All the WOW events that I went to were great – WOW does give a sense of a community trying to improve its attraction and retention!

Caroline Andrew
Professor, University of Ottawa
Canada has been shaped by people who came from all over the world to build this country. WOW offers a platform for us to celebrate this history and the future it will help…

Alex Munter, Chair of the OLIP Council and President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre
OLIP helps to unite and share scarce resources for greater impact by working together in the field of student education.

Walter Piovesan
Associate Director of Education, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
The OLIP Council is committed to leadership.  In only a few years, we have a common vision and priorities, and are up to the task of implementing the Ottawa Immigration Strategy.

Salimatou Diallo
OLIP Council Vice Chair, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
My nomination is an indication that our hard work in building Canada is recognized. All we do is to serve the community in return for embracing us when we needed it.  

Mehdi Mahdavi
Ottawa Immigrant Entrepreneurship Awards Nominee
I was happy to see integration to Algonquin territory and indigenous culture related programming in 2014 WOW. Please continue to involve local Aboriginal organisations and…

Linda Manning
WOW 2014 participant, Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa
We are very pleased to have done the “Opportunity Cost of Not Investing in Interpretation” report – it is so important to have clarity on these challenges and…

Hindia Mohamoud, Director, OLIP
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre is so happy to have joined the OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table. It is clear that OLIP cares about immigrants and refugees and…

Wendy Tang, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre
The WOW seminar on immigrant women’s nutrition and health was a step in the right direction towards closing the gap between academic researchers and service providers.

Josephine Etowa
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Ottawa
The target beneficiary of the work of OLIP is the whole community. In this short period we have planted together important seeds for Ottawa’s development.  

Dick Stewart
OLIP Council

Media Coverage of the Ottawa Immigration Forum – a central event of the Welcoming Ottawa Week

July 14, 2013

The 2nd Annual Ottawa Immigration Forum, themed “The Building Blocks of a Welcoming Community” anchored the inaugural Welcoming Ottawa Week (WOW) – an initiative of the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership that is championed by the Mayor of Ottawa. Mayor Watson proclaimed the last week of June as Welcoming Ottawa Week, at a breakfast reception with business executives, civic leaders, and representatives of faith communities held on June 26th.

WOW is designed to create recurrent opportunities for Ottawans to express and reflect on the warmth of our welcome; and for newcomers and long-time residents of Ottawa to have quality -based recreational and intellectual interactions that will foster trust and understanding. The calendar of the inaugural Welcoming Ottawa Week was marked with a series of engaging dialogues and celebratory activities across the city that included community sports events, movie screenings in neighborhood parks, public lectures and seminars, artists’ gatherings and the 2nd Annual Ottawa Immigration Forum.

WOW – and the Ottawa Immigration Forum as its central event – generated public discussion on the importance of welcoming immigrants and the WOW events received a wide and multilingual coverage by the Ottawa media. Below are some of the highlights of media coverage of WOW events

OLIP Press Release on WOW

WOW Backgrounder & FAQ

CTV Ottawa Morning Live

CTV Ottawa: Integrating newcomers through sports

CanINDIA: Ottawa vows to be the most welcoming place for newcomers

LE DROIT: Un bilinguisme de façade caractérise la capitale

THE EPOCHTIMES: 新移民，渥太华欢迎你！力争全加最受欢迎城市 New Immigrants, Ottawa Welcomes You! Striving to be Canada’ s Most Welcoming City (Mandarin)

L’ORA DI OTTAWA: Progetto “Partnership dell’immigrazione a Ottawa: Città accoglienteagli immigranti” (Italian)