Written by Russell Skeet ||
One local, who deals with immigrants and their issues, isn’t happy with how others are treating workers from the Cargill plant north of High River.
Ricardo Morales, who’s called High River home for the last 32 years, is the Director of Community Development and Integration Services with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Services.
He also oversees the work of the Foothills Community Immigrant Services.
He says what he’s hearing and seeing online being said about the mainly Filipino work force from Cargill is not what he’s come to know from High River and Foothills residents.
“What is happening today could be as a direct result of people’s uncertainties, people’s fears, people’s feelings about their own personal safety. However I think some of those elements which are somehow presenting a negative backlash. It is not indicative of the community spirit we have in the Foothills.”
Morales says it’s upsetting to see people of certain ethnicities being branded as “infected,” and being treated disrespectfully because of it.
We acknowledge Calgary and area as Treaty 7 territory. We acknowledge the Treaty 7 nations; the Piikani, Siksika, Kainai, Iyarhe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina First Nations. We acknowledge the ancestral territory of Siksikaitsitapi, the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the home of the Métis Nation of Alberta—Region 3. We are all treaty people.
In partnership, we empower immigrants and refugees to successfully settle and integrate in our communities.
CHARITY REGISTRATION #118823244RR0001
