Region adds support to anti-racism petition

A petition that hopes to prevent elected officials from using their positions to promote racism has received the support of Niagara Region council.

In addition to having an opportunity to add their own signatures to the petition developed by St. Catharines resident Mohamad Al Julmaily, regional councillors also voted to forward it to Niagara’s MPs, and MPPs, lower area municipalities, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario for comment and response.

“It’s important that we find a way to hold elected officials to account for this type of behavior,” said Welland Coun. Paul Grenier at last week’s regional council meeting.

Grenier was referring to reports of municipal councillors, MPPs, and school board trustees who have made racial slurs in recent years.

“There was no method for holding them to account until they were either forced to resign by themselves through media and public pressure,” he said.

Grenier said the petition, asks upper-tier governments to find a way “to come up with better measures for holding councillors and all elected officials to a higher standard of behavior so that their office cannot be used as a bully pulpit to espouse hatred and intolerance.”

“I think we should congratulate this young man for his courage and his leadership,” he said, adding he hopes it inspires higher level stakeholder groups that can actually make real change to the various acts that would be required.”

Regional Chair Alan Caslin said he was among the first to add his name to the petition, and thanked Al Jumaily for bringing it forward.

Several councillors added their signatures to large version of the petition, written on a sheet of poster paper during a break in the meeting.

“We brought a giant copy of the petition here,” Grenier said. “Anybody here tonight can take a couple of minutes to sign it as well and pledge your name in support to move this important initiative forward.”

Al Jumaily, 24, said he plans to visit each of Niagara’s municipal councils in the months to come, hoping to develop more support for the initiative.

But so far, he said support for the petition has fallen short of his expectations.