Ottawa, March 20, 2011 — Tomorrow, Candice Hoeppner, Member of Parliament for Portage-Lisgar, on behalf of Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, will honour the 11 winners of the 2010 Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition at a ceremony to be held at the National Arts Centre.
“These young people are passionately leading the way in combating racism,” said MP Hoeppner. “They are leading by example and truly deserve this award for their hard work and initiative. Their tremendous creativity is helping send a clear message to Canadians that discrimination is unacceptable”
Students between 10 and 20 years of age were eligible to enter the competition. The winners include four teams from Ontario, three teams from British Columbia, two from Manitoba and one team each from Nova Scotia and Quebec. Each team consists of one to five young people, with an adult supervisor. The public were also able to vote for their favorite of 50 semi-finalists out of nearly 300 submissions for the Public Choice Award on the March 21 YouTube channel.
Winning teams received an all expenses paid trip to Ottawa for the awards ceremony, and will have 30–second clips of their videos aired on either Access TV, VRAK or OMNI as anti‑racism public service announcements. All winning schools, organizations or groups will also receive a Panasonic Digital Palmcorder® Multicam™ Camcorder.
The Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition has been held since 1996 to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This is commemorated each year since 1960 on March 21st, the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, where 69 South Africans died when police opened fire on a crowd of protesters opposing apartheid.
For more information on the National Video Competition, please visit www.march21.gc.ca.
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For further information (media only), please contact:
Alykhan Velshi
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
