With over 20 years of experience in Research and Development, Marketing and Brand Management, Bedford Buyungo has established himself as a seasoned professional in the industry. Having worked with reputable local, regional, and international brands, Bedford has held various leadership positions and serves as a consultant for organizations such as Uganda Airlines, PLO Foundation – Kenya, Savenda Group of companies – Zambia, The 300 University – USA, and as a business developer for Thembekile Mandela Foundation in South Africa.

Bedford will talk about how to leverage Research and Development and brand science to foster brand development for Ugandan and Canadian brands in Uganda, Canada, North America and Africa at large

Solomon Serwanjja – Executive Director, African Institute for Investigative Journalism. AIIJ

Solomon Serwanjja is a Ugandan award-winning investigative journalist and the Executive Director of the African Institute for Investigative Journalism. He holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism and communication from Makerere University. In 2019, Mr. Serwanjja won the BBC Komla Dumor award, a prestigious honor to Africa’s top journalist of the year. He has an incremental experience of 14 years in investigative reporting and broadcast journalism a s a whole having worked with national, regional and international media. Mr. Serwanjja has ably hosted the Uganda Diaspora Network events for the past 5 years. He will be in Ottawa this year to host the B2B – Business breakfast meet during the Canada Day Long Weekend.

Dr. Shaka Ssali is a Ugandan born American journalist, holds a doctorate in cross cultural communication and history from UCLA in California. He is a former Ford Foundation Fellow and has received numerous honors, including a United Nations Peacekeeping Special Achievement Award in International Journalism.

Other awards include VOA’s Best Journalist Award, The Uganda Diaspora Award 2011 and Kigezi College Butobere’s first ever Highest Achievement Award in International Human Communication – Butobere is located in Kabale, Southwestern Uganda and Shaka’s alma mater.

In April 2021 Dr. shaka Ssali announced that he was stepping down as the longest host of the VOA flagship show to the Continent – Straight Talk Africa and Ms. Haydé Adams was named by VOA as his replacement. Dr. Shaka is currently working on his new book and memoirs – “Defying the Odds; The Kabale kid’s Journey from Uganda to America.”

Dr. Shaka worked for the Voice of America for 23 years and was the managing editor – Voice of America’s English to Africa service and the host of “Straight Talk Africa.” 

This year the Uganda Canada Convention in Toronto will recognize and honor Dr. Shaka Ssali for his Contribution and inspiration to the continent and the African diaspora! Join us for the Cultural Independence Gala dinner as we celebrate Uganda’s accomplished son –  Sunday evening October 9th in Toronto, Canada.

Susan is the Founder and Executive Director of Africa Trade Desk, the Vice President Canada-Africa Chamber of Business and Board Chair of the Afro Canadian Chamber of Commerce. She is a seasoned, client-focused, and results-oriented executive, with a twenty-five year plus track record of management, mobilizing partners, teams, and stakeholders with often competing interests to solve problems and achieve measurable results.

She has an in-depth expertise and knowledge in building team resiliency, leading consultations among diverse stakeholders around the world with reference to agenda setting, strategic vision on sustainable development, trade, delivering on new change, project management and small and medium sized enterprises.

Susan has longstanding expertise on policy, partnerships, strategy, outreach, communications, as well an experienced fundraiser, presenter, and trainer.

Susan is very involved in her community in Canada and Africa, and the broader International African Diaspora through various community development initiatives on gender equality, environment, connectivity, food security, diversity, and inclusion. She is passionate about women and girls’ leadership, wellbeing, and development.

Susan will be a featured guest speaker on the Business opportunities that exists in Canada during the Uganda Cultural Business Expo & Convention in Toronto, Canada. Saturday October 9th 2021. 

Susan Namulindwa

Executive Director | Africa Trade Desk
116 Prom. du Portage, Gatineau, QC J8X 2K1

E: [email protected] | www.africatradedesk.com

Professor PLO Lumumba is the Founder of the PLO Lumumba Foundation and a consultant with Lumumba and Lumumba Advocates, a member of the Africa Justice Group (AJG). He is an Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanganyika and a certified mediator.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya FCPS (K), a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Management (FKIM) and Honorary Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS). He is the Chairman of Farafina Investment Group in Monrovia, Liberia and Economic Strategic Growth and Development Initiative for Africa based
in Nigeria.

He has authored several books on diverse subjects. With several speeches on diverse subjects delivered in and outside Africa, Lumumba is recognized as one of the leading public speakers in Africa and the African in Diaspora. He is the founder of several organizations including the PLO Lumumba Foundation, a charitable organization that has been in operation since 1990. He has also been twice recognized as one of the 100 most influential Africans.

Prof. PLO Lumumba will be this year’s keynote speaker during the Uganda Canada Business Expo & Cultural Convention at the downtown courtyard Marriott hotel in Toronto, Canada. He will also be doing a meet and greet book signing event at the hotel as well. Book your spot to attend and learn from this renown Pan African leader!!

Foundation website – https://plofoundation.org/

Canada plans to bring in more than 1.2 million new immigrants over the next three years, the federal immigration minister said on Friday, as the country tries to fill gaps in its labour market and boost the economy, both hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the federal government aims to accept 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, another 411,000 in 2022 and then 421,000 in 2023.

Canada needs more workers, he said, “and immigration is the way to get there”.

“Before the pandemic, our government’s goal to drive the economy forward through immigration was ambitious. Now it’s simply vital,” said Mendicino, who tabled the new immigration targets earlier in the day.

Robert Falconer, a refugee and immigration policy researcher at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy, Friday says that if the government meets its goals, the next three years will be “the highest years on record since 1911”.

In outlining the details of its plan, Ottawa said it aims to welcome 232,500 newcomers from the economic class of immigrants in 2021, as well as family members of people already in Canada, 59,500 refugees and other protected persons. Another 5,500 people will be accepted on humanitarian grounds.

Canada’s immigration system has long been held up as a model, as it has historically brought in skilled workers as well as refugees and individuals seeking to reunite with family members already in the country.

The country closed its borders to most immigrants in March due to COVID-19. Through August, it had settled 128,425 newcomers, Reuters news agency reported – less than half of the 341,000-person target it had set for 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic also has put glaring inequalities and longstanding problems with Canada’s immigration system under increased scrutiny.

Many asylum seekers and refugees face poor working conditions, while several key industries in Canada, such as healthcare, food processing and farming, rely on workers whose precarious immigration status places them at risk of abuse.

A movement has grown over the past several months demanding Canada grant permanent immigration status for these front line workers, many of whom are labouring under conditions that place them at risk of contracting COVID-19.

‘Status for all’

Amid that pressure, the federal government announced plans earlier this year to regularize the status of a narrow segment of these workers – asylum seekers working in specific healthcare jobs – that politicians dubbed “guardian angels”.

Some estimates put the number of workers eligible for that pathway to residency at about 1,000 people, however – far lower than the total number of workers with non-permanent status in Canada.

“Immigrants are critical to our healthcare sector and represent one in four working in our hospitals and long-term care homes,” Mendicino said on Friday.

“Whether they’ve been taking care of our most vulnerable, or putting food on our tables, newcomers have played an outsized role in our response to COVID-19.”

Reacting to the announcement, the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, an advocacy group, said the government should put in place “a single-tier immigration system” that ensures status for all migrants.

Hundreds of organisations across Canada have endorsed that demand and a national day of action is scheduled for November 1.

“All migrants, refugees and undocumented people in the country must be regularized and given full immigration status now without exception. All migrants arriving in the future must do so with full and permanent immigration status,” the groups say in a letter.

Canada has been hard hit by COVID-19, reporting more than 232,000 cases and at least 10,000 deaths attributed to the virus since the pandemic began.

Earlier on Friday, the country’s top public health officer urged Canadians to reduce their contacts with others by at least 25 percent in order to stem the second wave of the pandemic.

“To bend the epidemic curve and reduce transmission to lover levels … we must really reduce our number of contacts as much as possible,” Dr Theresa Tam said, as reported by CBC News.

Source – Al Jazeera