Rudy Grewal has spent his entire life trying to help others.
The 46-year-old Barrie resident recently completed his honours bachelor of social work from Lakehead University in Orillia, having received an honours bachelor of arts and science degree — interdisciplinary study of human nature, specialized in psychology and sociology — in October 2020.
Since starting on his new academic path three years ago, Grewal hasn’t just been spending that time with his nose in a book, but has been working hard to encourage diversity and inclusion on campus, as well as in his community.
“Getting involved in the community is something my family and I have always done. My kids like to do bake sales for local charities (and) we’ve been big supporters of the local women’s shelter. It’s always been a part of our way,” he said.
As a student, Grewal became involved with the Office of Human Rights and Equity (OHRE), and promoted International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to the Orillia campus for the first time in 2019. He worked to educate and inform students to take a stand against racism and discrimination while hosting a resource table in the university’s Learning Commons, and also served as co-chair of the #ITSTARTS Campaign, leading others in celebrating diversity, inclusion and acceptance.
Walking the walk
It was those efforts that earned him a Lakehead Leader Award for 2019-20 and a County of Simcoe Service Excellence Award at their 2020 Newcomer Recognition Awards.
“It’s something I grew up with my entire life, being a racialized minority. The opportunity came to start joining committees and actually doing something about it institutionally — not just talking about it but actually doing something,” he said.
Seeing his own children suffering the same injustices he did growing up spurred him on to get more involved.
“When I was about five or six growing up in southern Ontario, I would feel so bad that I would just wish to be a white boy named John. Now, I have my own children, and they’re rehearsing what they’re going to say to the police when they’re going to go play tennis? That’s not right at all. With the increasing diversity we need to start looking at bringing in real change.”
Bringing attention to the inequalities is important now more than ever, he says.
“With the increasing diversity, we need to bring attention to it because there are things in place that don’t recognize it. For example, at Lakehead, I recognized in the core syllabus that there was no recognition for any other holy days other than Christianity," Grewal said.
"What that meant was all the international students coming in and people of different faiths would have to skip their holy days in order to write their exams, etc., otherwise they’d get a zero," he added. "Staff is also getting increasingly diverse and the same thing is happening. With these inequities, it was really quite unfair.”
The country — and Simcoe County — is becoming increasingly diverse, and unless changes begin being put in place, members of those communities will continue to feel out of place.
With age comes wisdom
Going back to school as an adult definitely came with its challenges, Grewal admitted, but he credits his age as one of the many things that ultimately made him successful.
“I had 40 years of lived experience of being a minority and of a certain socio-economic status and (seeing) the inequities a single mom faced. I could bring that to the table and that helped me not only absorb the material but also take action on the committees,” he said.
“The hardest part was juggling all the other adult responsibilities. We had bills to pay, and as we started in 2017, we had a whole slew of family deaths, and taking care of the kids… and the pandemic at the tail end of it all.”
For many, all of that could have caused them to give up on their dream, but Grewal said “necessity” is what carried him through.
“As the momentum started and I started to see these grades, I felt a sense of achievement. That helped,” Grewal said, adding he also had a few “amazing professors” that took him under their wing and really encouraged him along the way.
“I had been a carpenter all his life, but needed to find something else. If I was going to continue working with my mind I had to continue with the degree.”
Grewal even went as far as to buy empty frames and hang them up, forcing him to look at them every day until they would be filled with his degrees. One is now full and the other is about to be filled next month.
He intends to continue his education and pursue a masters degree in social work, and has already been offered a paid graduate assistant position. He hopes to take what he learns, along with his own life experiences to continue to build a bridge and create conversation and change.
View from both sides
“My partner is a white woman and I am a brown man. We are bringing the community this unity, where we are seeing both sides of the coin,” he said, adding he’s been asked to speak to the Barrie Chamber of Commerce about multicultural business solutions.
That involves someone who has seen both sides of the coin, where it’s not always racism but sometimes just cultural misunderstanding.
"What I’d like to see, and what I can bring to the community, is that understanding that it’s not always racism. The racism that happens hurts and we have to stop that (but) over the last year, all of a sudden there’s a lot of shaming that’s happening really quickly," Grewal said. "Where it’s actually racism, we need to call it out, but unfortunately sometimes it’s actually not (and) people are suffering for that.”
No matter where his future takes him, Grewal hopes to continue to build bridges toward mutual understanding.
“Megan and I both grew up predominantly in Mississauga, but she had a completely different lived experience than I did. She never realized that until we got married and we tried to cross the border for the first time… not once had she ever been searched. Then she saw the inequity and she became an ally,” he said.
At the same time, with such a multicultural family through her side, and all of Grewal’s cousins, he admitted how he could see how many times he himself could say something offensive without understanding the culture.
“That’s what’s getting confused often (and) I would really like to bring that bridging to Simcoe County... and we can just talk,” he said. “What I found at school, is people were afraid to say things because they don’t want to say the wrong thing.
"The terms of reference have changed I don’t know how many times in the last three years that I was on these committees. We need to give each other some understanding, some space and some freedom to speak. That’s what I am trying to bring across.”
