Are you an immigrant living in Toronto with an inspiring story to tell? Maybe you, or someone you know, has an interesting stance regarding Canada's immigration policies? If so, now is your chance to be heard across the country on Radio Canada International's immigration Web service, RCI viva. The RCI is asking Canadian young adults (18-35 years) for submissions to their DIGITAL DIVERSITY contest, which runs until June 29th, 2007.

RCI viva is looking for audio podcasts and short films between 3- and 8-minutes long, focusing on one of two themes:

- A biography of an emerging talent (singer, musician, dancer, athlete, etc.) or an inspirational figure from a cultural community in Canada.
- A fictional subject, or in the case of a short film, an animated short about immigration in Canada from your personal perspective. All subjects are accepted, including comedy, drama, police drama or science fiction.

Photo by Osei (Ozzy) from the blogTO Flickr pool

DIGITAL DIVERSITY spokesperson Garvia Bailey, host of Big City, Small World gives her opinion on the contest:
"Canada is a country composed of many diverse communities. How are immigrants being received and how are they adapting to life in Canada? Digital Diversity aims to introduce all Canadians to life in these communities in a creative and expressive way. I'm pleased to be a part of it and I can't wait to listen to and view all the entries this fall when they are broadcast on RCI viva's website."

Selected entries will be chosen by a multi-cultural panel of judges, including Alden Habacon, Ruba Nadda, Mitra Sen and Sunny Yi. The best podcasts and videos will participate in the online competition this fall, and the winners of the jury awards will win some great prizes, including a Sony HDR-FX7 or HDR-HC7 HDV Handycam, a 2.0 GHZ MacBook or an 80GB iPod. Not bad, eh?!

There's also a People's Choice award, which will be determined by the Canadian public. A French version of the competition is running too, called Metiss&eacute serr&eacute.

For more info, including the rules and regs, visit the RCI viva DIGITAL DIVERSITY contest website.
Deadline for submissions is June 29th, 11:59pm, 2007.
Good luck!