Our club was very fortunate to welcome two distinguished Canadians - Nina Sudra and Dr. Rahat Zaidi to speak to us about the importance of building capacity in our educational systems to foster the development of language skills to promote learning and integration into Canadian society for newcomers to our country. This topic is timely, not just in Canada but around the world as social, political and climate upheaval causes the displacement of large numbers of people around the globe.
Nina Sudra is a Canadian director, producer, writer & actor. She is committed to creating dialogue about social issues revolving around the multicultural experience in Western countries. She has embraced her passion of filmmaking as a powerful tool to build bridges between people of different ages and cultures. (from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2801704/, January 26, 2026)
Dr. Rahat Zaidi is Professor and Chair of Language and Literacy in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research expertise focuses on multilingual literacies that clarify intersectional understandings across sociophobia, diversity, immigration, and pluralism. Through her research, she advances social justice and equity, transculturalism, and identity positioning in immigrant and transcultural contexts, all of which are particularly relevant and pertinent to the intertwining social, cultural, and political contexts in which society functions today. (from https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/rahat-zaidi, January 26, 2026)
Nina and Dr. Zaidi presented a short film titled “Bridging the Gap” that highlights the issues of culture and language integration in terms of success in the education system and the very real impacts that school attendance, acceptance in the school community and academic success can have on newcomer children. It should also be noted that language integration directly impacts the success of newcomer adults in obtaining employment and advancing their vocational or professional goals. The trailer for the film can be found and viewed here: Bridging the Gap
"The current unsettled global political climate around immigration has resulted in an unprecedented number of newcomers seeking asylum, with nearly half of these newcomers being school-aged children. Host countries have become responsible for providing educational programming, and language lessons, and developing strategies for bolstering these children’s physical and mental well-being. Consequently, a dire demand has been created for increased research on the optimal ways to integrate newcomer families into mainstream society while simultaneously recognizing and addressing their unique backgrounds and challenges. For most families, particularly the children, schools are the initial and main point of contact during the first few critical years of transition.
Bridging the Gap tells the stories of newcomers through a strengths-based, resilient lens that highlights the depth of these families’ investment in both their future and in their children’s education. This is often cited as the driving force behind the difficult choices and sacrifices these families have to make to come to Canada." (from https://werklund.ucalgary.ca/research/transliteracies/our-impact/bridging-gap-documentary, January 26, 2026)
One of the featured people in the film, Michelle Vroba was present today as well. Michelle is an educator in the Brooks/County of Newell school system who also has an academic and practical interest in this topic as well. After the screening of the film, an engaged and robust Question and Answer followed that highlighted not only the passion of the presenters for the topic but also the interest of our members.