On Dec 9th, the Pakistani Canadian Women’s Society in collaboration with Surrey Women’s Centre organized a dinner for community members, in Taste of Lahore restaurant Surrey, in which almost 50 persons include MLA Rachna Singh were present.
This event was to engage on questions regarding Race-based data collection. A brief introduction about Race-Based Data and its importance was given.
It was also explained how the data will be collected and used by the Government. Attendees were informed that their participation in the survey was voluntary, and that consent could be withdrawn at any moment.
The attendees were divided into 6 focus groups, each group had 8-9 members including a facilitator further described below.
• Group 1: Male, South Asian (Pakistani origin) between age 40-70 ranging income bracket (20k-150k annually)
• Group 2: Male, (Pakistani, Philippines, Syrian) between age 30-50 ranging income bracket (30k-200k annually)
• Group 3: Females, (Pakistani, Iranian) between age 30-55 ranging income bracket (30k-80k annually)
• Group 4: Females, (Pakistani origin) between age 40-65 ranging income bracket (30k-200k annually)
• Group 5: Males and Females
(Pakistani Muslims) Age range 45-60
income bracket (40-100k annually)
• Group 6: Females, (Pakistani Origin) between age 35-50 income bracket (35-80k annually) Of the 50 attendees, most of them completed the questionnaire during the session.
Overall, feedback from the participants was encouraging and they were appreciative of this initiative by the Government.
As evident from the bullet points above, the demographic consisted of participants mainly of Pakistani origin with diverse income brackets. This resulted in a consistent mix of participants from all walks of life and how their experiences translate into their opinions on this specific data collection drive as well as responses to the questions. Preliminary analysis of Data revealed that most of the participants identified and preferred to be classified within the following groups:
1. Geographic: South Asian
2. Country of Origin: Pakistan
3. Religion: Islam
Aside from this, the majority of participants preferred to be classed under the country of origin and language as a major marker of cultural background for a specific need to have more facilities available to them in their own language.
Next Event: Scheduled for December 18th,
Friday, May 1, 2026
