A safe, welcoming place to be

A safe, welcoming place to be.

That’s the idea behind the Blank Canvas Café, which is set to open in January at 356 Queen Street East.

Algoma University students and faculty, along with community members, met last week on campus to gather input on a vision for the café and its launch.

Why the name “Blank Canvas Café?”

Algoma University student Carly Breckenridge explained that the café will be like a blank artist’s canvas, and the community is the artist that fills up that space with its own ideas and individuality.

“It’ll be a place for everyone (not just Algoma University students) to express themselves freely. We are the canvas and we become a masterpiece done by the community.”

Ideas discussed at last week’s meeting in regards to a five-year vision for the café included an art gallery space for the public, a place to discuss both “serious” and “fun” topics and a place for local farmers to sell their produce.

It will be alcohol-free, so that teens can hang out at the café as well.

Peggy Lauzon, who teaches the Community Engagement and Strategic Planning class in Algoma’s Community Economic and Social Development program, told SooToday.com the idea for the café came up very recently, due in part to the uproar, both on and off campus, to the November 18 incident in which Algoma University student Monira Farah was the target of a racially-based assault in the Sault’s downtown core.

“We want the café to be a safe space to be who you are, regardless of your colour, creed, faith, and not feel you’re being discriminated against,” Lauzon said.

Bangladesh native Mostafa Khaled, already an Algoma graduate doing a second degree, was one of many who showed up at last week’s meeting and realizes the need for such a safe space.

Khaled told us he has been chased down the street in the past by hate-motivated people.

Lauzon said the location of the café will be ideal, adding: “We feel that it needs to be downtown near the Hub Trail and near the Dennis Street bus terminal because a lot of people don’t have cars. We want it to be very accessible.”

Lauzon said the initiative is partly for international students who find Algoma University’s campus welcoming, but who feel uncomfortable with what she calls “the monoculture” in the rest of Sault Ste. Marie.

On the subject of safety for international students, both male and female, Algoma University Students Union (AUSU) Vice-President Internal Farrukh Khan told us a town hall held in late November produced a lot of good discussion on the issue.

She says eliminating racially-motivated attacks can be brought about partly through education.

For example, Khan said the University has a Black History Month and another month set aside for Chinese events in which different groups can get to know each other better.

In terms of security, both Khan and Algoma’s Divisional Director of External Relations Kevin Hemsworth say the University has had a Walk Safe Program for some time, in which students can be escorted to and from the campus classrooms and library to the residences on the Queen Street campus.

They both told us there are proposals to extend Walk Safe to the University residences downtown, located in the former Windsor Park hotel.

Khan said: “We would have volunteers at the residence who are ok with being called anytime of day or night to escort a student who needed to make a trip to Tim Horton’s, for example, and that student would not be alone.”

Hemsworth said students should buddy up and never go anywhere alone.

“We’ve had a buddy system, but now students are a lot more aware because of what happened in November to one of our students. We’re discussing a more formal buddy system, to be with each other in numbers.”