Garry McLean and Aboriginal Peoples

Indian Metis Friendship Centre: Indigenous organizations, immigration and refugee organizations, grassroots groups and the public are invited, according to CBC. Garry McLean, president of the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre, wants to welcome immigrants and let them know more about Aboriginal Peoples. "It a great honour for us to host the Syrians," said Garry McLean, president of the friendship centre board. "Out of the 100,000 or so indigenous people in the City of Winnipeg, 90 per cent plus of us are successful," he said. "We're not all bad people." The friendship centre can host about 800 people and McLean said the organization is opening its doors to newcomers. Will Canadians be as generous to First Nations as they are to Syrian refugees Anti-Syrian sentiment on social media worries Winnipeg school trustee Meet the people who are changing the face of Altona Refugees and immigrants learn very little about indigenous peoples before they come to Canada, said Ahmed. "You're told by people who came before you as well as mainstream society that indigenous people are lazy, they're struggling with alcohol issues, they're poor and can't do things for themselves," he said. "Here an opportunity for us to correct this by providing an opportunity for indigenous people to welcome and provide first-time perspectives on who they are, what their culture is and how we can help each other." The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre is hosting Welcome to Turtle Island Thursday night, which includes a bannock and stew feast and a meeting about resources, programs and space the indigenous community can share with the Syrian community. Some newcomers to Canada share similar cultural traditions with indigenous people, such as drumming and smudging, and some newcomers also faced colonization, said Ahmed. If anyone spoke their first language in school, they were forced to wear a disc around their neck that said "I'm stupid," he said. "We are people of the same life, people of the same culture. Ahmed is from Kenya, which gained independence from Britain in 1963, but the effects of colonization were still present while he attended high school in the late 1990s. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.