Messages of unity for city councillors

Cards bearing message of peace and unity will be hand-delivered to Peterborough city council by a delegation from the Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough – messages written by people at a vigil held Sunday evening at Confederation Square.

Committee chairwoman Charmaine Magumbe urged the more than 300 people who were there to write the messages on large squares of bristol board before the vigil began at 6 p.m.

The gathering included a song of the land from James Whetung, a prayer from Harlen Wall, representing the Peterborough Jewish community, drumming, singing, poetry and more.

“It’s good to be out here with a sunny breeze to show that hate does not live here in Peterborough,” Magumbe told the crowd. “We are here to stop the spread of hate. Let love reign.”

That became the theme of the event, with Christian Harvey leading a troupe of hand drummers to punctuate the message, “let love reign” shouted repeatedly by the crowd.

The vigil came just over a week after violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia when neo-Nazi and extreme right-wing activists gathered for a Unite the Right rally and were met by antiracism activists. During the event, a man drove a car into a crowd of the latter, killing Heather Heyer, 32. Two police officers were also killed in a helicopter crash.

Other right-wing rallies held recently, including one in Toronto and another in Boston, saw the groups outnumbered by anti-racism advocates.

The violence and its aftermath have reminded Americans and Canadians that racial hate still exists, Magumbe said before reading the names of people who have lost their lives to racial violence in recent months.

The vigil ended with words from Rosemary Ganley, founder of Jamaican Self-Help and a longtime activist for race relations in Peterborough.

She talked about the push for racial and cultural co-operation and stamp out racism and hate.

“This is what we’re really against,” she said. “That this is not who we are, not who Americans are.”

Ganley is also an Examiner columnist. No date has been set for the presentation to city council, Magumbe said.