‘It’s Like A Second Chance At Life:’ Toronto Celebrates 8th Annual Newcomer Day

After a two-year gap necessitated by the pandemic, Toronto marked its eighth annual Newcomer Day on Wednesday.
The event, held at Nathan Phillips Square, was created in 2015 to welcome newcomers and celebrate their contributions to the multicultural landscape of the city.

“This is a city of newcomers. About 50 per cent of Torontonians were born outside Canada,” said Deputy Mayor Anna Bailao. “The way that we welcome, that we make them feel like they belong, that we inform them of the services that we have available, how we do things and that we also learn from them I think is quite important.”

Festivities included musical performances as well as an information fair that introduced newcomers to the various programs available to them through various city departments and other settlement agencies.

“I’ve been blown away with so much information here – from career planning, education – there’s several opportunities,” said Ali from Uganda. “Some of these opportunities are free — it’s something that I never thought that someone like me, a refugee claimant, would be able to access. I find that very, very empowering. It’s like a second chance at life.”
Harshil from India echoed those sentiments, saying the services he learned about will help him adapt well to life in Toronto.

“There are lots of stalls and agencies that connect me to employers or that can help me in settling down here,” he said.
In addition, the day presented opportunities to learn about the city by way of a 30-minute walking tour around City Hall, focusing on facts about the neighbourhood and nearby areas.

“I learned about the history of city hall and China Town,” said Janice from China, adding that she was also impressed with all the career and employment services available.

Other programming included arts-based activities such as a tipi designing workshop where participants were able to decorate pre-made tipis while learning about Indigenous culture. An origami workshop that guided participants to create spoons with large pieces of paper facilitated learnings about the dish with one spoon agreement.

Staff from the city clerk’s office were also on hand to provide newcomers with information about how they can engage civically as residents of the city. Given that both the city and province have upcoming elections this year, they conducted a mock voting exercise where participants could vote on issues important to them.
Toronto Public Health also hosted a COVID-19 vaccine clinic on site.

We know that there are many people who have come from all over the world and haven’t even had the opportunity to get the vaccine maybe from the country that they’re from and that’s why it was so important to have a clinic here,” said Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vinita Dubey. “We’ve been doing this — we call it hyper local, equity focused strategy — to bring vaccines into communities to make it easier for people to get the vaccine and we know that it works.”

‘Access has always been important. We need to go where people are. We knew that there we going to be a lot of people here and we wanted to make sure that [vaccine] service was also available,” said Bailao.

She added that the day is of particular significance to her as she relates to newcomers’ need to connect and settle in the city they choose to call home.
“I came when I was 15. I know the feeling … how you crave to have this connection with other people that are experiencing the same thing,” she said.

Bailao said as a city, Toronto strives to make newcomers feel welcome, wanted and accepted while celebrating how they have enriched the city and looking forward to the contributions to come.
“As a newcomer, I’ve been welcomed with open arms and I feel at home,” said Ali.