Alberta - Community Digest

Feb. 1-8, 2013
COVER STORIES
Kerry Clarke, artistic director of the Calgary Folk Music
Festival, in its new home at 12th Ave. & 12th St. S.E.
Continued from page 1 (“Calgary Folk Festival opens new...”)
workshop. Or we could have an artist play that sells more
than 150-200 tickets over several nights.”
Clarke doesn’t intend the building to be reserved for Folk
Festival-sponsored activities alone, but to be an available
venue for Calgary’s entire artistic community.
“We want it to be a centre for music and art, so even if we’re
not curating it, we want to be able to work with people,
encourage people that are doing really interesting art that
helps define this space,” she said.
Already, some of this past year’s Fringe Festival performances
were held there, and the idea is to see the building
host everything from theatre groups and film screenings to
spoken-word events, corporate parties and lectures.
For its part, the folk fest plans on putting on an average
of one show or event a week, programming as concerts
are made available to them, such as an upcoming string of
shows by Justin Rutledge (Feb. 23), Hayden (March 27)
and the inspired, stage-sharing pairing of Mary Chapin
Carpenter and Shawn Colvin (April 22).
To facilitate the enjoyment of such offerings, the envirofriendly
hall was designed by “award-winning Vancouverbased
Peter Cardew Architects” with auditory perfection
foremost in mind.
The building has been almost eight years in the making, and
comes with a price tag, including the purchase of the land,
of $7.1 million, with $4.7 million coming from three levels
of government and the rest from the festival’s fundraising
and own contributions.
COMMUNITY DIGEST 3
Continued from page 1 (“3 Edmonton employers charged...”)
When the two workers arrived in Edmonton to start work
in January 2010, their new employers told them the prearranged
jobs at the coffee shop were no longer available
and they would work instead at a Marble Slab Creamery
location for less money. Jespersen said the pay at both
places was around minimum wage, which sat at $9.40 an
hour prior to an increase in September 2012.
The two men were threatened with deportation if they
complained to government officials that their terms of
employment were different from the original arrangement,
RCMP say.
Jespersen said the employer took advantage of the language
barrier to abuse the situation. The two workers speak Tagalog,
the official language of the Philippines.
The workers took their concerns to Edmonton police four
months later, around the same time they were fired. The
police alerted RCMP.
Immigration then stepped in to help the two workers find
other work in Alberta.
Yassin Hamdom, 45, and Wendy Sawa, both directors of the
Marble Slab Creamery, and Ahmed Baalbaki, 36, owner/
operator of the undisclosed coffee shop, were charged with
unauthorized employment of a foreign national, counselling
misrepresentation and a counselling offence. All are
scheduled to appear in provincial court Feb. 19.
The alleged offences took place in the first six months of
2010, court records show.
“The RCMP is committed to dealing with this type of
situation, whether they are international or domestic,” said
Jespersen, who wouldn’t release the specific addresses of
the businesses involved in this case because the locations
may face threats. He said both the Marble Slab and the
coffee shop are open for business.
“This is another example of exploited innocent people who
want to make a life for themselves and come to work to
Canada from abroad,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Jim Gamlin
of the immigration and passport section in Calgary.