Wednesday Mar 08, 2023

When Cultures Collide

In this episode, Sandrine Umunoza, Manar Jaber and I explore issues relating to the violence of systemic racism on immigrant populations in Canada. We discuss their organization GAAROA and examine antiracism efforts in the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology.

Sandrine is a bilingual speech-language pathologist of Rwandan origin who practices in English and French. She lives in Gatineau, Québec where she owns her own private practice (Cabinet d’orthophonie l’Envol). She has also offered various conferences and workshops across Canada about how to better be culturally responsive in practice and she specializes in multilingual language development and multilingual education practices with a focus on identity and culture. Also, for the past 10 years, Sandrine has been involved with indigenous communities to better serve their communication, language, and learning needs. She teaches at the University of Montreal at the Speech-language and Audiology Master’s program (École d’orthophonie et audiologie) and the University of Québec in Chicoutimi in the department of Education Sciences. Sandrine is an active member and cofounder of Le Groupe d’action antiraciste en orthophonie et en audiologie (GAAROA) or the Anti-racism Advocacy Group for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. She is also the co-author of the Report on the Impacts of Systemic Racism in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Professions in Québec (August 2020).

Manar is a trilingual speech-language pathologist of Lebanese and Syrian origins who was born and raised in Montreal. She works in the public health system and in private practice, primarily with racialized and multilingual communities. For the past three years, she has been practicing with autistic children and their families. She is interested in multilingualism, identity matters, and anti-racist activism, and is continually learning in order to make her practice more respectful of neurodiversity and more inclusive. Also, as of recently, she started working as a project coordinator for the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies in the department of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Québec in Trois-Rivière. Manar is an active member of Le Groupe d’action antiraciste en orthophonie et en audiologie (GAAROA) or the Anti-racism Advocacy Group for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Through her volunteer work with GAAROA, she has offered workshops covering topics such as cultural responsiveness, implicit biases and microaggressions. She is also the co-author of the Report on the Impacts of Systemic Racism in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Professions in Québec. She currently lives in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Connect with Sandrine:

Email: sandrineumunoza@gmail.com

Private practice: Cabinet d’orthophonie l’Envol

Website: https://www.orthophonielenvol.com/

Instagram: @orthophonielenvol

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orthophonielenvol

Connect with Manar:

Instagram: @manaar.j

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manar.jaber.91/

Email : manar.jaber91@gmail.com

GAAROA website and social media:

Website: https://www.gaaroa.ca/