Community Creation with Honours

When Alberta Lieutenant Governor Salma Lakhani and her husband Dr. Zaheer Lakhani moved to the United Kingdom to pursue post-secondary education, they had every intention of returning to their home country of Uganda. In 1972, that dream was destroyed when then-President, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of all South Asians from Uganda. Overnight, Their Honours became refugees, forced to find a new home and community.

On November 5, Her Honour will join Radhe Gupta, Shiraz Jiwani and Jai Parihar for Edmonton Community Foundation’s (ECF) Roots that Reach: Celebrating South Asian Stories of Community Building, presented in partnership with The Sifarish Network and Edmonton Public Library. Moderated by former Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi at the Muttart Theatre, this event explores the experiences, values and aspirations that connect Edmonton’s communities.

Lt.-Gov Salma Lakhani and His Honour, Dr. Zaheer Lakhani sat down with ECF to reflect on rebuilding their life in Canada, volunteerism and what genuine inclusion looks like.

What brought you to Edmonton?

Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani (LG): Zaheer had just finished his degree in medicine, and I’d finished my degree in clinical biochemistry.

Dr. Zaheer Lakhani (ZL): Many in Uganda were British citizens without right of abode. There was much anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK. If you were my colour and you were walking in the street at night — there used to be what we call skinheads, they’d beat your head in. I know of kids who lost their eyes and were severely injured, you had to be very careful. It was an unwelcoming atmosphere. At the time Canada had a campaign — “Make Our Country Your Country.” We’d heard that the University of Alberta had a very good program. So, we thought, “Okay, let’s go to the University of Alberta.”

What do you remember about those early days?

ZL: We landed in Edmonton at 11:30 pm.

LG: At that time, it was just “Go down this road, turn left and keep driving.” The road was not lit or anything. It seemed like, “Whoa, from London, we’ve come here? What is this place?”

ZL: She kept saying to me, “Where have you brought me?” We didn’t know what Edmonton was like, there was nobody to receive us. We just knew that I was going to begin my residency in a week.

What people, communities, or experiences helped make Edmonton feel like home?

LG: We found out that I had a cousin here, and we had a faith community, many ex-Ugandans. We felt reassured.

ZL: Our faith community [Ismaili Muslim] has historically had a volunteer-driven administrative structure. We’d been here 18 months, and I was appointed chairman of the local community. Every two weeks we’d drive to the Calgary headquarters on a weekday: the meeting started at 8 pm, finished at 2 am, I’d go back to work at 7 am. I did that for several years. But that was part of inculcating community.

What motivates you to volunteer, lead, and give back to the community?

LG: In our faith, we have a concept called Seva, which means service to others. We are taught that from a very young age. Not just doing service within our own community, but within the community-at-large.

I was not allowed to work here for seven years — we didn’t receive permanent residency until ’84. So, I volunteered with organizations that shared the values I was brought up on, like the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights. I come from a country where there’s no respect for people’s human rights. Education is very important to me, because I know what would have happened to us had we not had an education.

Roots that Reach is an Edmonton Community Foundation initiative. How did you first hear about ECF?

ZL: I knew Ron Odynski, a friend who was just as passionate about community and was a past chair of the Edmonton Community Foundation’s Board of Directors. When we celebrated 25 years in Canada, we wanted to start an endowment. He said, “Look, would you like to serve on ECF’s Board because you’ve done all this volunteer work?”

What did that experience teach you about Edmonton’s communities?

ZL: I really got an understanding of the extent of the needs we have in the community — the strata of people who never really receive proper medical care, the hunger, drug use.

It also opened my eyes to the generosity of Albertans. All those years back, three very well-off families appreciated what the city had done for them and they started this amazing organization.

What can people learn by listening to the experiences and stories of communities other than their own?

LG: I feel very strongly that we need to learn about people who are from different walks of life, different backgrounds, and different cultures. How do we teach people who are not from the South Asian community about who we actually are? It’s by including and inviting them. That’s how we find out how much all communities have in common.

ZL: What holds us together? Because you might come from a Muslim community in Turkey, a Jewish group in Poland, your ancestors might be Huguenots who had fled from France. What holds us together are values — our belief in things like democracy, respect for human rights, being welcoming and inclusive.

LG: Diversity is a fact. But real inclusion is an act and a choice. It’s when you bring people from different walks of life together, and you actually listen to those people and act on what they’re saying.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

LG: The poet Rupi Kaur wrote, “It isn’t what we left behind that breaks me, it is what we could have built had we stayed.” We were denied the opportunity to build our country of birth, Uganda, but we are more than happy to help and contribute to building this, our adopted country. We would really like to see it become the best country in the world. And I think all communities feel that way — that we want to help build our country.

Roots that Reach will take place on Thursday, Nov. 5, 6-8:30 pm. This is a sold-out event, but please join the waiting list .

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

This article was first published in Thrive Magazine Winter 2026.