Communities join forces to battle prejudice and fear
A few days after the terrorist attack at a mosque in Quebec City this past January, the Roxboro United Church invited the local Muslim community to join them for their annual pancake dinner.
Congregants from both communities joined together to eat, pray and get to know one another. At the dinner, Pierrefonds residents Bill Goble and his wife Debra Louise Barry reached out to members of Hilm, a local Muslim non-profit organization, and offered to train members of the Muslim commu- nity in self-defence.
“There was a sense of fear and concern regarding racism, sexism, religious prejudices and other class distinctions (in the Muslim community),” Goble said.
With 20 years of training in Chinese martial arts and various Asian self-defence systems, Goble has a personal background in violence prevention instruction and wanted to offer his services.
“When a person is intersected by multiple prejudicial definitions there is an increase in susceptibility to various forms of violence. Strong Orange Violence Prevention (SOVP) tries to help empower people to be aware of these forms of violence, how they form and how to be able to avoid or manage the development of violence as it is forming,” said Goble, director, instructor and responsible for certification development at SOVP.
“There seemed to be a need to help with development of personal empowerment and personal safety in the Muslim community,” he said, which prompted him to lend a hand.
“This self-defence course should be a must for every woman. The same way we should all know how to change a tire, we should all know the basics of self defence,” noted Kirkland resident Umberine Chaudhry, a chartered accountant and mother of four. She attended the course along with a group of other Muslim women from the West Island.
“I’d like to thank Mayor Jim Beis and the (borough) of (Pierrefonds-Roxboro) for providing us with the location we used for training,” Goble said. “There was a lot of discussion regarding deescalation methodologies and a lot of awareness scenario discussion,” in the first few sessions of the self defence workshops.
“We are so thankful to Bill and his lovely wife Debra for their generous offer to help equip our community with the tools we need to protect ourselves,” Chaudhry said.
“We have worked with First Nations communities and front line workers from women’s shelters and various social agencies. We have provided empowerment-based training across the spectrum for many definable demographics who might be at risk,” said Goble, an electrical designer in the aerospace industry. He works with other communities and charities as well, including people in remote communities and various metropolitan areas in Canada.
Goble credits his wife Debra as the first person who ever got him to teach an empowerment-based self-defence course as part of her ethics program to Grade 7 girls at St. Thomas High School in 2002.
The courses wrap up next month but will be repeated so long as there is an interest and need.