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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday January 26, 2007 - 5 Newshounds ready to ply their trade in Canada By Ashoke Dasgupta SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The immigrant professional, underemployed as a security guard, call centre agent or blackjack dealer, has been a Canadian icon for three decades now. That icon may be on its way out, since Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced learning has initiated a pioneering program at its Oakville campus. Sheridan has plans for similar programs tailored to the needs of immigrant nurses, teachers and other professions, as well. No such academic productions have been offered in Canada before this. Called Canadian Journalism for Internationally-trained Writers, the first program has 32 students, who immigrated from Argentina, Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, India, Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere. The program started in January and runs until December, with a three-month work practicum or field placement. Classes run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, enabling many of the students to hold down their full-time jobs to support their families while attending school. The tuition fees are $4,400 a year. Some of the students receive financial assistance through scholarships from donors such as the Globe and Mail, CBC, Torstar and Canadian Press. Most of the journalism students were newshounds in their old countries, but are experiencing difficulties finding wordslinging opportunities in Canada. "I knew there were all these writers of various ethnic backgrounds in the Greater Toronto Area," explains program coordinator Joyce Wayne. "One day in January last year, I was having tea with an old friend, Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, and her husband John Ralston Saul. I broached the idea of such a course for writers to them. They thought it a great idea." Thus encouraged, Wayne approached Sheridan academic vice-president Maureen Callahan. "She took about two minutes to recognize the value of the idea saying, `Go ahead and start the program.'" "I put together a program advisory committee of media people chaired by Jim Poling, managing editor of The Hamilton Spectator," continues Wayne. "We developed a thorough, high-level, engaging Maureen Callahan, Sheridan Vice President, Academic curriculum. The Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities was impressed by the program's specificity, and eight students are already waiting for the next session to start in January 2008." The stories of some of the students are such stuff as movies are made of. "In 2000, I was imprisoned for a cartoon I created showing Dean Dr. Michael Collins a crocodile crushing a problematic writer with its tail, which offended Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi," says one of the students, Nikahang Kowsar, of Iran. After three days of protests by thousands of theological students and clerics in the holy city of Qom, Kowsar was held for a week at Evin Prison, Tehran, after the national Press Supervisory Board referred the case to court. In May 2003, he received a death threat from a group responsible for the murders of several intellectuals. Hand-written in Farsi, the note said three Islamic judges had decided he must die for publishing press items against Islam. Kowsar considered the note a prank until he received three phone calls from friends informing him that he was on the "Children of Navab Safavi" execution list. Navab Safavi was a famous religious assassin of the 1950s, executed during the Shah Reza Pahlavi's reign. Having a few relatives in Toronto, Kowsar immigrated to Canada in 2003. His wife is still in Tehran, awaiting a visa to join him. "I'm learning the language and getting a sense of Canadian journalism in the course," declares Kowsar. "I want to hone my writing and editing skills," explains Rashid Mughal, of Kenya. "I was editor-in-chief, News Publishers, overseeing eight magazines at sub-Saharan Africa's largest magazine publisher, but had to leave the country when racially-motivated attacks on minorities followed a 1981 coup. Since a cousin's friends were in Kitchener, Waterloo, my wife and children migrated there in 1988, moving to Mississauga later." Maryam Nabavinejad began pursuing her interest in journalism shortly after completing a bachelor's degree in French Literature at Esfahan, Iran. "My career path was influenced by my involvement in `Zendehrood,' a Persian-language journal on culture and literature started and published by my father since 1989. Zendehrood is the name of a river in Esfahan, and my father asked me to translate French and English articles into Persian," recollects Maryam, who completed a Master's in French Studies at York University last May and hopes to develop into a Canadian journalist via the Sheridan program. Currently an investment and insurance advisor for the World Financial Group, Fayyaz Walana immigrated to Canada from Pakistan with his wife and two children a year ago. "I'm learning a lot in this course, and hope to get into the mainstream media after completing it," says Walana, who had exposed corruption as managing editor of the "Daily Kainaat" (Universe). Cars with tinted glasses were following him, his wife and brother, a top civil servant. Customs and income tax bureaucrats were harassing his newspaper's publishers when Walana's friends advised him to skip town. At a reception for the program's organizers and funders on Monday, Sheridan academic vice-president Maureen Callahan expressed her appreciation of Wayne's vision and advocacy adding, " Sheridan has some of the strongest media communications programs in the province and can support this program with intellectual resources and program-related facilities." -- Ashoke Dasgupta is a student enrolled in the Canadian Journalism for Internationally-Trained Writers program. THREE CHEERS: Students Luis Matta, Freddy Velez, Rita Lieerato and Jose Schuster chat at a reception celebrating the launch of the new Canadian Journalism for Internationally Trained Writers Monday at Sheridan College Institute for Technology and Advanced Learning. Reading | Writing | Math | Spelling | Grammar | French | Study Skills INSIDE EVERY CHILD IS A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT. For every age, for every need, Oxford Learning has a program to help your child succeed! 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