 Thank you so much Chief Bill Williams for welcoming us in a good way on behalf of all the participants here I'd like to present you with an offering and token of our appreciation and deep respect. Thank you so much Chief Bill Williams for helping us start this celebration in a good way. And being on this land is a great privilege but it also comes with a great deal of responsibility. For those of us who are uninvited guests, settlers it's important that we take the time to reflect and learn about the history of the indigenous territories on which we live, play and work. And we're so honored to have Chief Bill Williams really welcome us and root us in the tradition of the indigenous peoples here in British Columbia. We know we are on a path of reconciliation for the centuries of the history of colonization and the devastation wrought onto the indigenous peoples hand in hand with the systems of oppression, colonization, racism and white supremacy. And so friends we are gathered here today for a great celebration but also to mark the challenge ahead. We remember that as we go through our daily lives the responsibility we have to walk on the land with respect, curiosity and good intentions. And to everyone here in person and virtually watching from communities near and far we're live streamed so folks across British Columbia, across Canada, around the world are watching our awards here tonight. And we've got friends from across our great province, seen some friends from Prince George, seen some friends from Vancouver Island and right across the province welcome everybody it's great to be here. Gathered here is a very special group of individuals, leaders. We've got to all the award winners nominees and nominators past and present just a real group of champions, people who stood up in their communities who've shown leadership to take on the tough struggle for dignity, justice against racism for equality. You're all here today. I want to thank you for joining us in this important celebration and we honor you. You are all anti-racism heroes going above and beyond to make our province a better place for everyone. Joining us this evening is our very own awesome Attorney General, Nikki Sharma, we've got her here, MC who will be looking after our award ceremony as well, Hira Rashad of the Multicultural Advisory Committee, Hira you're here representing as well our Multiculturalism Advisory Committee. Do we have any members here from the committee? Let's see, I want you up, get up on your feet. Let's see, representing, alright, thank you. We've got more special performances as well. We've got the Sudkina Dance Academy will be performing an Indian classical dance. We're going to have the Korean Jumbers back, the Korean Traditional Arts Society, it's going to come back for another performance, looking forward to that. And as many of you know, today is a special day, today is the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination. We know that on this day in 1960, there was a massacre in Sharples, South Africa, where peaceful protesters protesting against the racist policies of the apartheid state of South Africa were brutally killed, 69 people, 50 women and children protesting peacefully for their place in this world to be treated with dignity and respect. And we mark that and we remember that and we join together across the world in our strong stand to mark that occasion and also our dedication to end racism in British Columbia and Canada around the world. Today, we're here to celebrate the people who are advocating for a province with greater intercultural understanding rooted in anti-racism. We know that we can't ignore the reasons why this work is so needed. We know that Canada has the very sad history of centuries of colonization, of racism, institutionalized oppression. We know that. But what do we also know, and you are all a testament to that, BC is also fortunate to have a diverse group of people, ethnic groups, cultures. But despite the ways in which diversity improves and enhances our province, you all know that. Systemic racism, discrimination, misogyny, and hate continue to affect British Columbians every day. And that's why the work is being done, is so important, being done by our nominees this evening, and so critical. It's also why we're also working across government. I'm the parliamentary secretary for anti-racism, the premier told me, Mabel, your job is to dismantle systemic racism across BC, get to work, we've got a great team, and together that's the path we are on. We know that we need changes at all levels. We've brought in the Anti-Racism Data Act. And I've heard there are members from our Anti-Racism Data Committee here. Are you here? Stand up. I want to hear some applause and appreciate them. Our Anti-Racism Data Committee members, first of its kind, leading the world in terms of we need to identify and quantify what are the experiences of indigenous and racialized people accessing government programs and services. How do we improve that? How do we take steps to make that better right across government? Their leadership is really key. We're also going to be bringing in an Anti-Racism Act built on that information. And Canada is leading the world. We know that also the process is important. We're partnering with indigenous peoples, racialized people to co-develop the legislation groundbreaking. Because we know that indigenous people and racialized people are often the one harmed by our government institutions, by our governments and programs. And so it's important to pass legislation, but it's also important to rebuild trust together and empower communities who are most harmed. So that is in the forefront of our commitment. We're also looking, we've brought out, we have to, right across, right across every aspect of our society, we need to take a stand against anti-racism. Our government ruled out kindergarten to grade 12. We've got some educators here, some teachers. I've seen, let's, right, do we have some teachers? Champions on the front line in our education system rolling out our kindergarten to grade 12, Anti-Racism Action Plan. We're also supporting community groups and recognizing that's where, that's where the heroes stand up in our communities. And we have here with us as well members of the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network doing that work on the forefront. Are you here? Let's hear it for those members. Stand up. I know you're here. I've talked to you. All right. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Woo! So we know that it's crucial to address racism at every level, including the government level. And it's people on the ground who do the important work. And these are who we're celebrating tonight this evening here. The people in this room demonstrate the impact of sustained action, the power of community led initiatives, commitment to social justice, courage in the face of adversity, and really answering the call, the hard call to step up against injustice. And that's why we offer our multiculturalism, anti-racism grants each year to provide resources to organizations in the community. Last year 60 organizations received up to $5,000 to support a wide range of multiculturalism and anti-racism projects. And I've met, I'm looking forward to more, met friends from the Mexican community, we've got cultural festivals, culturally rooted food insecurity initiatives, and skill building workshops and podcasts. We know that I referenced the Resilience BC Network 35 spokes across British Columbia really providing that support. I want to thank all of you for your hard work. We know that people with lived experience like many of you in this room are vital to ensuring our government addresses racism and hate in a thoughtful and effective way. And these awards tonight is for you. And it's also in recognition often it's those who are hurt by racism, indigenous, racialized people who carry that pain inside and that's also a very difficult process on the journey to healing to support each other, to have that space to share experiences amongst ourselves and also for friends and allies to listen. So this is part of the path that we are on. All right, we're getting into it. We've got virtually joining us, teed up a message from our Premier, Premier David E.B., so that's the cue. We're going to roll it. He's going to give us some remarks. And good evening. I'm joining you from the territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Slavitooth nations. I'm sorry I can't be there tonight to celebrate with you in person. I know you're in good hands with my colleagues Mabel Elmore, Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism Initiatives and Attorney General Nicky Sharma. I can't think of a better way to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination than by honoring some of BC's anti-racism heroes. Tonight's awards recognize advocates who are breaking down barriers and developing intercultural trust and connections. I know you're all moving this important work forward in communities across our province. With your actions, we're building a more equitable British Columbia for everyone. On behalf of all British Columbians, I want to thank you for your dedication to this life-changing work. Your stories are powerful inspirations for us all, and illustrate what can happen when we stand up to racism and hate. You're making British Columbia a better, more welcoming place for everyone. Thank you, and congratulations in advance to tonight's recipients. Have a wonderful evening. A smattering of applause for the Premier. Well, tell him there was a lot of thanks for the message. We appreciate it. Premier Ebe, and we've got some other colleagues here. And if I don't introduce them, I'm going to be in big trouble. So my colleagues, George Chauv and you got to stand up because I know you're George Chauv right here, George Chauv. We got Janet Rutledge, Emma LaBernaby North, Janet, Parliamentary Secretary of Labor, got my good friend, a great champion, Ann King, MLA, Burnaby Dear Lake, Minister of Advanced Education. All right, and we're just about to get into it. What you've been waiting for, the awards. And first of all, before we get into that, and I'm going to introduce our performers, we've got a few nominees here, I believe. And we've got nominees from this last year. And because we've been virtual in the pandemic, I hear there are nominees from previous years. And this is the first time you've been able to come here in person, right? So I want to see all those nominees up, up on your feet. Let's see you. Everybody stand up. Come on. Here we go. Up. Let's see. All right. Here's our nominees. All right. Past and present. All right. Woo! Let's hear it. Yeah. Awesome. All right. OK. So next, I want to ask you to welcome. We've got a performance by the Bharata Natyam. And it is a classical Indian, a classical dance, which integrates stylized hand gestures, facial expressions, footwork, yoga, and universal emotions. So please join me in welcoming Sudhika Dance Academy to the stage. Come on up. All right. Let's hear it for the Sudhika Dance Academy. It's a terrific performance. Thank you so much. So this year, we received almost 200 submissions, nominating over 100 people, each one deserving recognition in their own right. Because you all deserve it, all the nominees are going to be receiving a certificate of appreciation in the mail. And I hope you know that your stories are nothing short of inspiring. And it's your stories of courage and resilience, taking on those hard fights and battles for dignity and justice in your communities that really inspires all of us. And so we're here celebrating tonight. I hope you also make friends, introduce yourselves to everybody at the tables, meet each other, network, and build relationships, and know that as you're after today, when you're in your classroom or you're in your communities, you're working. Maybe you're alone. But remember back that there are many supporting you, many friends, many networks, many champions. And I hope that that also sustains you in your each of your commitment for working for social justice. So it's your passion that's driving change throughout our province. And I want to thank also the nominators. Thank you. Without your help, we wouldn't be able to recognize the strong advocates in BC who are each deeply connected to this transformative work. And so to announce our award recipients and honorable mentions, I'd like to invite one of our Multicultural Advisory Committee members, Hira Rashad to the stage. Come on up, Hira. All right. And like our nominees this evening, Hira Rashad has quite an impressive bio. She's a social worker. Come up here, so let me say, yeah. Well, I'll introduce you on this side. Go here. Right in the middle. She's a social worker and educator from a Pakistani Muslim family. Among her many accomplishments, Mrs. Rashad has been working at the Ministry of Child and Family Development within the Circle 5 Indigenous team for the past five years. She also runs an online support service called Hemat Taqwat Sabra for South Asian families dealing with crises. At this time, as well, to join us for the awarding I'd also like to invite our Attorney General, Niki Sharma, to please come and join me on stage for handing out the trophies and congratulating the recipients. And now it's over to our Master of Ceremonies for the awarding ceremony, Hira Rashad. All right. Thank you, Parliamentary Secretary El-Mor. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salamu alaikum. My name is Hira Rashid. And it is an absolute honor to be here this evening. I'd like to start off by saying Ramadan Mubarak to anybody observing Ramadan coming up, as well as Noru's Mubarak to all of our Persian friends here, and give a shout out to the Women's Life Freedom Movement happening in Iran right now. Because as we know, freedom for one means freedom for all, and they're doing a tremendous job fighting for their freedom. All right. So I will begin by sharing each category and a little bit about the category the award is in. Then I will announce the winners and give a little bit of information about the winners, and welcome them up to the stage to receive their award, and then say a few words. Then at the end, I will ask all of the Honorable Mentions, the nominees, and the winners to come up to take a photo with P.S. El-Mor and A.G. Sharma. So the first category is the Intercultural Trust Award. This award is given to outstanding organizations or individuals for their work in building intercultural trust and understanding or reducing racism and hate between communities. And for this category, we have two recipients. The first recipient is Karelia Madalia, who works for the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society of Prince George, also known as IMSS. They have created an anti-racism support network for the Northern communities, which offers free legal human rights training with an emphasis on connecting the Northern communities to share resources with one another. So please give a round of applause to Karelia. And another round of applause. I just have no words. I just want to say thank you for everyone that supported my work all of these years. It is very important that we work towards a society that is free of discrimination, where there is equality for everyone. I'm just super happy to be here today. And thank you to my friends and family, my community, and my organization. It means a lot to me. Thank you. And our second winner in this category is the Greater Vancouver Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association. Since 1989, the association has worked within and outside of the Japanese-Canadian community to offer allyship with other racialized and marginalized communities, to provide advocacy and education and anti-racism, human rights, and social justice. Karey Sakayama is the president of the Greater Vancouver Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association, and she'll be providing remarks on behalf of the organization. So please welcome Karey to the stage. Oh, wow, thank you. What an honor. My name is Karey Sakayama. I'm the president of the Greater Vancouver Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association. And this is probably, in my opinion, the most prestigious award in BC. I stand here as a testament to those who came before me and paved this way, dedicated their time and energy for us all in this room to be here. Given this gift, the GBJCCA has committed to a mandate of advocacy, human rights, and social justice for all. We facilitated a community education workshop on the experience of Japanese and other Asian-Canadian LGBTQ2S+, trans-community members. We've offered Zoom education sessions on anti-racism 101, Indigenous experience in BC, anti-racism in Vancouver, downtown East Side, and the model minority myth. In 2021 and 2022, we hosted four in-person gatherings throughout BC to consult our community about race-based data collection. This was an important first step for the Ministry of Attorney General and their goal of creating anti-racism legislation. We are a steering committee member of the Act to End Racism, and most recently, we have called upon municipal, provincial, and federal governments to deliver timely, effective follow-up to the 231 calls for justice contained within the 2019 final report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In closing, I just wanna say we will continue to shine the light in the darkest of areas. We will continue to oppose hate in all its forms, and I would like to say how fortunate I am to be surrounded by some really, really wonderful troublemakers. Thank you. Shout out to all the troublemakers. Wow. Thank you both so much and congratulations once again. For this category, we also have two honorable mentions. So when I call your name, please stand. The first honorable mention is Sabrina Bojani. Are you in the crowd? There you are. Sabrina is the principal and head of School of Richmond Jewish Day School. She has over 12 years of experience as a school-based administrator leading transformation and innovation and cultural competence in both public, private, and K-12 educational settings. So let's give her a big round of applause. And our second honorable mention is the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services. So if anyone from the organization is here, if you could please stand. There you are. Please come on up. This is a nonprofit organization providing a range of free settlement services to newcomers in 16 languages. That's amazing. It's posing for pictures. Congratulations to everyone in this category. Thank you so much. Okay, on to the next category, which is the Breaking Barriers Award. The Breaking Barriers Award is giving two outstanding organizations or individuals for their work in tackling systemic or institutional racism and reducing barriers for marginalized communities. We also have two recipients for this award. Our first recipient is the Indigenous Women Outdoors. Indigenous Women Outdoors was created to specifically address systemic and institutional barriers preventing Indigenous women and gender-expansive community members from accessing and enjoying the land for healing and recreation. Through guidance and membership, participants are offered training and certifications to feel safe out on the land as well as become leaders in the outdoor industry. They've addressed a critical gap in this industry, the presence of Indigenous folks, specifically women and gender-expansive community members in the backcountry and in outdoor recreation. This is particularly important for host nations whose land has been occupied by uninvited settlers engaging in economic extraction, development and recreation on unceded territories in the Sea to Sky corridor. Several of their programs and certifications are offered at a reduced or entirely covered cost of entry to alleviate any barriers to their participation. So I would like to invite Michelle Lobo from the organization to say a few words and a huge round of applause for them now. Masi Cho. Michelle Lobo Hushier. Yellow Nives, DNA First Nation. Hotsasie. Thank you very much. My name is Michelle Lobo. I'm from the Yellow Nives, DNA First Nation and I'm the co-lead for the Mountain Biking Program for Indigenous Women Outdoors. Our mission is to reclaim space for Indigenous women and gender-expansive community members to become the next generation of Indigenous leaders in the outdoor industry. We strive to eliminate all barriers in accessing activities like skiing and snowboarding, backcountry touring, hiking, trail running and mountain biking. We do these for Indigenous women living on the unceded Squamish, Lillawat, Slewa Tooth and Musqueam Territories. The outdoor recreation industry is beginning to recognize that intersectionality is necessary and that when folks don't see themselves represented, they don't feel welcome. However, representation is only one part of the issue. Indigenous peoples and minority groups face economic, social and accessibility barriers that prevent them from pursuing outdoor activities. We break down these barriers by providing mentorship, coaching, access to equipment and a safe place to learn. Through our programs, we have helped Indigenous women gain valuable training at certifications in avalanche skills training, mountain bike coaching, wilderness first aid, all of these things that are giving them the tools and knowledge that will make them successful leaders in any outdoor industry. Not surprisingly, we see our members return to their communities and use these new skills to give back to the Indigenous youth or return and actually lead our introductory level programming. We are continuously inspired by our community and we hope that this propagates within the greater outdoor community. Thank you to the BC government for the recognition of our hard work. Thank you to our partners and allies. You have made our programming possible and accessible. We are extremely grateful to our board members and our program leads for taking so much responsibility and donating your time and efforts. And most importantly, we wanna thank our participants who have trusted us to lead their experiences on the land. Whether it's tackling and taking that first step into a new outdoor activity or you're just starting to reconnect with your culture, IWO wants to know, wants Indigenous folks to know that neba hoa, you are welcome here. Masi. Thank you so much. And for the second award recipient, we have the battered women's support services which provides education, advocacy and support services to assist victims and survivors as part of its work towards the elimination of gender-based violence and to work from a feminist perspective that promotes gender equity. I would like to invite Angela Marie McDougal who works at the battered women's support services to come up and receive the award as well as say a few words. This is so wonderful. It really is. It's so wonderful to be here with you all. And it's wonderful to be here and to be able to be here with this incredible team, the team effort, this work that we do to end gender-based violence and to do that from a perspective that grounds us in an understanding of systemic inequities that include anti-racism. We certainly wanna thank our nominators who are amazing and all the other nominees who I know are doing incredible work and each and every one of you that is standing on this front line of anti-racism in order to redress harms and to create a path, a safer, healthier path for us as people and to address hate wherever we see it. At battered women's support services, we center anti-racist practice in our anti-violence work. The founding women at battered women's support services recognize that gender-based violence does not only take place between two individuals in isolation but rather in a social context and in a worldview that systemically reinforces the power of some people to oppress others through race, ability, citizenship, sexuality and gender. This is why we work from an intersectional anti-racism and decolonial feminist perspective and that on the front line every day we hear from survivors from racialized communities, indigenous survivors, black survivors, immigrant, refugee, migrant survivors, racialized survivors who are not only dealing with intimate partner violence, domestic violence and sexualized violence but are also dealing with abhorrent racism that is in within the systems, within organizations and within law enforcement and every aspect of the state. And so we stand each and every day in solidarity with communities of color all across this land and across the world and we know how important it is not only tonight but every day to link arms and to stamp out anti-racism and stamp out racism and hate as well as gender inequity wherever we see it. I'm so honored to be here with this incredible team and we have amazing team members that are watching and we are here with you in solidarity and look forward to making a world that is safer for each and every one of us, thank you. Thank you so much to both organizations. I think we can all agree that women are the cornerstone of community growth and community healing. So just one more big round of applause for these amazing organizations for the work that they do. In this category, we also have two honorable mentions. The first individual, Shanae Prasad. Shanae. Shanae is a leader focused on supporting communities through an anti-oppression lens with a specific focus on anti-racist strategies and tools. And our second honorable mention is Asiya Robinson. Asiya is a program manager for the leading change for resilient communities program based out of the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Center Society. This pilot program prioritizes bringing anti-racism education to rural communities and workplaces across BC. She is also a co-leading group of Muslim women in the multi-phase project to address instances of Islamophobia with the support of the cities of Vancouver and Saanich. So thank you so much, both of you, for your hard work. How are we feeling? Wow, I can't hear you. How are we feeling? Woo! Awesome. So on to our final category, which is the Emerging Leader Award. So this award recognizes youth and young adults aged 15 to 30 for outstanding work in the building intercultural trust, tackling racism, and reducing barriers for marginalized communities. And there is one recipient of this year's Emerging Leader Award. So please join me in welcoming Aria Law. After witnessing verbal racist attacks towards seniors, 15-year-old Aria Law was inspired to connect seniors and youth by selling cultural food with anti-racism themes through a website and social media. She's also facilitated community conversations on racism and produced a video about standing up about racism. So Aria. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Premier E.B. Attorney General Sharma, honored judges and guests, parliamentary secretaries, Janet Rutledge and Mabel Elmore, and British Columbians. At this time, I want to recognize that I live on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the Halkumelum and Omesh-speaking peoples. I am inspired by their resilience and healing. My name is Aria Law. My traditional Chinese name, Liu Ante, was given to me by my late uncle, my grandfather. Ante is from a famous Chinese poem by Du Fu, who prayed for equality for the masses. I was named for hope, hope for shelter, hope for all, not for ourselves alone. These ideals are my aspirations that I want to share. Thank you, PS Janet Rutledge, for the nomination. I am honored. On behalf of all our youth leaders at the Canada Caring Community Alliance, I receive this 2023 multiculturalism and anti-racism emerging leader award. My community has witnessed increased racism and violence towards seniors and families, affecting all of us. We want to give voice to the racialized seniors in care and at home. Racism hurts and we call out these crimes. We will heal, we are resilient, we will continue to build a caring community. I continue to work to heal from my nightmares and turn them into strength, courage and hope. The Canada Caring Community Alliance is a growing, diverse community of seniors, families and youth of all races, genders and backgrounds. It was created to give a voice to marginalized seniors in care, to triumph over racism with kindness, patience, empathy, integrity and love. We will move past barriers to inspiration and keep on moving forward. So connect with us on xiaotzu.com and on Instagram at xiaotzu underscore official to heal, cry, hug. And most of all, like my signature bun, and excuse my language, mom, kick butt against racism. I would like to thank Rykelter, Joe Levine, Nicole Bernice, Alicia Bella-Claire, Maya Tyler, Erica Ethan, David Dillon, Brenda, Jeanne from BC Dumplings Fest, parents and especially my Paul Hall grandma. We could not have served without all of you. Again, join us, help us, connect with us on xiaotzu.com and on Instagram at xiaotzu official. Together, we can make a difference. So remember to baubo, you're la-la, hug your grandma. Thank you. We have another upcoming leader in our community, amazing. Another round of applause for Aria. It's really great to see the new generation step up and work so hard to make change for the future. We now have two honorable mentions for this category. The first one is William Canaro. Can you please stand up and come up on stage? There you are. William currently sits on the boards of the Cathara Philpino Indigenous Arts Collective Society, the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society, the Mabuhay House Society and works as an organizer for the Joy Street Action Network. And our second honorable mention is Jelena Mitchell. Does she hear what that's today? There you are. Jelena is a remarkable 12 year old who has been doing anti-racism work for the past five years from the age of eight in her school by teaching black history and anti-racism. Jelena was motivated because she saw herself being treated differently by both classmates and teachers. She felt if others were informed about her heritage they would be more welcoming, less judgmental and less discriminating. She started out by doing PowerPoint presentations every week for Black History Month. This year she spearheaded a research venture in her high school to highlight the influential Black people and pioneers in Canada. With her spare time, Jelena volunteers at the African Heritage Association of Vancouver Island Youth Council. So thank you both to Jelena and William. Thank you to you both for your amazing contributions to bettering our world. So one big round of applause to all of the winners and honorable mentions. I would now like to invite all of the winners and honorable mentions to come up onto the stage for a photo with A.G. Sharma and P.S. Elmore. Congratulations once again. Congratulations to all the award winners, the honorable mentions and all our nominees. Awesome and incredible. Now were those some inspiring speeches or what? Okay, wow. Awesome. These are our advocates and leaders who are each taking on racism, fostering diversity from their own unique and valuable perspective. Thanks to all the nominees and award winners, past and present, and your work is making a difference every day. I also want to thank all the other individuals, organizations and volunteers throughout BC who are working hard to advance equity in their communities. We're all in it together. And I know our next speaker is a strong advocate for equity. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to my colleague, the attorney general, Niki Sharma. Hi, everybody. It is such an honor and a privilege to get to work with P.S. Elmore. And I know her passion for anti-racism has been longstanding and strong. So thank you for all your work that you're doing in the new role. Let's give her a round of applause. Hi, everybody. What a beautiful audience. I can see you through the light and I see reflected in this audience, British Columbia and all the stories and strengths and work that you are all doing is quite amazing. It's really nice also to be here in person with all of you and share this space. I can feel the energy and I can feel the positivity and it's just nice to celebrate you. I want to congratulate all of the award recipients, all of those that were nominated, all of those people listening from across the province that are there to stand up for people in their communities and to use their voice against racism wherever you are. And we just are so much stronger as a province because of you, so congratulations. So as attorney general, my focus is making life more fair and equitable and just for everyone. And I know that's something that we all have in common. And I've been in this role for three months now. It's been quite an amazing three months. The first time somebody like me is in this role and when I walk towards my office in Victoria, I see on the wall pictures of the past attorney generals coming back from the very first time there was attorney general in BC was a province. And I think about how different they are from me. And I also think about all of the laws that they enacted, all of the policies they stood for, all of the barriers they put up for people of color and indigenous people across this province and how much work we have to do. And what it means to have me in this role and the work and the responsibility I take on from being in this position. And it's something that I carry with me every day. My parents, like many people in the British Columbia, came to hear from India. They settled in a very, very small town. And I got to see what it was like to start a fresh life, face the barriers of racism, oppression, thinking about building a new family in a new country that was strange. And I take a lot of inspiration from that, the what I saw from my parents, but I also know that that's the story of many of us here in BC. I see in the room reflected people from across this province that have their own stories. I want you to know that your work on the front lines of advocating against racism, of using your voice to build your communities up is inspiring to all of us in government. And I know that it requires effort on a daily basis. I know it requires building up community. It requires pointing out racism and doing that courageous work of calling it out. But I know that because of all of you and those listening online, you are standing up against it. You are saying not here, not again, not now. And without that work, without that combination of all of your voices across the province, we would be a very different place. And I know that there's many obstacles in each of your stories. There's many challenges. There's a lot of inspiration in the stories that I heard tonight. And I know it's so important for us to come together and to honor that work, to celebrate it, to make it known that in this province we are gonna stand up to hate every chance we can. We're gonna fight against racism. We're gonna make sure that our systems that were put in place by many years of colonization are dismantled. We're gonna do the hard work to build an inclusive province for everyone. And I want you to know that your efforts matter and you're all making a difference. I hope that tonight fills you up with that energy, the solidarity that you feel in this room, and helps you take on that next challenge in your community and to work with us in the important work that we have to do. You're all heroes in this province. So thank you very much. We also understand, and I wanna spend a couple minutes talking about this, the work that government has to do. I'm very privileged to be working with PSL more in this portfolio when it comes to anti-racism, but under the Attorney General's office, anti-racism is part of my work. And I was so glad that when Premier David E. B. appointed me as Attorney General, he put in the mandate item, in my mandate letter, to work on reconciliation with Indigenous people. Such important work that we're doing in the province, and I take this commitment very seriously. One of the greatest challenges that we have and opportunities that we have is to figure out how to remove the oppression of colonial laws on Indigenous people across this province and uphold their own laws and ways of being. And I know that part of that work means, a lot of times, getting out of the way of Indigenous leadership that wants to do things for their communities and supporting them when they're doing that. And I know, for example, that the justice system has been a source of oppression for many Indigenous people, systemic trauma, racism, and colonization through that system. We're working in partnership with First Nations across the province for their First Nations justice strategy, and we're making progress, but I know we have lots of work to do. We're setting up Indigenous justice centers across the province, and we'll continue to make sure that we're doing the work necessary to make that work a success. Unfortunately, and you may have heard this from the Human Rights Commissioner's recent report, there's been a rise in hate crimes, particularly through the pandemic. And we know that our BC Human Rights Tribunal has been facing more actions, more people than ever are speaking up and bringing claims towards discrimination and hate in this province. And I'm pleased that we gave them more funding, 4.5 million to help support with that work and making it easier for people to stand up through our justice system to address the hate and discrimination they feel or may have experienced in their communities. Those are some of the things we're working on along with the work that PSL More talked about about changing our laws to address systemic racism. I want to thank you. And in closing, I want to say that I know this work can only be done if we work together. And what I see in this room and what I've heard tonight is the inspiring stories of true leaders in their community that are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with us to get rid of racism in this province, to tear down those barriers where they exist, to shine a light through the data legislation to where racism is showing up in our systems. And I'm just so grateful to celebrate this day of International Day for the elimination of racial discrimination with all of you. And I'm really looking forward to the work we're gonna do together. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you, Minister Sharmer, for sharing those inspiring words for us and your leadership taking our province forward. To close us out tonight, friends, I'd like to invite the Korean Traditional Art Society back to the stage. All right. Your drums come back on up. And, all right. Coming up, let's welcome the Korean Traditional Art Society. Awesome. Thank you to the Korean Traditional Art Society for giving us not one, but two fantastic performances today. All right. All right. Before we close, friends, I'd like to thank everyone who's been involved in putting on these awards. I want to give a special mention. You've seen them all. I'd like to introduce our ASL interpreters. We've got Imran. We've got Farah and Sarah right here. Thank you. Thanks for your great job. And we've enjoyed the great hospitality and food that's so important to bring us together. Let's thank the hotel staff for all their hard work. I appreciate them. And I want to thank your public servants, all the members of the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Branch. These are public servants working for you, working for us, working for British Columbians on the front lines supporting you, doing this anti-racism work. Let's recognize them. Stand up. I know they're all in the back. They're shy, but they've worked hard. And they're here committed to you working together for this work. So, our Attorney General mentioned this is a night to celebrate for all of you to connect, to come together, to recharge each other, and in the words of just the great work done at the Battle of Women's Support Services, solidarity, standing in solidarity, friends. And so, we're gonna wrap out this night because you deserve it and you've done the work. And so, I echo the call in solidarity to what, to rise up against injustice, to take a stand against inequality, to come together and all of us working in our lives and in our communities, in our capacities to bring an end to injustice, to dismantle systemic racism, to say no to violence, and to stand together for what? For respect, for honor, for justice, for dignity, for a British Columbia that we deserve and that we wanna be leaders around the world. So, thank you, friends. Thanks for all the work you do. And let's go forward and continue with our journey, all right. All right, enjoy the rest of the night. Thank you.