NCCM to livestream federal election debate about issues impacting Canadian Muslim youth
(Ottawa – September 17, 2015) The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a prominent Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, announces that it is sponsoring the national livestream of an important election debate seeking to explore issues impacting Canadian Muslim youth.
“Young, Canadian + Muslim” is the title of a debate planned for Friday, September 18th at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Seats are already sold out; however, the NCCM will be video livestreaming the event across the country, in partnership with the online news portal rabble.ca.
“Viewing parties are planned for a number of cities including Regina, Halifax, Windsor, Montreal, Ottawa, and Winnipeg,” says Amira Elghawaby, NCCM’s Communications Director. “There is a tremendous amount of buzz across social media for this event and that is a great sign of youth engagement. We know that young people, as well as members of ethno-cultural communities, are less likely to participate in elections for a variety of reasons. We’re hoping to help buck that trend on October 19.”
The livestream initiative is part of the NCCM’s civic engagement campaign titled, “Election Energized: Activating Canadian Muslim Voters”. The campaign includes workshops, social media & videos, and a much-anticipated special election guide that will be launched at the debate.
The debate is co-sponsored by a number of Canadian Muslim organizations including the NCCM, and is led by DawaNet’s Project Civic Engagement. The discussion with candidates from the four main federal parties will centre on multiculturalism, immigration, and other topics of interest to young Canadian Muslims, including Islamophobia in the public discourse, Canada’s international standing, women’s rights, and national security. The debate will also touch on other general issues, including jobs, rising income inequality and concerns over civil liberties.
Participants include:
• Karim Jivraj, Conservative candidate for University-Rosedale
• Andrew Cash, NDP candidate for Davenport
• Hon. John McCallum, Liberal candidate for Markham-Thornhill
• Linh Nguyen, Green Party candidate for Mississauga Centre
The debate will be moderated by freelance journalists Ginella Massa and Naheed Mustafa.
The livestream will be publicly available at the following link at 6:30pm Eastern time on September 18th: http://original.livestream.com/rabbletv .
Canadians are invited to check the NCCM’s Facebook page to find viewing parties in their cities or to coordinate their own.
