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Oumou Mohamed Diakit\u00e9 (centre) with other community leaders, who attended SACR\u2019s opening ceremony at City Hall in Montreal\u2019s Old Port on Friday Mar. 20, 2026. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews)<\/p>\n\u201cResist and Unite: Rethinking Tomorrow\u2019s Society Together\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s the slogan for this year\u2019s 27th edition of the Week of Action Against Racism and for Equal Opportunities (SACR) \u2014 which made its official launch on Friday.<\/p>\n
Leaders and members of the community came together for the event at Montreal\u2019s City Hall, where an opening ceremony was held and led by Josu\u00e9 Corvil, the councillor responsible for culture, diversity, inclusion, relations with Indigenous peoples and community harmony.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really, important to hold this type of event with people who are important to this city, not only just the people who were elected, but also the people who are organizing around the city,\u201d said Na\u00efla Lounas, a political scientist and ethic and transformative justice consultant, who attests that it felt necessary to make the trek all the way down to the Old Port to attend this year\u2019s opening ceremony.<\/p>\n
And for others in attendance who, like Lounas, agree that the event feels all the more important this year, as the world faces turbulent times and where minority groups across the world are seeing their rights stripped from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, looking at the world around us, we can see that things are bleak \u2014 we\u2019re living in an era of the far right, fascism, war, violence, xenophobia, racism, and hatred,\u201d SACR Coordinator, Samira Laouni, began to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in the cause of justice, fairness, and giving everyone the chance to find their place just as they are, with respect for their dignity and their differences. We have the right to be different, and so for me it is very important to keep fighting for this cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cause which hits close to home for some.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now in Quebec there are lots of legislations that are being passed, that are clearly biased, and that clearly discriminate Muslim women,\u201d said Lounas, referring to the passing of Quebec\u2019s secularism law, which bans certain public servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols at work. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in an era where it is hard to be a person of color, it is hard to be a Muslim woman in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n
A feeling echoed by many, including SACR award recipient and local journalist, Oumou Mohamed Diakit\u00e9, who herself is being lauded for her ongoing commitment to fight against racism and discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that militarism helped us at one point to make our voices heard, but I think that today it\u2019s no longer about being a strong minority,\u201d Diakit\u00e9 began to explain. \u201cIt\u2019s about being a majority, a strong collective.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Diakit\u00e9 said she\u2019s not only continuing to help youth in her community learn to express themselves through writing, she\u2019s also a panelist at a conference in this year\u2019s event, taking place Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called \u201cDon\u2019t Touch My Hair,\u201d Diakit\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be discussing all the pressure that Black women and men \u2014or at least people of African descent\u2014 face regarding their hair. We want to try to break down stereotypes. Curly hair isn\u2019t dirty hair it isn\u2019t unprofessional hair. It\u2019s hair that deserves to simply be hair,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Oumou Mohamed Diakit\u00e9 (centre) with other community leaders, who attended SACR\u2019s opening ceremony at City Hall in Montreal\u2019s Old Port on Friday Mar. 20, 2026. (Corinne Boyer, CityNews)<\/p>\n
Diakit\u00e9\u2019s conference is an example of the numerous activities that can be found during SACR\u2019s 27th edition.<\/p>\n
Organizers say this year\u2019s activities are built around a single goal: preventing and combating exclusion based on skin colour, ethnic origin or national origin.<\/p>\n
And to achieve this year\u2019s objectives, programming includes returning symposiums, exhibitions, workshops, and artistic events, with expanded online conferences following last year\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had over 2,000 people attend our in-person events, but online we had over 8,000 people watch our videos \u2014both live and on-demand. And we reached one million website views last year,\u201d boasted Laouni, of the event, which she said seems to be reaching wider audiences with each passing year.<\/p>\n
All the events are free and take place daily across Montreal and surrounding regions, culminating in a closing ceremony on March 31st \u2014\u00a0where three individuals will receive the SACR-2026 awards for their commitment to equality and the fight against racism.<\/p>\n
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