 | |
| Formation | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Calgary |
Co-Founders | Jon Cornish, Chi Iliya-Ndule, Kene Ilochonwu, Chucks Okafor, Michael Lee Hing, Akwasi Antwi, Clarence Wynter and Charles Buchanan |
| Website | calgaryblackchambers |
The Calgary Black Chambers is a Canadian society of black professionals that promotes leadership capacity, advocates for social justice, and runs the Calgary Black Achievement Awards.
The Calgary Black Chambers was started by Jon Cornish, who "rounded up a few dozen Black professionals to join him in his efforts to nurture Calgary's youth, knowing the struggles young Black Canadians can still face today." Jon's efforts were based on an idea from his wife, inspired by the late Manmeet Bhullar and his work in Calgary's Sikh youth community. [1]
Alongside founding board members Chi Iliya-Ndule, Kene Ilochonwu, Michael Lee Hing, Chucks Okafor, Akwasi Antwi, Clarence Wynter, and Charles Buchanan, the Calgary Black Chambers came to be in 2020. As of February 2022, had 200 members. [2]
Calgary Black Chambers provides fifteen annual educational scholarships between $1,000 and $8,000. [1] [3] It also provides mentorship to secondary students and [4] runs the Calgary Black Achievement Awards. [1] [5]
In 2022, the Calgary Black Chambers received the Friends of Education Award from the Alberta School Board Association for the Soft Skills curriculum. [6] The same year, the organization called for an inquiry into the killing of Latjor Tuel. [7]
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being instituted into a separate, autonomous university in 1966. It is composed of 14 faculties and over 85 research institutes and centres. The main campus is located in the northwest quadrant of the city near the Bow River and a smaller south campus is located in the city centre. The main campus houses most of the research facilities and works with provincial and federal research and regulatory agencies, several of which are housed next to the campus such as the Geological Survey of Canada. The main campus covers approximately 200 hectares.
Jon Cornish is a former Canadian football running back who played nine seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was drafted 13th overall in the 2006 CFL Draft after playing college football at the University of Kansas. Cornish was inducted as a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2019 on his first ballot.
Stuart Laird is a former professional Canadian football defensive tackle who played thirteen seasons for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a graduate of the University of Calgary where he was a five-year starter with the Calgary Dinosaurs from 1978 to 1982, and earned a bachelor of arts degree in Economics.
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Kelechi "Kaycee" Madu is a Canadian lawyer and politician. As a member of the United Conservative Party (UCP), Madu represented Edmonton-South West in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2019 to 2023. He was first elected in the 2019 provincial election. He was Alberta's minister of municipal affairs from 2019 to 2020, minister of justice and solicitor general of Alberta from 2020 to 2022.
The 2023 Alberta general election was held on May 29, 2023. Voters elected the members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Conservative Party under Danielle Smith, the incumbent Premier of Alberta, was re-elected to government with a reduced majority. Across the province, 1,763,441 valid votes were cast in this election.
Latjor Tuel was a black man fatally shot by Calgary police on February 19, 2022, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.