Response to protests inspires local action
Rallies to show solidarity against racism planned for noon Saturday in NOTL, Niagara Falls
Saleh Waziruddin has been paying close attention to the mayhem south of the border.
“Every hour it seems like there’s a new development. It’s not easy to get a handle on it,” he said.
“A lot of people have had enough. There has been incident after incident without much being done and a lot of people are very eager to show that they don’t agree with the brutality that is going on and they want to find ways to take a stand that they’re against it.”
Although protests on the U.S. side of the border have led to violent confrontations with armoured police officers firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds, while the federal government is threatening to bring in the U.S. military, Canada is by no means immune to the racism that has sparked the unrest.
Waziruddin, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan and
India, has personally experienced racism in Niagara too many times. He said he spent more than a decade living in the U.S. prior to moving to St. Catharines about 13 years ago.
“It seems to me that racism is equally prevalent in the U.S. and Canada,” he said. “In some ways, it’s worse in Canada from my experience. Even thought it may be less aggressive than in the U.S., it’s definitely as widely prevalent and people may be more oblivious to it here than in the U.S.”
But Waziruddin, chair of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association, said he has also been encouraged by the outpouring of support in local communities in response to the issues.
“We’ve been getting a lot of messages from people who are organizing, on their own,” he said.
One event is planned for Niagara-on-the-Lake at noon today.
Participants — they are asked to wear masks and observe physical distancing — are to meet at Voices of Freedom Park and participate in a co-ordinated walk around the Old Town in a show of solidarity against racism.
Yvonne Bredow, one of several speakers who will be participating in that event, called the response to the U.S. protests “painful to watch.”
She described herself watching the footage “with my mouth open, thinking what have we come to?”
Bredow said she was honoured to be asked to take part in the rally.
“I’m going to do what I feel is right,” she said.
After growing up in Toronto, Bredow, who is half-Black, said she was surprised by the level of racism she has experienced since moving to NOTL.
“I’ve never gone through this before in my life and I never thought it would exist the way it does here,” she said.
Bredow said “everybody should be treated equally.”
“People need to learn how to be empathetic. They need to be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes, because not everybody has the privilege of being raised the way they did. You should not be judged by your hair, your hair texture, the colour of your skin, your nose, your lips, anything like that.
“We’re all equal. We all contribute to this world.
“You should not be killed, hurt, shot, discriminated against or followed around in stores or anything like that, just because of the colour of your skin.”
Another rally is planned for noon Saturday in Niagara Falls. Participants will meet on Victoria Avenue near the entrance to Highway 420, followed by a march to the Whirpool Bridge at 2 p.m.
“There will be people on either side of the border as well,” Waziruddin said.