Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce brings out its weekly newsletter on March 6

Asha Bajaj

10 min readMar 6, 2022

ICCC Weekly Newsletter

06 MARCH

The business community has an important role in mitigating the challenges faced by international students

Nishan Duraiappah

Chief, Peel Regional Police

Some of my remarks today are going to speak to what you would normally understand as a police-related issue. When we think about the intersecting points between our police community and our newcomer community, particularly our international students, I do not have a police-specific response.

As a Sri Lankan immigrant myself, my parents were born in Sri Lanka, I understand that we need support systems to sustain us when we are starting our lives afresh in a new country. We depend upon our community to provide us with that support. If you come by yourself, and there are other systems that aren’t strengthened to support our international students, we have already disadvantaged a significant population.

I often say, 80% of what our officers spend their time on is on noncriminal activity. We are supporting vulnerable populations, whether they be older adults, youth, those that have housing, precarious housing, mental health, addictions, food insecurity.

I want to first commend the chamber for seeing how the business community can strengthen some of the solutions that is needed. So let me first say that the traditional policing model has been, you look to the police for policing responses, but what I’ve been asked to do in the last few years is here in Peel, is to change our approach to not use the traditional approach of how we responded to growing pressures, but to see it in a different lens.

In finding ways to strengthen the support and safety nets for our international students, I see not only the role of the police but also of the business community. The Peel Police calls it the community safety and wellbeing plan. The new approach says that we must focus on a need in the community, not just from the traditional emergency response mechanisms, but invest in opportunities to mitigate risk to prevent and to invest in social development.

We have concerns about the exploitation of our students because they’re vulnerable and unsupported. We recognize that our officers need to support international students not only in an emergency situation. In the last two years, we have started to shift, bring other associations, entities, and business communities into the equation.

We see our international students having difficulties navigating existing processes here, for example, the landlord and tenant rights, being able to manage their rights, so they’re not exploited in multi-housing dwellings, that their resources aren’t usurped, and unmanaged.

On the front end, when our students arrive, the ability for us to tell them how systems work here to equip them for understanding what happens. If, for instance, maybe your roommates' actions, jeopardize your actions, or maybe you’re with somebody who’s making decisions, understanding the elements of fraud. We have partnered with our educational institutions to enroll in focus presentations.

Peel Police have shifted our approach in the last year to engage nearly 2000 international students through this initiative. But that is just our space. What we do desire is to bring together our different collaboratives. If you look at police, the business community, the education community, health, social services, the municipality, the provincial government, the federal government, all are not-for-profit sectors if we brought all of us together in a collaborative way. I am certain that that is the route to strengthen a plan, a concrete strategy that has short midterm long-term goals that can be framed.

The above is an abridged version of Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah’s speech delivered during the ICCC’s interactive session on Challenges faced by Indian students in Canada held on 2 March 2020.

In case you missed it, click here for the recording of the program.

India Mission 2022

26 March 2022 to 09 April 2022

New Delhi (28 & 29 March), Lucknow (30 & 31 March),
Jammu (04 April), Chandigarh (05 & 06 April),
Dehradun (07 & 08 April)

Putting the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdown restrictions firmly behind, the ICCC is organizing its Annual India Investment and Trade Mission 2022 between 26 March and 9 April 2022. The ICCC’s ‘India Mission’ focuses on promoting trade relations between micro and small businesses and explore investment opportunities in Canada and India.

The 2022 India Mission’s focus is on the growing and economically thriving centers in North India. The be a multicity, multisector mission with whistle-stop visits to New Delhi, Lucknow, Jammu, Chandigarh, and Dehradun will comprise meetings with political and government decision-makers, industry and corporate leaders, representatives of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Association, micro and small business owners.

If you are a micro or small business owner or a professional and are interested in joining the ICCC’s India Mission 2022, please write to Mayank Bhatt at mbhatt@iccconline.org.

To encourage more participation, the ICCC is not charging registration fees.
All participants in the mission will be making their own travel, stay, and commuting arrangements.

You have the choice of participating in the entire mission or only select cities.

Get a flavor of the 2019 India Mission,
browse through the report below

India Mission 2019

Upcoming Events

ICCC’s 10th Annual International Women’s Day Celebrations

Time: 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm

Date: Wednesday 16 March 2022

Venue: ICCC

Address: 924 The East Mall Etobicoke M9B 6K1

#BreakTheBias

Gender Equality Today for Sustainable Tomorrow

Panelists

Sanjukta Das
Academia

Supreet Warna
Corporate

Vivekta Singh
Law

Program and registration details coming soon

Follow up

Virtual Information Session
Centennial College Recruitment Services for Employers

During Centennial College’s virtual program held on 22 February, many participants had queries pertaining to the information provided. Here are the links to the questions raised during the session.

Please find below information on:

Programs of Study Offered at Centennial College
Key Recruitment Periods
Services for Recruitment of Students/Recent Graduates
Options for Involvement with Centennial College
Funding and Tax Credit Opportunities
Contact Information

Programs of Study offered at Centennial College

List of all full-time college programs.

List of all Co-op programs.

Key Recruitment Periods

All programs can accommodate full-time, part-time or summer employment.
Recruitment outreach can take place at all times for graduate employment.
In terms of Co-op employment, a number of programs offer co-op terms each semester for a 4, 8, and possibly 12 month period. For more information about Co-op Recruitment, visit our Co-op for Employers page.
Field Placement students are available most semesters, please connect with SOLV to discuss your hiring needs.
Hiring an International Student/Graduate, learn more about working eligibility and work permits here.

Services for Recruitment of Students/Recent Graduates

Online Job Postings — Free access to our college student/graduate job posting portal at Hire.CentennialCollege.ca.
Job Fairs and Networking Events — For events and dates, click here.
Virtual Information Sessions — To host a Virtual Information Session, complete our Virtual Recruitment Form.
Promotion of Company Recruitment Events
A number of companies hold their own “Meet and Greet” events at their location(s) or virtually. We can promote such activities to all students and graduates. Simply send us your request and event information at careerservices@centennialcollege.ca.

Options for involvement with Centennial College

Program Advisor Committees

Program Advisory Committees (PAC) assists in evaluating the effectiveness of the College’s programs and identifying future trends and changes in the industry to ensure program relevancy. Learn more about PAC membership here.

Capstone Projects, SOLV Sector Sessions, and Applied Research Partnerships

We have numerous opportunities for Industry Partners to get involved with our students or graduates, using real-life industry challenges. Industry partners can work with program-specific groups or multi-disciplinary teams. Our SOLV Sector Sessions and Applied Research Partnerships are great opportunities to bring together Industry and Academia to develop win-win relationships.

For more information and to discuss these options, contact SOLV.

Funding and Tax Credit Opportunities

Employer Funding (Work Integrated Learning)
Co-operative Education Tax Credit
Fund Sourcing and Grant Writing Support
Funding for Young People to enter Skilled Trades (Job Seeker Focused)
Pre-Apprenticeship Training (available subsidies for employers — 2022 programs awaiting approval)

Contact Information

Karen Williamson, Industry Liaison, Solv@centennialcollege.ca, 416–289–5022

Heidi Luz, Co-op Job Developer, HLuz@centennialcollege.ca, 416–289–5000 x2099/416–289–5209

Linda Lugli/Trish Dolan, Job Developers, careerservices@centennialcollege.ca, 416–289–5233

In the News

Canada

New Canada Digital Adoption Program to help small businesses thrive in the digital economy

Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy and the heart of our communities across the country. As small businesses adapt to the digital economy and the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada is working to help them continue to grow, thrive, and create good jobs.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced 3 March the launch of the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), to help Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses grow their online presence and upgrade or adopt digital technologies. This investment, which will provide $4 billion over four years, will support up to 160,000 small businesses and create good middle-class jobs across the country, including thousands of jobs for young Canadians.

Under the CDAP, Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be able to assess their digital readiness and apply for grants and loans online. This funding will help them leverage e-commerce opportunities, upgrade or adopt digital technologies, and digitize their operations to stay competitive and meet their customers’ needs in the digital marketplace. Depending on their size, specific needs, and goals, businesses can apply for funding through the Grow Your Business Online or Boost your Business Technology streams.

Accelerating the digital transformation will help Canadian businesses stay competitive while creating jobs and growing the economy, as we recover from the pandemic.

Go to: Canada Digital Adoption Program

India

Operation Ganga continues the amazing evacuation of stranded Indians from Ukraine

More than 14,000 brought back by special flights

Under ‘Operation Ganga’ to rescue Indian citizens, about 3000 Indians have been airlifted today by 15 special flights from Ukraine’s neighboring countries. These included 12 special civilian and 3 IAF flights. With this, more than 14,000 Indians have been brought back since the special flights began on 22 February 2022. To date, the IAF has flown 10 sorties to bring back 2056 passengers, while taking 26 tonnes of relief load to these countries, as part of Op Ganga.

Three C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft of the IAF, which had taken off yesterday from the Hindan airbase, landed back at Hindan on 5 March. These flights evacuated 629 Indian nationals from Romania, Slovakia, and Poland. These flights also carried 16.5 tonnes of relief load from India to these countries. All Civilian flights, except one, had landed during the morning today, while a flight from Kosice to New Delhi is expected to arrive late in the evening. Today’s civilian flights included 5 from Budapest, 4 from Suceva, 1 from Kosice, and 2 from Rzeszow.

On March 6, 11 special flights are expected to operate from Budapest, Kosice, Rzeszow, and Bucharest, bringing in more than 2200 Indians back home.