Edmonton: Standing Together Against Hate
Tables of Tradition Series: Standing Together Against Hate: A Multicultural Approach to Combating Discrimination
EDMONTON | March 26, 2025 | 6:30 PM MST
Moderated by: Austin Parcels, Manager, Research & Advocacy, B’nai Brith Canada
A discussion on how diverse communities can work together to fight racism, antisemitism, and discrimination.
Dinner will be served. Kashrut will be observed.
Location will be confirmed upon registration.
Tickets
Adults: $36
Students/seniors: $18
Children under 8: FREE
Speakers
Graham Hicks – Freelance Journalist
Graham Hicks is a freelance journalist and occasional commentator, a family man, lover of good food, nature, gardening, golfing and canoeing.
Now fully retired, his full-time journalism career with the Edmonton Sun, from 1981 to 2010, was spent thinking, talking and dreaming about the city in which he has lived and worked for 44 years, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
From 2010 to 2020, he continued to contribute two columns a week to the Edmonton Sun on a freelance basis, being Hicks on Biz and The Weekly Dish. In June of 2020, he decided to fully retire from those twice-a-week deadlines.
He is currently co-authoring three books, including a biography of Monsignor Bill Irwin, founder of Edmonton’s Catholic Social Services. Its publication will be a highlight of Catholic Social Service’s 2021’s 60th anniversary celebration.
His previous five-times-a-week town-crier style column “Hicks on Six” in the Edmonton Sun and the Edmonton Sun online from 1992 to 2010 was considered Edmonton’s best-read newspaper column.
Hicks still occasionally writes in his own HicksBiz.com blog.
Graham worked at the Ottawa Citizen, Brandon Sun and Edmonton Journal from 1973 to 1981, before joining the Edmonton Sun in the fall of 1981.
After entertainment, news and political writing assignments, he moved to Page Six as “Hicks On Six” columnist in 1992.
In the community, Graham was the founder and spokesman for the annual Edmonton Sun “Adopt-A-Teen” Christmas project, providing Christmas gifts for over 8,000 teens from low-income Edmonton families.
He founded and organized the Edmonton Sun’s annual ATCO/Edmonton Sun Christmas Charity Auction, last held in 2018.
In 2003 Hicks chaired the $2 million Catholic Social Services “Sign of Hope” Campaign. He continues to volunteer with the social agency and currently sits on its board of directors.
He is a past chair of the River Valley Alliance (RVA) Advisory Committee. The RVA is dedicated to extending Edmonton’s magnificent North Saskatchewan river valley park system, south to Devon and north to Fort Saskatchewan, creating the world’s longest river valley park.
Graham has received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for community service, Sun Media’s J.D. Creighton Award for lifetime achievement, the Grant MacEwan College’s Distinguished Citizen Award and The Rotary Club of Edmonton 2008 Integrity Award.
On the eve of his retirement from the Edmonton Sun, the City of Edmonton and then-Mayor Steve Mandel declared November 8, 2010 to be “Graham Hicks Day” in Alberta’s capital city. On Jan. 2, 2011, the Edmonton Sun published a Graham Hicks retirement special section.
His previous books include “Making Money The Old-Fashioned Way,” co-authored with financial advisor Ron Hiebert of Scotia-McLeod and a series of soft-cover Graham Hicks’ Joke Books, with the proceeds going to charity.
Graham has been happily married to Maria for 35 years. They have three adult daughters, a teacher, an actor and a videographer, plus three beautiful grandchildren, aged 9 months to three years.
Jibril Ibrahim – President, The Somali Canadian Cultural Society of Edmonton
Jibril Ibrahim, PEng is a professional Engineer who has worked in various industries in Canada and the United States from automotive, air condition system, design of mobile cranes, and has been working in the oil and gas industries as a manager of Manufacturing facility for drilling tools.
He is currently an Operations and Welding Manager of one of the oil industry companies from Alberta and finds fully satisfying to find a time to help Afro Canadians and others who are in need and mentor youth from Alberta.
He has a family of 6, wife, three boys and girl and they currently live in Edmonton.
Mr. Ibrahim is a leader who has been committed for the last 15 years to furthering the well-being and success of his Somali community in Edmonton, as well as the larger black community.
He has been involved in the community as:
• President of Somali Cultural Society of Edmonton
• Founder of the Gaashan Youth Leadership Academy, It is an academy that help youth develop life skills to become better citizen of Canada.
• Has served in the past as the Co-Chair of the African Liaison to the Edmonton Police (ACLC)
• An active voice and mobilizer of the black communities in Civic, Provincial as well as Federal Political engagements.
• A tireless advocate in matters of justice and equality for the black community and other minority groups in general is simply commendable
• Mr. Ibrahim has sat on a several boards & is an active member/volunteer for initiatives such as Out of School Time Program, Mentorship for African Youth.
In all of these capacities, Mr. Ibrahim continues to exemplify transformative leadership qualities such as:
• The ability to envision possibilities and potential opportunities for black youths and communities in Edmonton
• Humility and adaptability to work with other community leaders• A unique ability to listen well
• The maturity to deal with conflict situations in a respectful way, and
• An effective ability to execute, good will toward others.
• What is truly impressive about Mr. Ibrahim is how he juggles professions, while still adhering to his duty as husband and fatherly duties.
Mr. Ibrahim has significantly played a foundational role in empowering young black youth from Edmonton.
Abe Silverman – Manager of Public Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada
Edmonton City Police Hate Crimes Unit Member
