Kelowna hosts community discussion on Syria

Share this story

Tweet

• City of Kelowna community awards handed out
• Kelowna hosts Flipped Classroom conference
• Collective to host Kelowna's first TimeDRIVE event
• Volunteer: Women join voices to discuss community issues
• Kelowna civic awards banquet tickets still available
• Amnesty presents film about conflict in Syria

Kelowna residents are invited to an open community discussion about the politics, violence, and citizen journalism in Syria, April 26 at 5 p.m.

According to organizers of the Okanagan Institute Express, which is hosting the event,  the discussion will allow people in the Okanagan  a rare opportunity to speak and interact with individuals who are directly involved in the movement.

They will help shed light on the complicated issues surrounding the current situation. They have, in some capacity, been directly involved in the movement that has cost thousands of Syrian lives.

Among the speakers joinging the converssation through Skype, are  an activist with deep roots in the region and a Syrian Blogger.

Jeanne d'Arc is a criminology student at Simon Fraser University, with a passion for human rights and justice. Jeanne's parents are Kurdish Syrians . She gained activism experience through her father, who has been an outspoken critic of Ba'ath party and was eventually incarcerated for it. Jeanne is currently a volunteer with the Amnesty International groups and the women's centre at her school and amember of Voice of New Syria Non-Profit Society. Her family was the first to rally in Vancouver against Assad prior to this revolution and also in February 2011. They have continued to rally every week throughout the entire year.

Yaman Marwah is a Syrian youth Activist who works on issues related to human rights and pure rule of Law. Currently, the president of the Syrian Student Association in Ottawa studying Law and Economics at Carleton University. He's a collective activist who used a web-based organizing to support the democratic movement in Syria. Yaman is also on the board of directors of the Syrian Canadian Council, which organized mostly all of the events in Ottawa, Montreal and the GTA area.