The Community Organizer

 

Walid Elawar

 

Mr. Walid ALawar was born in Lebanon. He came to Canada in the early 1970s with hardly any economic or financial means at his disposal. Through hard work, perseverance, and dedication, Walid has been able to become the owner of a highly successful restaurant business in one of Toronto’s growing suburbs, and a well respected activist and community organizer. He is the recipient of many community and business awards, the honorary president of the Canadian Druze House of Toronto, and the president of Canadian Arab Network (CAN). What follows are his own personal reflections and observations regarding the challenges and prospects facing Canadians of Arab origin.

 

To our youth and I wish that we had more of them today; this is the first step, and hopefully more will attend in meetings and activities to follow. Youth are our hope, dreams, and aspirations for the future.

 

Since coming to Canada in 1970, I have a lot of vivid memories of how magnificent this country was – all the skylines and lit up streets. I was very impressed. I remember it was difficult to put the money together for the ticket to come to Canada. I came to Canada with 100 dollars in my pocket. Two days after I got here, I sent 50 dollars to my family in Lebanon. This country has been a great country to us; it has taught us equality, humility, and acceptance. It has given us, most of all, freedom. The freedom we can experience in here that we cannot experience in our countries of origin, where unfortunately, dictatorial and despotic regimes are the norm rather than the exception. This is in spite of the fact that our history goes back well over 6000 years, and we are the descendants of the people who invented the alphabet and introduced a lot of knowledge and science to the whole world. Our people back home cannot experience the simple basic rules of democracy; we still vote along religious lines, we have no respect for human rights or dignity. And we expect our government in Canada to work towards these principles, civil liberties and human rights, when in our countries we don’t respect these very same principles.

 

We have many challenges. In 1970, I was honored to serve on the first board of directors for the Canadian Druze Society, it was formed in 1969, and in 1970 we worked on the by-laws. I served for four years on that board, and from 1976 to 1978; I went to the University of Toronto and studied chemical engineering. Unfortunately, for family and financial reasons, I decided to take a year off to make some money before going back to university, but that never materialized. On the other hand, what was so remarkable was the fact that through the support and the help of our community, we managed to buy the Druze House and to pay off our mortgage in 9 years. The conception of the project was during the holy month of Ramadan. Its completion coincided with the dawn of Ramadan in the year 2005. It was a blessing for all members of the community.

 

On the other hand, the Canadian Arab Network which is a non-partisan, non-profit organization was inaugurated a few years ago for the purpose of strengthening the relationships between Canadian Arabs and the rest of the Canadian society, with special emphasis on working together towards having adequate and equitable Arab-Canadian representation within the Canadian political system. We were exceedingly successful working with Omar al-Ghabrah and his election campaign. Hopefully, we’re going to be influential in supporting other Canadian Arab candidates. Arab community is the fastest growing community in Canada, it has the most educated people in Canada, and it has the least crime rate in Canada, least amount of people on social assistance per capita in Canada. And yet we face the most discrimination when it comes to appointments and job opportunities. We have challenges, and in order to face these challenges creatively and positively, the idea of CAN was conceived and implemented. We are working as a lobby group for the Arab community. Within the short time that we have been working, we have managed to get many interns at Queen’s Park to help members of Parliament and train our youth in the field of political activism. For us to be effective, we have to get involved. We should never be ashamed to say we are Arab, we should be proud to belong to such illustrious heritage and glorious and enduring civilization.

 

Since coming to Canada in 1970, I have a lot of vivid memories of how magnificent the country was, and still is. This country has been a great country to all of us, taught us equality, humility, acceptance, freedom. The Druze community, that is close to my heart, is an integral part of the Arab community, and despite the name, the Druze House is the house of all Arabs. I was fortunate to belong to a very vibrant and hard-working community. We always had a dream. To be effective, we have to have a centre. We need a place to call our own, for the older and younger generation. Without strong, well-managed and well-financed institutions our community will never be able to sustain itself, let alone flourish and become socially and politically engaged.

 

The Arab community and the Muslim communities are among the fastest growing communities in Canada. We should always be very happy to get involved in voting, but unfortunately we don’t seem to care that much about voting. That was one of the main reasons responsible as to why Omar al-Ghabrah lost in the last federal election. Democracy requires, indeed encourage, public engagement. Not a long time ago, we organized a symposium on how to mobilize our community and become more actively engaged. Unless we have a voice in Ottawa, we won’t be able to get the things that our community needs and deserves. We are working towards getting some equitable representation for our community. I would like to be optimistic. A film or a movie, any movie, is made out of many, many pictures and episodes. There is no doubt that the Arab/Muslim community has some pictures or aspects that are not necessarily attractive or optimistic, but overall, I believe that the movie that the Arab community has made so far is worth watching. The challenges are many; to face them we have to have commitments. I am sure we are potentially a strong community. The Arab Community Centre of Toronto (ACCT) started with little funding and a few committed individuals, and look how it is now. We need to have representatives on the different levels of government. We have the qualified people, we have the financial and human resources, but we need the will to succeed and the desire to persevere.

 

We hold moral standards at a high esteem, but we don’t always apply them. Canada applies morals to its institution. Love and forgiveness are strong moral values. Canada is working very hard to take care of its citizens – government is there to support every individual. Where are these programs in our homeland or in any Arab country? There is a lot that Canada is offering to us, but at the same time we have many rights, and I must say obligations that we need to struggle for and upheld. We have to work collectively and diligently. Our approach should be different. I think I have participated in every demonstration in front of embassies. I don’t know where demonstrations got us – we should strategize differently. We have to work from within, and not from without, genuine Canadian perspectives and norms. When it comes to certain freedoms, I remember that one of the principles of the Tawhid faith – to accept the principle you have to be free. We were pioneers in everything – in democracy, human rights, science. This country offers a lot of opportunity. If we have a long term plan and work collectively, the future is ours. We need to translate our demographic or numerical weight into political and social weight and/or influence. In the market place of democracy success and influence is the prize awaiting those who play by the rules of game with intelligence, commitment, and clear vision.