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Harnessing Canada’s Diversityfor Peace and Development AbroadThe Mosaic Institute is a "think and do" tank that collaborates with Canada's ethnocultural communit ies to promote peace and reduce conflict around the world - starting right here at home.

We work to build bridges of understanding and common purpose between Canadians whose countries of ancestry are in conflict. We then draw on their shared commitment to fundamental Canadian values like the promotion of peace, t h e p r a c t i c e o f g o o d

g o v e r n m e n t , a n d t h e protection of minority rights to identify uniquely Canadian s t ra teg ies fo r reso l v i ng entrenched conflicts overseas.

T h e M o s a i c I n s t i t u t e undertakes original research and delivers public education programming in partnership w i th Canada ’s d iaspora communities to help identify practical ideas for advancing g l o b a l p e a c e a n d development. We encourage governments to embrace the ideas generated by Canada’s

g loba l c i t i zens , and we encourage Canada’s global citizens to embrace their own capacity to effect positive change.

The Mosaic Institute also helps build and reinforce b r i d g e s o f t r u s t a n d u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e t w e e n communities in Canada. As such, even while the Mosaic Institute is crafting Canadian solutions to global challenges, it is helping to knit Canadians closer together.

The Mosaic Institute - based in Toronto, one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world - has been a registered Canadian charitable organization since late 2007.

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A Look Back: 2008 to 2012

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The Mosaic Institute’s UofMosaic program began in 2009, at the University of Toronto. It was created as a direct response to the many loud, angry clashes that were taking place on Canadian university campuses at the time between students from different ethnocultural communities whose disagreements were rooted in international conflicts that continued to divide their communities here in Canada. 

Mosaic wanted to create a space where students f rom d iverse b a c k g ro u n d s c o u l d i m p ro v e Canadian inter-community dynamics by having honest, revealing, and constructive discussions about their different perspectives on pressing geopolitical issues and longstanding inter-ethnic conflicts. The UofMosaic model was a lso designed to encourage young Canadians to put dialogue into action, and to seek practical opportunities to reach beyond their own communities to d e m o n s t r a t e t h e i r c o m m o n , Canadian commitment to the practice of good “global citizenship”. 

With the strong financial support of the BMO Financial Group and other donors, the UofMosaic initiative has

since grown to six chapters in three provinces. In the fall of 2011, chapters were establ ished at To ron to ’s Yo rk and Rye rson universities, and, in 2012, they were joined by chapters at Montreal’s McGill and Concordia universities, and at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University.

Throughout any given academic year, these student-led chapters welcome guest speakers, host student discussions, and encourage students from different community backgrounds to participate in g l oba l l y -m inded “commun i t y service” projects. Typically, new chapters begin by hosting general discussions about Canada’s role in the world, and then move towards m u l t i - p a r t , c a m p u s - s p e c i fi c “dialogues” about inter-community conflicts that are relevant to their membership.

In 2010-2011, the first UofMosaic chapter completed a successful dialogue between students of Indian and Pakistani background. In 2011-2012, 100 students from the 3 campuses in Toronto took part in a dialogue about the Middle East, which is still going strong in its

second year at York University. Elsewhere, Ryerson students have been talking about Armenia and Turkey and University of Toronto students are focusing on Sri Lanka.

One of the most exciting community service projects to emerge from the U o f M o s a i c t h u s f a r i s t h e “RefugeAid” project started in 2012. At the end of their year-long dialogue on the Middle East, the UofMosaic he lped s tuden ts f rom the 3 Universities in Toronto to organize themselves to raise funds to help refugees. Together, these students of Arab, Israeli, Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds are raising thousands of dollars in support of the work of Doctors without Borders to assist injured and traumatized victims of war escaping from Syria into northern Lebanon. Together, they are putting the UofMosaic’s intentionally cheeky motto into action: “Build a Bridge, and Get Over It.”

UofMosaic - The Early Years

The UofMosaic is a n e t w o r k o f peace-bui ld ing student chapters at 6 Canadian u n i v e r s i t i e s : York, Ryerson, C o n c o r d i a , McGi l l , S imon Fraser and the U n i v e r s i t y o f To r o n t o . T h e U o f M o s a i c program is made possible by the strong financial support of BMO Financial Group.

Campus dialogue series have included young people from communities connected to the conflicts in Sri Lanka, India-Pakistan, Armenian-Turkey, and the Middle East, among others.T

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In March 2011, after two years of successful development and delivery, the formal portion of the Mosaic Institute's landmark Young Canadians' Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka drew to a close. Many of the young people who participated actively in that initiative and whose perspectives were transformed by it remained deeply committed to working across community divides to promote peace, pluralism and prosperity in Sri Lanka. They established their own consortium, "Build Change" (www.BuildChange.ca), to ensure that the legacy of the Young Canadians' Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka lives on.

As a first "legacy project," the Mosaic Institute helped to arrange a partnership between the young people of BuildChange and the Rotary Club of Colombo South. Together, they are supporting the construction of residential water wells for twenty-five (25) families of internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni region of northeastern Sri Lanka who were left homeless by the civil war. This project will benefit at least 125 people directly and as many as 250 or more indirectly. The members of Build Change surpassed their fundraising goal of $25,000 (CDN) from both corporate donors and their own communities in Spring 2012.

In the summer of 2012 the Mosaic Institute’s Executive Director, accompanied a group of six core leaders from Build Change to Sri Lanka. The objective of the trip – co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and the Eagle Down Foundation – was to obtain a first-hand perspective of the opportunities that exist for Canadian members of the Sri Lankan diaspora to contribute tangibly to the physical and social development of this postwar nation. The principal focus of the tour was to visit sites where the BuildChange team is funding the restoration or construction of well sites. The tour also included visits to humanitarian and development projects in Sri Lanka, meetings with university students and various civil society leaders and organizations, and trips to different regions of the country. 

Since returning to Canada, the young leaders of BuildChange have briefed the governments of both Sri Lanka and Canada about their trip and have submitted a list of 20 substantive policy recommendations to DFAIT at the request of department officials.

Sri Lanka Legacy Project: Build Change

(left) Visiting a potential well site with the Rotary Club of Colombo South and the UN Habitat agency near Killinochi, Sri Lanka.

Participants (below) in the “Sri Lanka 2012 Tour” are committed to developing relationships among the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim Sri Lankan communities on both sides of the world.

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The South Asian-CanadianGlobal Citizenship Project

The Mosaic Institute believes that the best Canadian citizens are also global citizens, and that many of the world's best global citizens are Canadian.

W i th financ ia l suppor t f rom Multiculturalism Canada and the RBC Foundation, the Mosaic Institute first developed its "South Asian-Canadian Global Citizenship Project" (SACGCP) in 2010. This became a multi-year program for young Canadians of South Asian origin, ages 13 to 30, that used a series of dialogues, classroom workshops and community service projects to increase their attachment to Canada and encourage them to become more involved in helping to define and enhance Canada's c o n t r i b u t i o n t o p e a c e a n d development in the world.

In November 2012, the Mosaic Institute received the Award of

Excellence from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for this project.

Between 2010 and 2012, the project directly involved close to 500 young people. This number includes more t h a n 8 5 y o u n g a d u l t s w h o p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e " Yo u n g Canadians' Peace Dialogue on Sri Lanka". It also includes some 250 young people from the Peel District School Board and about 100 from the Toronto District School Board w h o e n j o y e d a s p e c i a l i z e d curriculum exploring the relationship between the responsibilities of

Canadian ci t izenship and the opportunities for Canadians of South Asian descent to demonstrate "global citizenship."

During the first half of 2012, community-based organizations and leaders serving the South Asian communities throughout Greater Toronto were trained on the delivery of this curriculum. In addition, students from Peel and Toronto completed a total of 14 community service projects that embodied the spirit of the South Asian-Canadian Global Citizenship Project.

100% of teachers agreed strongly that the program provided a means of weaving students from diverse backgrounds into the fabric of Canada by providing information T

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2010

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Young Canadians’ Peace Dialogue on Sri LankaIn 2009 The Mosaic Institute initiated a "peace dialogue" for young members of Canada's Tamil, Sinhalese, and Muslim Sri Lankan communities. Under the guidance of an inspiring group of young leaders, the formal part of the initiative unfolded in 2010 and continued into 2011.

After establishing trust with one another and affirming their shared c o m m i t m e n t t o c re a t i n g a respectful, constructive forum for dialogue, the members of the Steer ing Commit tee he lped organize a series of large-group f o r u m s f e a t u r i n g s o m e o f Canada's and the world's foremost authorities on the challenges and opportunities facing Sri Lanka.

Dialogue participants drafted a document entitled "A Canadian Statement on Sri Lanka" which was released to the media in June

2011 and submit ted to both Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canada. The statement included m o r e t h a n 5 0 s i g n a t u r e s representing a cross-section of young Canadian leaders from Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim backgrounds.

Throughout the dialogue process, the Strategic Counsel, a leading Canadian polling firm, measured indices of trust between and among the participants in the initiative. They found that the perception that 'there was a great deal of trust' between the participant communities more than doubled from only one-in-five (19%) in September 2010, to almost 4 in 10 (39%) in March 2011. During the same period, the proportion of respondents who reported that there was limited or no trust among the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim Sri Lankan communities in Canada fell from 35% to only 22%.

Jothi Shanmugan and Natale Dankotuwage were two of the young leaders of the dialogue.

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World Religions Summit 2010The Mosaic Institute was the only non-faith-based organization on the Steering Committee of the World Religions Summit that was held in Winnipeg in June 2010. The World Religions Summit was timed to coincide with Canada’s hosting of the G8 and G20 political summits. Mosaic helped to develop a public engagement strategy to encourage individuals from all major faith traditions in Canada to make personal commitments to raising awareness about and advancing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”), including those related to peace-building and poverty reduction.

The interfaith partnership organizing the summit issued a draft statement in October 2009 calling upon the governments and citizens of the G8 to redouble their commitment to achieving the MDGs by 2015. The Mosaic Institute represented the World Religions Summit at meetings of the “Civil G8” – an assembly of leading civil society organizations from around the world – that was convened in April 2010 by the organizers of the G8 political meetings, and chaired by Canada’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, who was Canada’s designated "Sherpa".

The Deputy Minister expressed a genuine interest in ensuring congruence between the agendas for the official meetings of the G8 political leaders in Muskoka, and the content of the World Religions Summit in Winnipeg. The G8 Summit Office at DFAIT was kept fully abreast of the agenda for the World Religions Summit as it was developed.

The Summit in June was cordial and without controversy. Every major faith community and every continent and key region of the world was represented at the table, and on the final day of the conference they issued a Summit Statement that emphasized their shared concerns and recommendations with respect to three pillars of the MDG agenda: peacemaking; poverty reduction; and climate change. At the end of the two-day meeting, the Hon. Steven Fletcher, PC, MP, Canada’s Minister of State for Democratic Reform, received the official Summit Statement on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Since then, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has funded the World Religions Summit Partnership to enable it to continue its public engagement strategy that seeks to increase the grassroots involvement of people from all faith communities in advancing the MDG agenda. The Mosaic Institute continues to advise informally on the development and implementation of this strategy.

Tapping Our PotentialDiaspora Communities and Canadian Foreign Policy

In 2010, the Mosaic Institute and the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation embarked on a joint research project to review the means and mechanisms whereby diaspora communities in Canada are able to influence Canada's global contribution to peace-building and development. The resulting paper released in December 2011 distilled a comprehensive review of global "best practices" and current Canadian mechanisms for consulting with diaspora communities into a list of policy recommendations to be shared w i t h d e c i s i o n - m a k e r s i n t h e Government of Canada. Case studies on Afghanistan, China, Eritrea, Sri Lanka and Sudan were also featured.

The members of the project's Advisory Committee included such notable public policy experts as Yuen Pau Woo, member of Mosaic's Advisory Council and CEO of the Asia-Pacific Foundation; Rima Berns-McGown of t h e C e n t re f o r D i a s p o r a a n d Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto; and Arif Lalani, former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and DFAIT's Director-General of Policy Planning, among others. This paper was released and distributed widely amongst legislators, foreign policy officials and civil society.

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Interfaith leaders gather on the grounds of the University of Winnipeg.

2010

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Sudanese-Canadians & The Future of SudanA Foreign Policy Conference

In 2010 the Sudan Task Force at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) invited the Mosaic Institute to convene a national foreign policy conference involving the core leadership of the various Sudanese communities represented in Canada, including northerners, southerners, and Darfuris. This conference, entitled "Sudanese-Canadians and the Future of Sudan", was held at the University of Winnipeg on September 2, 2010.

The conference, governed by the “Chatham House Ru le” , was designed to tap into the expertise of Canadians of Sudanese background and to review Canada’s policies t o w a r d s S u d a n , w h e r e t h e Government of Canada has spent almost $700-million on various initiatives since 2006. More then 40 people took part in the conference, many traveling to Winnipeg from other cities and provinces across the country. Senior DFAIT and CIDA officials responsible for Canada’s r e l a t i o n s w i t h S u d a n a l s o participated.

Panels were convened on such topics as Canada’s development s t rategy in Sudan; Canada’s response to the ongoing human rights challenges in Sudan; and the implications for Canada of the January 2011 referendum on the possible secession of Southern Sudan. Each panel included both government participants from CIDA and DFAIT and “citizen experts” from the Sudanese community.

F e e d b a c k f r o m c o n f e r e n c e participants was uniformly positive. 92% of community representatives responding to a conference survey strongly agreed that such meetings are “valuable opportunities for the two-way sharing of information and the expansion of networks.” Many requested that the Mosaic Institute convene additional opportunities for such intra-community networking in

the future, and that it assist community members in identifying more opportunities to help Canada respond to the ongoing challenges in Sudan.

In addition to DFAIT’s funding for the Winnipeg conference, funding from the Aurea Foundation enabled the Mosaic Institute to provide travel scholarships to select members of the Sudanese diaspora, and to draft, p u b l i s h a n d d i s s e m i n a t e a conference report for interested parties and organizations across g o v e r n m e n t , t h e S u d a n e s e diaspora, and the rest of civil society.

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Participants at the “Sudanese-Canadians and the Future of Sudan” conference at the University of Winnipeg.

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Building Bridges In Canada: People and Peace

In 2009, the Mosaic Institute partnered with, the Canadian Centre for Diversity to establish a ground-breaking speakers series and peace dialogue aimed to address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, entitled “Building Bridge in Canada: New Perspectives on People and Peace”. Members of Canada’s Arab and Jewish communities came together to offer perspectives on the conflict affecting their troubled homelands, to learn about the prospects for peace, and to engage in constructive dialogue to help overcome some of the challenges to peace-building. A survey conducted by The Strategic Counsel concluded that the series generated constructive dialogue between the two communities and that a much-needed air of optimism had been created. A video compilation of the series was shared with government officials and other relevant stakeholders.

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2009

Participants in the June 2009 session of Mosaic’s “Building Bridges” series: (l to r) host Evan Solomon, Mosaic Institute Chairman Vahan Kololian, Janet Wallach from Seeds of Peace and Inbal Marcovich from CISEPO.

Mapping The Sudanese-Canadian Diaspora2009 saw the completion by the Institute of a comprehensive research study for the Sudan Task Force of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT). The study resulted in the publication of a “smart map” of Canada’s Sudanese diaspora, and identified “cit izen experts” able to contribute valuable policy insights to assist decision-making regarding Canada’s relations with their original homeland.

Working with consultant Mahgoub Khair, the report researched key concerns of

the Sudanese-Canadian population, including their views of Canada’s current and potential relationship with Sudan. Scott Proudfoot, Director of the Sudan Task Force at DFAIT, called the report “a first-rate piece of work” that would be very “useful” to his team.

As a result of the report, a number of follow-up meetings took place with members of the Sudanese leadership in Canada; opportuni t ies were identified for Canadians of Sudanese background to return to Sudan as United Nations Volunteers; and a national conversation with diaspora m e m b e r s o n C a n a d a ’s f u t u r e relationship with Sudan was held in Winnipeg in late 2010.

Project Consultant Mahgoub Khair.

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Canada’s World

In 2008 the Mosaic Institute became a partner in the Canada’s World initiative that is a project of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver. This was a national citizens’ dialogue on international policy with funding from the IDRC designed to enhance Canada’s international reputation and help citizens collectively envision and develop a new international policy for Canada. The Mosaic Institute co-hosted two sessions in 2008. The first was entitled “Leveraging our Global Connectivity: Exploring the Role of Diversity in Canadian Foreign Policy”, and the second was an interfaith dialogue involving representatives of the Islamic, Mennonite, Hindu, First Nations, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Baha’i communities. In partnership with Canada’s World, Samara and the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation, the Mosaic Institute co-hosted a follow-up Dialogue with 60 Toronto area “thought leaders” at the Ontario Investment and Trade Centre in Toronto on July 2, 2009. In December 2009, Mosaic’s Executive Director presented a seminar entitled “The Role of Diaspora Communities in Canadian Foreign Policy” at a Foreign Policy Camp organized by Canada’s World at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

The Mosaic Seminars

In 2008, the Mosaic Institute delivered its Mosaic Seminars series, in which business and community leaders from Canadian diaspora communities (typically 15 to 20 in all) came together, often in the presence of consular officials from their countries of origin and DFAIT officials, to discuss the ways in which they interact with each other and their countries of origin. In addition to promoting dialogue for its own sake, these sessions also tried to identify areas of common ground regarding their communities’ traditional conflicts and recommend specific courses of action for addressing them.

i. Armenia-Turkey: The Mosaic Institute organized and hosted a dinner meeting in Toronto that brought together senior representatives from the embassies of Armenia and Turkey in Ottawa, as well as leaders of their respective communities, to hear and discuss a presentation by Kaan Soyak, the Turkish Co-Chair of the Turkish Armenian Business Development Council (TABDC), a think tank and NGO dedicated to improving relations between Armenia and Turkey. This event and discussions subsequent to it have explored the possibility of a the TABDC organizing a trade mission to West Asia involving both Armenian-Canadian and Turkish-Canadian business leaders.

ii. China-Tibet: The Mosaic Institute organized and hosted a roundtable seminar entitled “Improving Chinese-Tibetan Relations: The Role of the Chinese-Canadian Community.” The seminar brought together leaders from the Chinese-Canadian diaspora, including representatives of the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC), the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC), and the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC) to hear numerous perspectives on the Tibetan struggle within China, and the Chinese response. The dialogue facilitated by the Mosaic Institute continued long after Mosaic’s formal efforts concluded.

iii. Pakistan-India: The Mosaic Institute convened a large session of Indo-Pakistani and Indo-Canadian leaders, along with consular representatives from both Pakistan and India, to discuss the role of the private sector and NGOs in promoting greater cooperation between India and Pakistan. The Institute held subsequent, smaller sessions with leaders of the two communities.

The Darfur Early Recovery and Development InitiativeIn early 2008, the Mosaic Institute partnered with the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at New York’s Columbia University to produce the D a r f u r E a r l y R e c o v e r y a n d Development Dossier, which proposed specific development goals for the region in healthcare, agriculture, and education, among other areas.

With members of the Darfuri diaspora in Canada, a meeting was convened in Ottawa where officials of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) reviewed the proposal, which argued t h e n e e d f o r a c o o r d i n a t e d , comprehensive development strategy to be readied for implementation in Darfur even prior to the full cessation of armed conflict there.

In November 2008, the Mosaic Institute and Columbia University co-sponsored a conference in Cairo, Egypt at which Darfuri educators, community leaders, and scholars discussed the implementation of this report ’s recommendat ions. The conference focused on four key areas: water; agriculture; pastoralism; and public health, and included initial d i s c u s s i o n s r e g a r d i n g t h e establishment of a Darfuri-led “Darfur Development Committee” to serve as a key point of interface with both the international donor community and the Government of Sudan.

Both CIDA and DFAIT’s Sudan Task Force sent representatives to Cairo. DFAIT also provided funding to facilitate the travel of a small group of key representatives from the Mosaic Institute, Columbia University, and the North American Darfuri diaspora.

At a follow-up conference in May 2009, the membership of the Darfur D e v e l o p m e n t C o m m i t t e e w a s confirmed, and the Terms of Reference for working with the Sudanese government in Khartoum on the full implementation of the Darfur Early Recovery and Development Dossier were established.

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THEMOSAICINSTITUTE

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Tel: 416-644-6000Email: info@mosaicinstitute.ca

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The Mosaic Institute is a registered Canadian charitable organization (#85627-9617 RR0001).