The Russian-speaking community of Canada is set to celebrate a historic milestone with the creation and gathering of the first Russian-speaking Congress of Canada (Ontario Region) (RSCC) on Sunday, May 16th, 2004 at North York Civic Centre (Council Chambers; at Mel Lastman Square) from 12:00-6:00PM.

ATSS is one of 17 organizations who became founders of RSCC

This unique organization unites the largest Russian-speaking not-for-profit organizations, media outlets, religious parishes and important businesses under a single umbrella. RSCC will work with all levels of government, and society at large, to promote the interests of the 350,000 Russian-speakers in Canada and help them integrate into the wider multicultural mosaic.

To date, the Russian-speaking community remains a hidden gem of the GTA, and indeed, of Canada. 5 television programs, 3 radio programs, 10 weekly newspapers, 4 yearly cultural festivals and more than 1,000 businesses only begin to scratch the surface of our strength in the GTA alone. With a 100-year history and 4 major waves of immigration we are multiethnic kaleidoscope from more than a dozen countries, including Russia, Israel and the former republics of the USSR.

The Russian-speaking Congress of Canada (Ontario Region) is history in the making. It is the first time when major community stakeholders united to speak in a single voice. This makes Canada the first country where the Russian-speaking community has managed to overcome its innate fracture ness and unite. It is only appropriate that this milestone took place in the most multicultural country of the world and in the multicultural epicentre of Canada itself – the GTA.

Please join community leaders and political figures and see history in the making.