By: Klaidi Shehi
About Our Annual General Meeting
After two years of social distancing due to the pandemic, MCIS’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) is back to celebrate the champions, organizations, and individuals who impact, provide, or rely on language services. This year, on October 27, MCIS will hold our AGM in person at the Ontario Science Centre, with online attendance also being an option. The theme of this year’s AGM is language advocacy. MCIS has been working to close the knowledge gap on language equity and access across Canada for the past two years. We wanted this year’s AGM to highlight the tireless efforts made by our team in support of language advocacy across the country by our language professionals, public service providers, linguistic and cultural community organizations, grassroots groups, and anyone passionate about equitable language access.
Introducing One of Our Guest Speakers: Nicole Anichini
Nicole started working with MCIS in May 2017 as a Project Coordinator in the Translation Department and assumed the role of Translation Department Manager in April 2019. She holds an Honours B.A. in French from Wilfrid Laurier University and an Honours B.A. in Translation and a certificate in Technical and Professional Communication from Glendon College, York University. As Translation Manager, Nicole is responsible for overseeing the smooth day-to-day operations of the Translation Department. She is passionate about languages, culture, and breaking down language barriers.
Introducing One of Our Guest Speakers: Veronica Costea
Veronica has been working at MCIS in various capacities since 2011. She is a certified translator and qualified interpreter with proficiency in five languages. She has worked in the language industry for over 15 years in various capacities, including language service delivery, computational linguistics research, and development of various training programs for language professionals, including training on interpreting for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking and language independent translator training for languages of lesser diffusion. Veronica is a passionate advocate for removing linguistic barriers in accessing critical information and services and language rights as human rights. She has published articles on this topic and routinely presents at international industry conferences. She also represents MCIS in the global language rights movement as Co-Chair of the Global Coalition for Language Rights.
Introducing One of Our Guest Speakers: Nicole Fiorillo
At this year’s AGM, we have the pleasure of having several guest speakers with Nicole Fiorillo being one of them. Nicole is the Policy, Outreach and Social Purpose Specialist at MCIS Language Solutions. She holds an MA in Political Science from McMaster University and is passionate about advocating for social policy change, language access, and human rights. Nicole also helps run the MCIS Social Impact and Purpose Page which highlights all our social purpose and impact initiatives aided by the MCIS Social Benefits Initiative (SBI) fund.
About their speech
During this year’s Annual General Meeting at MCIS Language Solutions, Nicole Anichini, Translation Manager, Nicole Fiorillo, Policy, Outreach & Social Purpose Specialist, and Veronica Costea, Head of Systems Development & Quality Management, will be sharing MCIS’ journey of language advocacy. This advocacy has ranged from removing language barriers for the most vulnerable to the recent articulation of our social purpose to uphold the human right to be informed, heard and understood. They will provide a brief historical overview of the evolution of MCIS’ language advocacy efforts from its humble grassroots beginnings to participating in a global language rights movement. They will share stories of how language services provide access to critical information and services, the impact this has on people and communities, and show how language access is foundational to upholding all other human rights.
They will conclude by sharing ways in which language professionals, as well as the general public, can support language advocacy efforts and participate in the emerging movement for language rights and linguistic justice. As they reflect on how language rights are human rights and how far we have achieved this goal, the guest speakers will then give some information about Language Advocacy Day 2023 that you won’t want to miss!
Conclusion
This year, we are thrilled to hold celebrations in person once again, allowing all staff members, language professional board members, and other stakeholders to mingle and get to know one another. Food, beverages, and entertainment will all be provided at the venue (Ontario Science Centre), along with speeches from 3 excellent internal speakers highlighting all that MCIS achieved in Language Advocacy in 2021-2022. Join us to hear more about how we have spent the last year growing and transforming to better support the needs of those who are faced with language barriers.