The Renewed Canadian Welcome Book Tour: Chatham
A Renewed Canadian Welcome (published by McGill-Queen’s University Press) was born out of CPJ’s refugee and migrant rights work and blends personal narrative with sharp policy critique. The volume brings together refugees, migrants, and advocates to reimagine what our immigration policies would look like if they were based on human rights and informed by lived experience of those most affected by them – refugees and migrants themselves.
This book launch event will feature book contributor Rena Namago, CPJ’s refugee and migrant rights policy officer. Rena co-authored a chapter in the book with Dr. Ethel Tungohan called Settler Colonialism, Canadian Immigration, and Grassroots Movements for Change.
Join us for the Chatham stop of the Renewed Canadian Welcome Book Tour to hear from Rena as she shares reflections about the settler colonial roots of Canada’s immigration system and the grassroots movements for change.
To attend the event, please fill out the RSVP form below.
Register to secure your spot at the event
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Meet your speakers
Rena Namago is CPJ’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Policy Officer. She has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and has experience working with human rights organizations, advocacy groups, and grassroots organizers in Palestine, Uganda, and Canada. She is particularly passionate about encouraging Christian faith communities to act for peace and justice. She also coauthored a chapter about settler colonialism, Canadian immigration, and grassroots movements for change in the book A Renewed Canadian Welcome.
Gabriel Allahdua is a former migrant farm worker from St Lucia, an island in the Eastern Caribbean. He is an organizer with the collective, Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) for almost a decade. He is currently an Outreach Worker working with migrant workers across Ontario and Education and Mobilization Officer with the Association for the Rights of Household and farm Workers (DTMF). He was Activist in Residence (AIR) at the University of Guelph, the first person to hold that position, which brought activists and researchers together.
Dr. Vasanthi Venkatesh is Associate Professor in Law, Land, and Local Economies at the University of Windsor. Her research focuses on law, resistance, and social movements; labour migration and citizenship; racialisation, colonialism and discrimination; and political economy of agriculture and technology. With Justicia for Migrant Workers in Ontario, she administers the Migrant Farmworkers Clinic at Windsor Law; this is the first legal clinic for migrant farm workers in Canada and is based on law and organising principles. She has worked and continues to work with a variety of activist, grassroots, and human rights organizations globally and in Canada.
Copies of A Renewed Canadian Welcome will be available for purchase at the event—but to get your hands on a copy before the event, buy your copy through CPJ and support our refugee and migrant rights work!
Are you interested in hosting your own CPJ event?
CPJ members are an engaged and connected community of public justice advocates. If you have an idea for an event that you’d like to host in your own community, we encourage you to reach out to us by emailing cpj@cpj.ca.
We can support you with:
- Sep 15 2026
- 7:00 pm
- Free
- 120 Queen Street
- https://www.chatham-kent.ca/library/Pages/default.aspx
Speakers
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Gabriel AllahduaFormer migrant farm worker, organizer, authorGabriel Allahdua, former migrant farm worker, organizer, author
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Rena NamagoCPJ's Refugee and Migrant Rights Policy OfficerRena Namago is CPJ’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Policy Officer.
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Vasanthi VenkateshAssociate Professor in Law, Land, and Local Economies, University of WindsorVasanthi Venkatesh, Associate Professor in Law, Land, and Local Economies, University of Windsor