Taking a stand for principles is how you do it
It’s not complicated, says Dino Chiodo. “I believe women, diversity make us stronger. I believe women should be equal. They are equal,” said Chiodo, Unifor’s national auto director, named Italian of the year.
If the Caboto Club doesn’t allow women to vote or be on its board of directors, “I won’t be able to go to Caboto and patronize them and accept the award,” he said.
That’s how you do it. You take a stand.
“It goes against our own values of equal opportunity for boys and girls, and I’m not sure how we could live our own values, encouraging girls to be anything they want to be, when these types of policies that exclude them still exist,” public school trustee Jessica Sartori told the Star’s Julie Kotsis. She tabled a motion that the board stop booking events at Caboto until women can be members.
That’s how you do it. It’s a musty, bygone notion called principle. You stand behind it. The city won’t book more events at Caboto while staff prepare a report on venues the city uses. “There are a lot of things that need to be considered,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said.
The Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce board left it up to CEO Matt Marchand. He says he won’t use Caboto. In the meantime, the chamber will review its values ... yada, yada, yada.
“We had a very good discussion,” Marchand said. “What happened was very positive. It triggered an opportunity to bring into focus our values, our mission, our bylaws.”
How about plainspeak.
“Women have the right to the same opportunities as any man. It’s that simple,” said James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, the largest local in the city. “We talk about equal opportunity. We talk about equal pay — justice, really, and parity.”
If the Caboto Club doesn’t change, “we can’t be booking at the Caboto Club. We just can’t. It leaves us no choice but to do the right thing. And that is the right thing, to say we can’t.” The Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame will no longer use Caboto. The club violates the group’s “spirit of inclusivity.” Windsor Regional Hospital and the labour council stopped using Caboto several years ago. That’s leadership. You walk the walk. It really is that simple.
The Windsor Essex Sports Persons of the Year will be at Caboto. Nadia Comaneci, winner of five Olympic gold medals, the first gymnast to score a perfect 10, will be keynote speaker — in a hall where women are inferior. WESPY will “review” Caboto’s policies. What’s to review? The club is “pretty comfortable in our own skin,” manager Ron Moro told the Star’s Sharon Hill, although he said the club might consider a review of its rules – but on its own timetable. Spoken like a true privileged male, oblivious and intransigent.
It’s a private club, it says. It’s a premier hall hosting top organizations and hundreds of events. It should reflect community values. If it doesn’t, no public or charitable dollars should go there. It’s just a cultural club, it says. Half of Italians are women. They’re the backbone of Italian families.
It cites its women’s auxiliary. The names and positions of the male board of directors are listed on the club’s website, under their photos. There are no names or photos for the women’s auxiliary on the website. They’re nameless and faceless. Women aren’t in the business directory on the website, either. It’s for members. We’re being bullied, Caboto whined. Into doing the right thing ? Political correctness, it sniffed, as if half the population is a special interest group. It’s painful to watch a pillar of the community self-destruct. You couldn’t handle this worse. And it will only snowball. If organizations that Unifor supports, like Hospice, use Caboto, “do we still participate?” asked Stewart. Those who don’t take a stand are enablers. That’s no longer acceptable.
The Windsor Club faced the same controversy in 1994. It waited a year, probably to placate fragile male egos. Then it changed. Women have been president three of the last four terms. “I just think it begets a better culture,” said president Christine Davison. “We all have different perspectives. It comes from your background and experiences. The more experiences you have, the more well-rounded you are. Everyone you talk to, you can take something away from, so why would you cut off part of the population?