Annual General Meeting & Report 2009-2010
From the President
- Annual Spring Clean up.,. Every year, City of Ottawa initiates a community oriented project "Spring Clean Up". The City provides supplies e.g. garbage bags and different community associations' help clean up the parks for enjoyment of the general public. This year, Mooney's Bay area was allotted to CRIC for clean up.
The clean up took place on May 1, 2010. This project was a great success. Several members from different faiths as well as youth members from Faith Acts Fellows participated in the event. After the clean-up, we had a pot luck lunch. CRIC provided refreshments and soft drinks.
I want to thank Lloyd Spencer for spearheading this project and bringing together very many participants to this worthy cause.
- Dinner with MPs. Political leaders of G8 AND G10 countries were meeting in Canada in June, 2010. Religious leaders from these countries decided to hold a summit in June in Winnipeg. Coinciding with this summit, the Steering Committee had proposed that religious representatives from various faiths should hold dinners with their area MPs to apprise them about the religious perspectives on three important topics - Poverty, Peace, and Climate Change.
Nathalie Thirlwal brought this proposal to CRIC members in March. After prolonged and heated debate, a Committee was formed with Nathalie, Blandine and Hosang, to work out the details of the project. $200 from CRIC funds were allocated for this project.
The dinner was held on June 7, 2010, from 6:30 P.M. At St. Peter's Church, 400 Sparks St. We had invited all of the local MPs. A booklet was prepared containing the viewpoints of various faith representatives on the three selected topics. Because the session at the Parliament Hill on that day lasted beyond our dinner time, only one MP, David McGuinty attended the dinner. His comments were well received by all those present. It showed that he had a good comprehension of the topics under discussion. MP Paul Dewar stopped by just for a few minutes.
Lot of work had gone into preparation of this event, I want to thank Nathalie, Blandine, Hosang and Lillian for their hard work and efforts in putting this event together and making it a success.
- Joy of Faith concert: Joy of Faith Concert took place at the Exhibition grounds on August 19, 2010. Six faith groups participated this year. The master of ceremony was Rabbi Bulka. This event has always been appreciated though the attendance has been somewhat lacking. The performance of various faith groups are alwys excellent.
- I and My Faith. In most of the meetings, the faith members had been expressing their viewpoints on various chosen topics. Even though there were some divergence of opinions, it is most gratifying to note that there were lots of similarities in the views expressed.
- Interfaith Prayer : The last, but very exciting event of this year," INTERFAITH PRAYER", took place on October 17, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. at Machzikei Hadas Congregation. There were choirs/singers and prayers by various faith representatives. There were over three hundred persons attending the event, followed by a reception.
I want to thank Father Jacques Kabangu and Anna-Lee Chiprout for their hard work in making this event a great success.
- General comments:
We want to welcome the following members to the CRIC family:
Mr. Hiroo Kirplani & Mrs. Narmada Prajapati from Hindu faith, replacing P. Adcharya Moorthy.
Father Craig Bowers (Anglican Dioceses of Ottawa,) replacing Ted McNabb.
CRIC had made donation of $100 to the Food Bank. CRIC also became a mmber of the Multifaith Housing Initiative (MHI) BY contributing $100.
Sara Eftkhar and Elyse Brazel of Faiths Act Fellows, Toni Blair foundation, had attended a few meetings of CRIC advising us about their youth activities. Sara and some of her colleagues helped Lloyd Spencer in organizing the Spring Clean up event at Mooney's Bay in early May.
Mr. Gerardo Barajas-Garrido of Gatineau had expressed intrest in knowing about the activities of CRIC. He was invited, and he attended couple of meetings of CRIC to apprise himself with our activities.
This year we had run into some difficulty in putting the event together because Jack Wright had not been keeping well. Blandine and Michael were requested and they took over the project. I want to thank both of them for their hard work and efforts.