By Pepper Parr

June 1st, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

Mariam Manaa said she knew the day she sat in on a House of Commons committee meeting that the world of politics was definitely for her.

Mariam Manaa

Manaa had worked as a summer intern with Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff; it was a four month gig but it was enough at the time to learn just what a politician does.

Mariam returned to school, she had been attending high school in Oakville where the family lived. She continued her studies in community planning and keeping busy with the Muslim Association of Canada work she and her Mother did.

The family, Mom and Dad and two brothers came to Canada when Mariam was eight years old. They lived in the Gaza part of Palestine. While Mariam doesn’t remember all that much she does know that it was a trying time for the family.

The Israelis had occupied the country and then withdrawn but kept a very tight security ring around Gaza.

The parents wanted something better for their children and immigrated to Canada.
Her Mother worked in a bakery, her Dad worked as a handyman and the children went to school.

It was a huge emotional and psychological change for the family.

“Sitting in that House of Commons committee room with my notebook in hand listening intently to everything that was being said I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was” said Manaa.

A few years later Mariam applied for a job with Burlington MP Karina Gould who was also a Cabinet Minister. She was hired and spent more than three years with Minister Gould.

In her mind Mariam said she was in basic training to become a politician. She knew she was a Liberal – and she fully understood the different levels of responsibility that the federal politicians had and the role the provincial government played in the lives of ordinary people.

“I wanted to be doing things that made a difference in the lives of normal people.

“Education was really important to me; health and the environment mattered to me.” Manaa said she learned something new everyday she was on the job.

“I had gotten myself to the point where I knew I needed to pick up additional skill sets.
I was always involved with the Muslim community and got a chance to work for the Muslim Association doing public relations work.

A community advocate from an early age Mariam Manaa now wants to represent Burlington in the provincial legislature.

Mariam now wears the traditional Muslim hijab but didn’t wear it during her high school years.

“My cultural views and learning more about what it really meant to be Muslim were aspects of my life that I grew into when I had completed high school.

Respecting the cultural and religious part of her community led to Mariam, working with the Muslim Association, to holding a pop-up vaccination station where Muslim women could be vaccinated in private. Muslim women do not display their bodies the way western woman do.

Getting vaccinated meant lowering the burqa sleeve which is something that is just not done in a public setting.

“We got a great turnout from the women in the Muslim community” said Manaa.

She has come to learn that one of Canada’s strengths is its diversity.

“People respect those that are different in the way they dress and the lifestyle they live  – but they are accepted and invited to take part in the fostering and developing of the community.

“Giving back is such a fundamental part of who my family is – we see the news on television at night and know how terrible it is in the land that I came from – where I was raised as a child.” Mariam spends her days on the telephone talking to people one-on-one.  I try to get to between 30 and 40 people each day building support for my nomination.”

The Burlington Liberal Association will decide on June 26th who the Liberal candidate will be.  It is not certain yet if the event will be virtual.

By Pepper Parr

May 29th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

She won handily in 2014 against three other candidates for a seat as a trustee with the Halton District School Board.  She used the first two years to get a feel for the job she eventually became exceptionally good at.  Her colleagues thought enough of her ability to make her chair of the Board during her first term.

Listening carefully

In her second term she was acclaimed and served as the Chair of the Board every year.

In her first term she made the difficult decision to vote for the closing of two of the seven Burlington high schools one of which was in her ward.  It was also the high school from which she graduated.

As the Trustee for 10 elementary schools and two high schools she busied herself with getting to know the schools, the student population and the problems.  Grebenc has an open,  engaging personality that says how can I help without using the words.

She is a problem solver who grew into an advocate with the strength of character to challenge the province and the way it was handling what Grebenc saw as serious flaws in the way education was being both delivered and funded.  School board trustees often seem to be a little timid, more into the fluffier parts of being an elected official. Timid is not a word that  gets used to describe Andrea Grebenc.

Andrea Grebenc on the right at a major public meeting with fellow trustee Jeanne Gray.

A life long Burlington resident, the child of parents who immigrated to Canada and chose Burlington as home. Grebenc was once in the Burlington Teen Tour Band and worked as a Sound of Music volunteer – both touch points for young people experiencing the city.

School started at St. Mark’s Catholic elementary school after which she went on to Lester B Pearson high school and then attended Wilfred Laurier University earning an Honours Bachelor Science degree.

The mother of three children she formed her own company offering communications and IT services.

As a trustee she took a year to get the understanding she needed to be effective.

When the province began to consult with the public on increasing class sizes and imposing mandatory e-learning courses Grebenc worked with her fellow trustees and spearheaded, the Halton Education Action team of HDSB Trustees to find out what Halton parents, guardians, and community members thought of these changes. The trustees organized, formed and ran in-person regional focus groups, surveyed the community, analyzed the data, and wrote a comprehensive report that was used as evidence against the changes.

The Halton community consultation proved to be a more robust consultation than that of the Ministry.  The Halton  submissions, almost 7,000 in-person and surveyed, amounted to more than the Ministry received from the rest of the province combined.

The trustees are currently advocating for evidence-based collaborative decision-making surrounding the issue of permanently expanding online and remote learning.

Andrea Grebenc: speaks directly and is usually on point. She seldom ducks a question.

She is forthright about her opinions on how Provincial decisions and directives affect students and Ontario’s education system.

As a trustee she has made the province her constituency and has  focused on improving education through her work as a school board trustee.

The Grebenc profile became one that was recognized beyond the Region.

In July of 2020 it was “Whereas” after “Whereas”  in the motion Grebenc put before her trustees.  They were followed by the resolution:

“Be it resolved that the Chair ask the Minister of Education for clarification about who the decision maker is for the September school year start up.”

Grebenc had the support of her trustees.  In comments made after the motion was tabled Grebenc said that “there are in excess of 36,000 elementary students within the Halton Board – where are those children going to be cared for should they have to distant learn ?”

“What will we get – quickly formed day care centre’s that are not regulated, not inspected with other children coming from who knows where ?  The bubbles that most families created to ensure their kids were safe would not be feasible.”

Grebenc had made her mark.

Andrea Grebenc has a strong working relationship with the Director of Education Stuart Miller.

Grebenc tends to be a listener and problem solver; drama and grandstanding are tools she leaves behind.

The capacity to get things done spills over into her community work.  One of her most recent projects was forming “Masks for COVID -Burlington”. In April 2020, she recruited and organized 80+ people throughout Burlington into a living, caring and productive mask-making machine. Andrea organized material procurers, cutters, sewers, and distributors, making daily rounds to transport materials and masks to Long Term Care and Retirement Homes early in the pandemic when PPE was scarce.

The original mandate was 2,000 masks, but due to the dedication of the volunteers, 3,000 masks were completed and distributed and the group was able to expand their mandate to include some local food banks.

Andrea currently sits on the Mayor’s COVID task force and provides status updates on behalf of the Halton District School Board.

Grebenc is one of two women seeking the nomination to be the Liberal candidate in the provincial election set for June of 2022.  Given the current political climate in the province there are a number of reasons to believe the Premier will call a snap election if his support firms up once inoculation levels reach the 60 or 70% levels and new infection reports are consistently below 1000.