing one right answer, dialogue aims at finding common ground through processes of learning and engagement.
The intention of dialogue is to produce shared understandings, sometimes as a precursor to decision-making, sometimes as an outcome in itself. At the Centre, practitioners, researchers and students of dialogue probe the nature of dialogue and nurture it in practice.
More on the dialogue session later.
Photo: Editor Gibril Koroma.
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