Reflections on the Opening of SALBC’s Physical Space
Tina Parbhakar, Co-Founder, South Asian Legal Clinic of BC (SALCBC) & Strategic Coordinator, Access to Justice BC (A2JBC)
Remarks made on January 25, 2024
ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਜੀ ਆਇਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਅਤੇ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ, ਸ਼ੁਕਰੀਆ, ਸਾਦਾ ਹੋਂਸਲਾ ਵਾਦਨ ਲਈ ਅਤੇ ਇਸ ਕਲੀਨਿਕ, ਇਸ ਸੰਸਥਾ ਨੂੰ ਇਕੱਠੇ ਮਨਾਉਣ ਲਈ. Welcome and thank you for increasing our courage and confidence and celebrating this clinic, this community organization, with us today. Thank you to the staff members, board members and guests.
When I started thinking about this clinic – well – even in law school running an e-newsletter about the violence against women in our community and the lack of systemic responses, so let’s say over a decade ago – I felt alone. I would go to events in the South Asian, legal and South Asian legal communities and feel like I didn’t quite belong – when I observed and listened, I heard that the key attributes to success were prestige, popularity and pay or profits. At that point, having kept my head down to work hard and fit into polite society, I didn’t do anything different. But the idea and the need was always there.
Fast forward to being a 6 year call, when Jeevyn Dhaliwal connected me to Krisha Dhaliwal (no relation, they work together at the same firm) and I found out that Krisha and Guida Heir had the same vision – and not only that – as both my age and call juniors, such an amazing spirit, dedication and fierceness in articulating the ideas around building community and doing something about it – they gave me hope. And as Krisha puts it, at that time, I had the “feeling like I found my community and people.” And those people included Kamaljit, Laila, Meena, Ruby and Gurpreet – and we had so much trust in each other because we were not oriented by those attributes we are often compelled to pursue, of prestige, popularity and pay or profits – we were connected and compelled by our hearts, minds and souls.
And we began to show up at monthly meetings, we began to stand together and we began to use our voices for our community – one of the largest, most diverse demographics in BC, first established in 1897 - in grants, in speaking with Attorney Generals and other VIPs, in reaching out to our friends and family and to community organizations and complete strangers in need of information and advice.
Yet, with this amazing accomplishment today – the magnitude of complex issues to be addressed in a culturally relevant and barrier reducing way – as well the degree to which we need to shift the system to better reflect our understandings of justice – requires the continued collaboration among each and every one of us. Exploitation, extortion and erasure are still trending in terms of our community and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable among us. So, on behalf of all those who are struggling within our community, and many in silence, I ask that you take this as a turning point:
To show up: Observe, listen, think.
To stand up: Be counted, engage with like minded individuals and also those with different and new perspectives.
To use your voice: Without fear, with others and knowing that you are not alone.
Thank you!
