Connection. Isolation.
Empowerment. Disenfranchisement.
Protest. Complicity.

What does it mean to be a citizen now?

Join us for three day of ideas, conversation, and action on the most pressing issues facing us, as individuals and as a society, today.

Full schedule at a glance

The community citizenship ceremonies hosted by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship are a celebration of new Canadian citizens, offering a unique opportunity to reflect on the meaning of active citizenship. Every ceremony is preceded by lively roundtable discussions hosted by community leaders, followed by an informal reception.

No registration required

The ICC Fellowship provides the opportunity for young leaders from around the world to make a change in their own community through the creation and implementation of projects on inclusion and citizenship. This year’s fellowship focuses on the intersection of technology and citizenship. The 2018 ICC fellows will participate in a workshop on Monday, September 24.

This is a private event

Sue Gardner, a leader and thinker at the forefront of the digital age will deliver the 16th LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture. Gardner played a crucial role in the explosive growth of Wikipedia. As head of cbc.ca, she reinvented the CBC’s place in the digital world. Ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s most powerful women, Gardner is a rare and arresting voice whose work addresses the dilemmas raised by technology, and the personal and societal questions each of us must face.

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9:30 a.m.
I. Where Inclusion Happens
Host: Sevaun Palvetzian, with Yiannis Boutaris, Javier López Casarín, Giusi Nicolini, Jai Sahak, and Daniel Webb

II. Coffeehouse
Host: Abdul-Rehman Malik, with Upkar Arora, Anick Charland, Rachelle Galloway-Popotas, Nikki Gladstone, Monia Mazigh, Nadia Setti, Thilo Schaefer, and Ryan van der Marel

12:30 p.m.: Lunch

3:15 p.m.

I. Exchange: The Once and Future Plurinational Canada, in collaboration with the Centre for International Governance Innovation
Host: John Ralston Saul, with Sara Mainville, Joshua Nichols, and Niigaan Sinclair

II. Exchange: Shared Spaces
Host: Eva Salinas, with Vanessa Arelle, Jennifer Corriero, Lamia Naji, and Ayaz Virani

III. Exchange: The Art of Inclusion

IV. Exchange: The Living Room

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Technology promised free speech, free information, and a new digital commons. A connected utopia balancing privacy and access to improve our world. This colossal platform for organizing, communicating, and mobilizing holds the potential for real, offline change. But it’s under threat. Marketing algorithms, the surveillance economy, and privacy breaches challenge our trust.

Is our online connection isolating us offline? Is technology truly a tool for citizenship?

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Power and privilege are changing. Traditional structures persist, but influence has spread to different places, and is in different hands. These shifts create opportunities for empowerment, but also disenfranchisement. Some people are still left on the outside, looking in. But the evolving democratization of power is applying external pressure for institutional change.

Whose voices are being heard? How do we serve the many instead of the few?

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Knowing the power of art as a tool for change, this evening brings together an incredible array of artists who are inspired, energized and mobilized in this city.

6 Degrees Presents will showcase some of the best of Toronto’s young creative class. Through music, spoken word, dance and creative collaboration, we will build bridges between cultures, art, and activism, and celebrate the essence of what it means to be a fully engaged citizen of the here and now.

Our headline guest is award-winning musician, actor, author, and activist Emmanuel Jal. From child soldier in South Sudan to sharing a stage with artists such as Lauryn Hill, Peter Gabriel, and Alicia Keys, Jal spreads his powerful message of peace through music.

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We need a new definition of citizenship.

The dichotomies between opportunity and threat, agency and apathy, have never been more starkly felt. They’re real and part of our world. Yet, instead of working toward our shared goal of inclusion and a fair society, we focus on emerging fault lines, distrusting the intentions of those with whom we share anxieties, aspirations, and ultimately, our fate.

How do we find common ground? How do we re-engage, as citizens, in citizenship itself?

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I. Prophets of Dystopia: Atwood, Art, and Inspired Activism
Host: Johanna Schneller, with Ane Crabtree, Sage Paul, and Devyani Saltzman

II. Exchange: Closed Shops: Making Canada’s engineering profession more inclusive of international engineers
Host: Scott Young, with Katrina de Asis, Moody Farag, Lauren Heuser, and Aarthi Vig

III. Exchange: Youth and the Future of Work, in collaboration with RBC
Host: Anne-Laure Mathieu, with Eugenia Duodo, Hamoon Ekhtiari, Huda Idrees, and Caro Loutfi

IV. Exchange: The Living Room

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How do conversations, and the ideas emerging from them, become concrete solutions and calls to action? How, too, do we ensure that everyone at 6 Degrees gets to contribute? For our final 360, we leave the circle open and invite everyone in the space to work together to frame what we’ve learned, and decide what the next steps should be.

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The Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship is awarded annually to a leader whose life work has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the ideals of belonging and inclusion. Through words, actions, and results, recipients encourage thought, dialogue, approaches, and strategies that strive to remove barriers, change attitudes, and reinforce the principles of tolerance and respect. The 2018 laureate is Margaret Atwood. Her brilliant writing and dedication to civic participation demonstrate a fearless commitment to the ideals of belonging and citizenship, and to the principles of tolerance and respect.

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