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David Mitchell, one of North America’s foremost experts on racial profiling, will be a featured speaker at a conference presented by the Human Rights Committee of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario this Friday and Saturday in Toronto. The conference, to be held at Ryerson University’s Student Campus Centre, is focused on poverty and will look at appropriate responses to HIV/AIDS within Ontario aboriginal communities and in Southern Africa among other issues.

Mitchell, who will speak on Friday morning, is the founding President of the Association of Black Law Enforcers (ABLE). He is currently on the Board of Directors at Toronto Community Housing and Deputy Superintendent of Operations at the Toronto East Detention Centre.

On Saturday afternoon, Seodi White, an award-winning advocate, lawyer and researcher on women’s rights in South Africa will speak on ‘Women’s Rights, HIV/AIDS and the Appropriateness of the Response: Lived Realities from Malawi and Southern Africa’. A Director of Women and the Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust in Malawi, White received the Malawi Human Rights Commission award in 2004 for her contribution to the advancement of women and children’s rights.

Joining White will be Toronto streetworker Wanda Whitebird, who will provide an update on the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS strategy. It was implemented in 1995 to respond to the changing epidemic with the Aboriginal population and meet the distinct needs of Aboriginal people.

Date:  Friday, November 16, 2007
Location: Ryerson University
  Student Campus Centre
  55 Gould Street
10:30 a.m. – David Mitchell, Racial Profiling

Date:  Saturday, November 17, 2007
2:30 p.m. – Wanda Whitebird-Aboriginal HIV Strategy
3:00 p.m. – Seodi White, Women’s Rights, HIV/AIDS Response  

For further information, contact:

Valerie Dugale  CUPE Communications    647-225-3685
Yolanda McClean Chair, CUPE Ontario’s Human Rights Committee    416-885-6395