UNION DUES
Auditor general report finds city failing to collect money owed by tenants at Union Station,
Joleine Kasper has experienced different sides of being an Indigenous person working at Toronto city hall.
When a co-worker asked about her Medicine Wheel pin, she explained the meaning, for her, in terms of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
“It’s just a holistic approach that can be applied to health but also anything, so it was a chance to teach colleagues who wouldn’t otherwise know,” says Kasper, 28, a Barrieraised member of Berens River First Nation.
Another day, a visitor explained her dog was “rescued from ‘one of those awful Indian reserves’ — like, ‘this poor dog’ — acknowledging that she saved that dog but could not even acknowledge Indigenous people are humans.”
At 5:30 a.m. Wednesday — National Aboriginal Day — Kasper will be in Nathan Phillips Square with three fellow interns hired under the city’s Aboriginal Employment Strategy, along with a host of other Indigenous people, city council members including Mayor John Tory, and many others. The annual Sunrise Ceremony is special this year. Rather than one flag they will raise five — honouring The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation; Six Nations of the Grand River Territory First Nation; the HuronWendat-Wendake First Nation; The Métis Nation of Ontario; and the Inuit. And while the past single flag stayed aloft temporarily, these five will fly permanently over the landmark square to commemorate Toronto’s location on Indigenous lands.
Toronto’s famed diversity is usually framed in terms of immigrant communities, not original inhabitants.
Kasper and her fellow interns, all students or recent graduates working in city councillors’ offices until October, are part of efforts to shake off colonial views, “Indigenize” the city and live up to Toronto’s eight priority “Calls to Action” from among 94 in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report.
In interviews with the Star over the past week they expressed optimism and skepticism about those efforts.
“Here in Toronto there’s so much culture that the Indigenous people almost get pushed to the back burner,” says Jordan Celotto, 30, a member of Onondaga Nation Beaver Clan raised in Fort Erie, Ont.
“When I explain to people I’m Indigenous or Aboriginal or Native, a lot of them don’t know what it is, especially people new to Canada because there’s no education out there for them,” says the decade-long Torontonian. “That’s a big point — to educate people.”
Change is “happening — maybe at a snail’s pace, but it’s happening,” says the Humber College student. “There’s no reversing what’s been done in terms of assimilation and cultural genocide, but at least (city officials) are trying to take some steps to help in the future to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The internship, a collaboration between city clerks, city councillors and Miziwe Biik Aboriginal employment and training centre, is overseen by the city’s full-time Indigenous Affairs Officer, Lindsay Kretschmer.
Other efforts, fostered by city staff and the Aboriginal affairs advisory committee, include steps to increase the ranks of Indigenous city employ- ees and members of city agency and corporation boards, and recently approved Indigenous cultural competency training for city staff and councillors and their staff.
“At least positive things are happening now,” Kasper says, possibly with a push from efforts to mark Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations and Indigenous contributions.
“I do hope that Toronto doesn’t step back next year, when it’s not 150th and there’s not a lot of publicity, that they continue to move forward.”