Fighting racism in Calgary will require ‘actual action’
Efforts will be a ‘massive failure’ without real change, mayor says
A council committee began a public hearing on systemic racism Tuesday as the city tried to answer the call to address embedded racial inequality across Calgary.
The meeting is part of a series of actions council unanimously agreed on last month in the wake of several demonstrations against anti-black racism and police brutality that drew thousands of people to march through city streets.
But as Calgarians spoke, there was also frustration with the consultation process and criticism that it wouldn’t be a real vehicle for change.
Shuana Porter spoke in council chambers after waiting hours to be called.
If the city was looking for a meaningful step toward dismantling systemic racism in Calgary, “This is not it,” she said.
“It is Black lives and Black people who were out here protesting why this is even a conversation. Yet Black voices have been drowned today,” she said.
“I can’t applaud and I can’t thank you, because I shouldn’t be thanking in 2020 to be able to speak … There is no form of racism and oppression that I have not seen in my 28 years of living. That is the problem. And continuing situations like this does not help.
“It becomes performative. It becomes ticking a box.”
Elise Ahenkorah, an inclusion strategist and founder of consulting firm Inclusion FACTOR, questioned why there wasn’t immediate support on-site for people sharing difficult and traumatic stories.
“I am someone who is very wellversed in this conversation, and some of the perspectives I’ve heard … it’s very shocking there’s not an on-site trauma counsellor here to make sure that no one is going to experience any additional trauma as a result of the conversation,” she said.
She said the city needs to partner with third-party groups with experience in anti-racism efforts to ensure they can accomplish the work they want to do without harming communities that are speaking out.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said if this week’s conversations end up with a return to the same scenario — and holding a new set of public hearings on the same topic years from now — it will be a “massive failure.”
“I’m worried … that we use this as an opportunity to feel better about ourselves by feeling bad about other people,” he said.
“I have no idea where this is going to go. I don’t have a solution in my mind that we need to move toward, but I do know … we cannot confuse the listening and learning with the actual action.”
Malinda Smith, the University of Calgary’s first incoming vice-provost of equity, diversity and inclusion, co-chaired the meeting with Coun. Gian-carlo Carra. She added that while it can be an “empowering act” to speak in public, there are still people whose voices might not be heard.
“When city council opens the space and people choose to come, there are probably many who did not feel confident enough to come or who felt they would be blamed, and that would harm them further.”
Upwards of 130 people have signed up to speak. The meeting is scheduled to continue Wednesday and potentially also Thursday.
Five panellists were also included to weigh in with perspective and history: lawyer Nyall Dabreo, Centre for Newcomers vice-president of strategy Francis Boakye, former CBE trustee and MLA Teresa Woo-paw, researcher and doctoral student Vicki Bouvier and former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine.
All of them detailed the ways systemic racism affects their communities reaching back centuries, and the way society perpetuates those harms to this day.
Woo-paw described how she’s been involved in and seen public consultations about equity for decades, and it’s well past time to move past those discussions.
“The community is telling me, ‘No more consultation.’ This is time for action, and for sustained action.”
Dabreo added that, as a lawyer, he sees how the criminal justice and legal systems don’t treat everyone equally, and he’s had his own frightening experiences with law enforcement.
“Let’s be frank: I’m essentially what I assume the majority of this city would want from a child of immigrants. I’m young, I’m Black, I worked hard, I’m educated,” he said.
“And I’ve had several experiences with police — violence with police. I’ve had guns pulled on me by police. And just to be clear, it’s devastating when these events happen.”
Other people who joined the hearing spoke about wide-ranging topics, from covert racism in their workplace to being disproportionately watched or targeted by police because of the colour of their skin.
In the afternoon, several young women of colour spoke about encountering racism in their schools and neighbourhoods, including feeling unsafe with Calgary police officers in their schools through the School Resource Officer Program.
“I don’t want Black and Indigenous youth in Calgary to become another hashtag or statistic,” one said.
Smith said their perspectives were important for council and Calgary to hear.
“I’m deeply appreciative of the young women of colour. So young — I felt these things 30 years ago,” she said. “I’m stunned that even all these decades later, this is still the experience.”