UFV’s Peace and Reconciliation Centre held a virtual launch this week featuring an announcement of new funds, talks from dignitaries
UFV’s Peace and Reconciliation Centre (PARC) held its official launch event virtually Thursday, with talks from notable community members as well as some new information about the centre’s future efforts.
The launch event was held via Zoom video conference and featured talks from Grand Chief Steven Point, former lieutenant governor of B.C., and Bob Rae, ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations.
Although the PARC has been operating in some capacity for over a year now and has already held events concerning domestic violence and peacekeeping in Central America, the launch event officially marks the centre’s opening.
Keith Carlson, Canada research chair in Indigenous and community-engaged history and chair of PARC, began the event with a territory acknowledgement before delving into his vision for the centre’s future.
“At PARC, we commit to contributing ideas, energy, and action to the process of breaking apart white privilege and racism, and … recognize that deeply ingrained biases and prejudice continue to work to marginalize women, children, and members of the LGBTQ+ communities,” he said.
“Edmund Burke once observed that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,” Carlson later continued. “UFV’s PARC will be characterized by people who do something. A visionary advisory committee of academic and community leaders conceptualize the centre to be inclusive, supportive, and a peaceful place for people to approach differences, conflicts, and the challenges of life in a way that works for the good of the individual, the community, and the world we live in.”
Carlson made it clear that PARC hopes to be a space to address a variety of social justice issues, including but not limited to Indigenous and LGBTQ+ issues, climate change, and domestic violence. “We are not pre-determining or pre-defining the topics that need to be addressed or the means to address them,” he told the (virtually) gathered audience. “We look to you to bring your questions and concerns and priorities.”
Carlson also announced that as of Thursday’s launch, PARC is offering several funds that “put resources into the hands of faculty, students, and community-based artists and researchers who have ideas about how to build peace and reconciliation.” Funding for this new initiative comes from the Oikodome Foundation, who announced a $100,000 donation toward the PARC last November.
Details about these new scholarship and grant opportunities are now available on the PARC website, with funding options for students, faculty and researchers, and community members.
Photo: UFV Flickr, Steven Point in photograph
