The contestants will attend Pageant activities and spend time getting to know each other, rehearsing for the show, and visiting Toronto and the surrounding area.
Meet the 62 contestants competing for the title of Miss Universe Canada 2010. The competition will take place at The Metro Toronto Convention Centre's John Bassett Theatre.
Mariana Valente, Miss Universe Canada 2009 will crown her successor at the end of the pageant.
Maria Al-Masani - Miss Universe Canada 2010 Candidate
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Name: Maria Al-Masani
Age: 25
Height: 5'7"
Hometown: Ottawa, ON
Maria Al-Masani is CEO of her firm, Al-Masani Consulting- Visionary PR, which she founded at age 24. She wants to go back and complete a doctorate in conflict mediation. She holds a degree with honours from the prestigious Kroger School, Carleton University in economic development and public policy.
She was born in the USSR, but escaped the iron curtain. She grew up in Yemen, lived through the civil war where her house was narrowly missed by the bomb that killed her neighbours. Her mother is Russian, father is Yemeni. She moved to Canada alone at age 19, where she lives in exile (her mother joined her at age 20). Maria speaks English, Russian, Arabic and French.
Maria is branding director of Canadian PR Society, Ottawa. She booked Robert Fisk, “international correspondent of our generation,” on CBC. She aspires to change the brand and raise the profile of PR in Ottawa. Her press releases have appeared in stories in CBC, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail Independent (U.K.), MacLeans, Hill Times, etc.
Maria managed media for the Yemenia plane crash, organized press conferences for the Yemeni foreign affairs minister. She also works to promote Canadian fashion industry to policy-makers to create jobs. Her Parliament Hill press conferences: Fashion Cures A La Mode, Amnesty International, Omar Khadr’s lawyer, Abousfian Abdelrazik’s lawyers, etc. She worked for Cambridge University Advance Research Unit, Parliament, and was a political campaign manager for Ottawa- Centre.
Maria is a published poet, artist, and writes novels. In her spare time, she volunteers and works pro-bono, from founding MacDonald-Cartier Institute of International Affairs, to Famous Five [women] Ottawa, to alternative-dispute-resolution [ADR] mediation with G-4 and on Victoria Island, to promoting humanitarian work & human rights with Amnesty and MSF. Her main project, as VP External of Madbakh Women International, is raising awareness, coordinating aid, for the Borama Fistula Hospital, whose founder’s work was featured on Oprah. www.madbakh-women-international.com
Pre-teen girls see the beautiful as role models, regardless of second-wave feminist Kantian ideas. As a third wave feminist, Al-Masani sees the importance of glamour and uses it to empower young women. She founded the Empowerment of Women of Colour in Film Awards, in conjunction with TIFF. She believes that in a capitalist free-market economy, beauty contests are our best chance to create role models for girls in their formative years.
Maria works to empower women and bring peace to Somalia and the Middle East through values based-ADR+ and humanitarian work. Today her dream is to expand the Fistula Hospital and microfinance program’s capacity from 215 to 700 women. Tomorrow her dream will be to empower the most vulnerable – third world young women-- because when you empower a woman, you empower an entire family!
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