DIVERSITY CAMPAIGN MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

OTTAWA — Diversity Is Strength, a campaign launched by the CFL in 2017, has never been more meaningful.

“The beautiful thing about football and the beautiful thing about the CFL — a league that talks about Diversity is Strength and you’ve seen it with the Warren Moons, the Kevin Glenns, the black coaches and the black

GMs — is that at any time there are guys from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different cultures and different countries,” said CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian, a linebacker with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“They come together and they learn from each other. That’s a bond that can’t be broken. You learn about each other, you trust each other, you’re vulnerable among each other. You come together for a common goal and you form lifetime friendships.”

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the campaign will be back.

“Going forward, we need to re-engage our Diversity is Strength message because it has been at the core of what’s made our league so amazing,” he said.

“There is going to be a time and place to make it more prominent again. We’ve been a place for all comers. We’ve seen for decades, players of

every background coming here and being embraced by the fans and in some cases welcomed into our homes. It’s been at the heart of what’s made this league so great and I’d argue what’s made Canada so great.”

The CFL uses its mosaic of players to its advantage. Many players are involved in the communities they play in.

“Yes, we are a football league,” said Ambrosie. “We have football in our name, we have league in our name. But what we have always been is more than that. The idea of living in a community is about more than what your address is, it’s about being selfless. This goes back generations. While we may not be noted for salaries that make multimillionaires of our players, we can be noted for doing as much or more in our community than any other sports league in our world.”