Plante names panel to advise on issues of diversity, inclusion
Mayor targets failures in representation at city hall and among employees
The city of Montreal is giving itself a year to figure out how it will become more inclusive and diverse.
Recognizing failures in representation at city hall and among city employees, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced Monday the creation of an advisory committee of 15 people who will iron out an action plan for the city on diversity. They have been given a one-year deadline.
Members of the committee include people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, two representatives of First Nations peoples, a representative of the LGBTQ community, and someone who represents people with reduced mobility.
Plante was widely criticized last November for nominating an allwhite executive committee devoid of any members from ethnic or cultural groups.
On Monday, Plante said it was in recognizing that weakness that she elected to form the advisory committee.
“I think we all agree here that though 30 per cent of the population of Montreal comes from diverse backgrounds, that’s not being represented within different areas whether through culture, the workforce at city hall and at a political level,” Plante said. “We need to put all our strength together, because that’s the right thing to do.”
Myrlande Pierre, the chairperson of the advisory committee, said there are many issues the committee will examine, including the lack of representation of minority groups in the city. She said she’s also concerned that Montreal doesn’t even have a policy in place for how to deal with ethnocultural communities.
“It’s very important to have diversity in institutions,” said Pierre, a sociologist who studies immigration, ethnicity and citizenship at the Université du Québec à Montréal. “It will be one of many items that we will be discussing.”
Among the committee’s other members are Bochra Manaï, who has worked on systemic racism issues and studied the integration of people from North Africa within Montreal; Shahad Salman, a lawyer and a member of the SPVM’s racial and social profiling committee; Will Prosper, an activist with Montreal North’s black community who speaks out against racial profiling; and Mare-Ève Bordeleau, a member of the Cree community, and a lawyer and advocate for First Nations people.
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Lionel Perez, the leader of the opposition Ensemble Montréal, said he welcomed the committee’s creation.
“As the party with the largest number of visible minorities, we look forward to working together with this committee,” he said.