1999 Harmony Award Recipient

The Town of Ajax Race Relations Advisory Committee was formed in the fall of 1996 and confirmed in Council through a special by-law in January 1997. The committee is a mixed structure consisting of twenty people. Since its formation, the Committee has partnered in community events, activities, projects, conferences, and discussions, to promote race relations work at a direct grassroots community level.

In response to the growing diversity in the Town, and the need to be pro-active towards the elimination of prejudice and discrimination within the community, the Committee launched a Race Relations Policy for the Town of Ajax. The policy was the result of eight months of work involving focus groups and community consultations. The Policy was unanimously approved by Town Council and has been distributed annually to over thirty-five thousand households in Ajax.

The Committee has been active in undertaking programs and projects designed to promote and encourage racial harmony within the Town of Ajax and the Region of Durham. Multicultural festivals are held each year to commemorate the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. These large-scale community events are attended by hundreds of people from across the Region and attract many performing artists from different disciplines. Both school boards showcase their anti-racist education materials and activities.

With funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Committee also works closely with school boards in the Region of Durham to administer a school and community linkages program. The goal of the program is to promote ethnocultural equity, positive race relations and human rights awareness. Plans are made to expand the network to the neighbouring regions.

Individual members within the Committee have also been recognized for the work they have done. In 1998, Hussam El Khazen, a youth representative to the Committee, received the Lincoln Alexander Race Relations Award. In 1999, Paul Pakyam, the Vice Chair of the Committee, was awarded the prestigious Ajax Civic Award in recognition of the work done by the Committee in bringing together the different communities that make Ajax their home.

The Ajax Race Relations Advisory Committee brings strength through its diversity, knowledge base, commitment, work ethic and vision. A key objective of the Committee is to “make a quantum leap in the area of race relations – making the Town a leader in race relations”.

Harmony Awards of Distinction

Darren Lund and the Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School, Red Deer, Alberta

Darren Lund loves being a teacher. He has taught English since 1986 at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School and has also taught courses at the University of British Columbia, Red Deer College, and the University of Hawaii.

Born and raised in Calgary, Mr. Lund earned his Bachelor of Education at the University of Calgary, and Master of Arts at the University of Victoria. In 1990 he was selected as a Rotary International Ambassador of Goodwill, winning a Rotary International Graduate Scholarship to pursue post-graduate studies in Education at the University of Hawaii.

It was in 1987, during his first year of teaching, that Darren Lund spearheaded a student action group called Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice (STOP) when a class discussion on poetry turned into an enthusiastic discussion on discrimination. Countering their region’s reputation for racist extremism – fueled in part by the 1985 Red Deer trial of convicted hate-monger James Keegstra – members of STOP organized what has become a model for student activism across Canada. The ongoing program continues to attract a diverse mix of students committed to social justice in the school, community, and globally. They meet weekly to organize a variety of educational activities including guest speakers, conferences, alternative music concerts, art contests, rallies, political lobbying, cultural events and displays.

Other schools around Alberta have formed STOP chapters and the program has won many national awards. Among them, the 1998 Race Relations Award from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the 1993 Together We’re Better Award from Heritage Canada, and the 1993 Canadian Student Human Rights Achievement Award from the League for Human Rights of B’Nai Brith Canada. Over the years they have attracted over $25,000 in grants for their projects. Just this past spring one of STOP’s student leaders, Heather Lawrence, won a national essay contest from Canadian Living Magazine for her report of the group’s Tibet awareness project.

Mr. Lund’s tireless efforts coordinating the group have often been recognized. In 1996, Readers Digest named him a National Leader in Education. During his first year as the advisor to STOP a student’s nomination allowed him to win the first ever Alberta Human Rights Award in 1987. The EF Institute for Cultural Exchange honoured Darren as Canada’s 1995 Global Educator of the Year. Mr. Lund has also won a 1993 Citation for Citizenship from the Minister of Culture and Multiculturalism. In 1989, he was conferred the Hilroy National Award of Great Merit for innovation in teaching, the National Multicultural Leadership Award from the Canadian Council for Multicultural and Intercultural Education, and a Canada 125 medal from the Governor General. In addition to his full-time teaching, Darren Lund is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of British Columbia in the Centre for the Study of Curriculum and Instruction. A valued contributor to diversity, youth and human rights projects, Mr. Lund is often called upon to volunteer his time with government and community boards and agencies. He has helped coordinate and produce a number of provincial conferences, contests, drama productions, publications, and teaching resources.

Bridging the gap between the classroom, student activism, and university research, Darren has published his writings on educational issues in magazines, newspapers, and professional and scholarly journals. With a lively sense of humour, Darren has spoken at over 50 conferences, including presenting academic papers, giving motivational talks to students, and presenting numerous sessions at teachers’ conventions, diversity conferences, and community meetings.

The inaugural Harmony Award of Distinction honours a person whose ongoing efforts in education, both personally and through the legacy of the STOP program he founded, encourages a new generation of young Canadians to continue the struggle for fairness and harmony.