L.A. Matheson Secondary teacher wins antiracism award

Spice Radio’s annual Hands Against Racism campaign has recognized L.A. Matheson Secondary teacher Annie Ohana (above, left) as one of this year’s recipients for her ongoing work to promote social justice as an educator and an activist.

Currently in its eighth year, the campaign honours individuals who have done antiracism work, with the station recognizing Ohana for founding the school’s youth social justice leadership program Mustang Justice, organizing counter rallies against racist groups and working with community organizations such as Islam Unravelled, Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) and the South Asian LGBTQ+ support network Sher Vancouver.

“I was really excited and honoured, it was a complete surprise,” said Ohana of the award. “Everything I do is about education and how we get this out there as an educator. It’s always connected back to school for me.

“We’ve been working with Spice Radio for several years and they just do some really incredible programming. We’ve had them come to our school to talk about their campaign.”

For her work with Mustang Justice, Ohana previously received the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, 2019 B.C. Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award and the first-ever Surrey Mayor’s Award for Fostering Civic Responsibility, in addition to a $5,000 grant for the program to help gather race-based data to inform upcoming antiracism legislation. But Ohana said the accolades don’t play a role in her involvement with teaching students about social justice.

“Teachers don’t do it for the awards,” she said. “It’s about working with the community, and L.A. Matheson is kind of perfectly positioned with a high BIPOC population where these conversations are naturally occurring.

“I try to be very intersectional about it and the different realities of what racism looks like on multiple levels.”

Spice Radio hosted an online event Saturday, March 19 to celebrate the Hands Against Racism award recipients.