Council considers anti-racism action as petition grows
Calgarians showing great capacity to push for justice, writes George Chahal.
City council is eyeing a response to calls to tackle systemic racism in Calgary after massive crowds attended anti-racism protests over the past week.
The Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation (CCMF) started circulating an online petition last week calling for a public consultation on systemic racism in Calgary. As of Monday, more than 60,000 people have signed it in support.
Several councillors say they support the idea, and they’re in talks to bring a motion on the issue to next week’s council meeting. The proposal hasn’t been finalized, but some of the options include a public hearing and discussion on race in Calgary and more concrete requirements for council members to participate in unconscious bias training.
CCMF Indigenous liaison Garret Smith said the group wants to see a consultation so citizens can collaborate on solutions. Similar work has been done in other cities, including Edmonton, where city council approved an anti-racism advisory committee in 2019 after years of advocacy from community groups. Edmonton’s committee makes funding recommendations on anti-racism programs and reports on community concerns.
Smith said it’s time for Calgary to address people’s experiences of racism and how discrimination is deeply embedded in society.
“It’s exhausting to have these things shoved under the carpet, so to speak,” he said.
“There’s a huge number of cultures around Calgary that I believe have gone unheard and unseen, and their voices need to be heard at this point in time.”
Thousands of Calgarians turned out for several protests in the city over the past week, with people raising their voices against anti-black racism and police brutality. At a Black Lives Matter vigil at Olympic Plaza on Saturday, thousands of attendees shouted the names of people who died in encounters with police, from George Floyd in Minneapolis to Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa.
Smith said the local turnout is an “obvious cry” for more action.
“What we’re trying to implement with this revolution that’s happening all across the world right now is that we shake the system enough to re-evaluate itself, to see what is not working,” he said.
Last year, Coun. George Chahal led city council’s effort to formally oppose Quebec’s Bill 21, which prohibits some public servants from wearing religious symbols like hijabs or turbans on the job.
In Calgary, too, Chahal said for people of colour, “everybody’s got a story” about encountering racism.
“Some are quite disturbing. Why is this happening in this day and age in our city?”
As an elected official, he’s been the target of racist abuse, too.
“That’s recently. That’s not 20 years ago. And that’s just me — I’m a city councillor. There’s so much more that happens out in the community, whether it’s verbal or it’s violent as well.”
Chahal was at Saturday’s Black Lives Matter vigil with his family to listen and learn, and he said council needs to keep doing that, but also make sure they take meaningful action for the community.
Coun. Gian-carlo Carra said councillors are still talking behind the scenes about what they want to do and how everyone’s thoughts can be included, but he said he’s “deeply sympathetic” to the petition.
“The same way the protests couldn’t stop, we have to respond in the same way,” he said.
“We need to make sure Calgarians see that their council is hearing them.”
Coun. Druh Farrell added that whatever council does, it can’t just be a one-time conversation.
“There’s a difference between setting up these groups and making these declarations and really embedding them into how we function,” she said. “This is a really important opportunity to have important discussions and listen and learn.”
When I arrived at the Black Lives Matter demonstration on Saturday, there were already thousands in attendance. The crowd was diverse, a reflection of Calgary’s ever-changing population. People from all walks of life had gathered at Olympic Plaza “to honour the victims of police brutality and violence,” with a peaceful protest, the fourth of its kind in Calgary since the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25. My daughters and I attended the vigil to listen and learn. The protesters’ demands were clear — peace, equality, justice and an end to systemic racism.
As a person of colour who has lived his whole life in Calgary, I am familiar with prejudice and bigotry. But since becoming an elected city councillor, I am distanced from much of the institutional racism that pervades life for many Calgarians. When in a position of privilege, lived experiences can fade from our memories — we might forget or ignore past injustices. But in an age where everything is captured on video, the veil of ignorance has been thrown away. We are forced to confront the painful truth about how racialized communities experience everyday life. I encourage all Calgarians to watch. The recent brutality is not limited by one’s ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, or age.
Canada’s journey over the last 153 years has been one of growth and progress. It is also a journey with much unresolved injustice. Indigenous people were colonized, subjected to countless atrocities, and remain marginalized to this day. We celebrate our heritage through the Calgary Stampede, but the legacy of black cowboys and their families, who played a significant role in the Old West, is mostly forgotten. Chinese labourers built the national railway, performing the most dangerous tasks for less pay than their white counterparts, and are referenced as a historical footnote. Immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa and the rest of the world have contributed to building our city while seeking freedom, opportunity and safety. Too often we have failed to provide those basic values.
When Calgary city council approved the creation of a community-based public safety task force, our intention was to identify and address community concerns around violence with a focus on gang and gun violence. As the task force prepares for its second meeting, it has become clear that we must answer difficult questions about the institutions we rely on to make society safer: questions about accountability and transparency; questions about safety and equity; questions about our patterns of thought. Violence is complex, and there are no quick fixes. We cannot ignore the racial and ethnic components of community safety.
These protests have created an opportunity for the victims of racism and brutality to be heard by all. But listening is meaningless unless we are prepared to look inside ourselves and our institutions and make necessary changes.
To those who have experienced racism and violence in Calgary, I want to listen and learn about the challenges you have faced. Your voices matter, and not just in the context of worldwide protests. I invite you to email or call my office. To my fellow councillors, we must lead by example in the fight for equity and justice by committing to transparency and personal accountability in local government. We need access to race-based data and a willingness to confront unconscious bias.
To provincial and federal politicians, as well as business and community leaders, if you choose to remain silent in the face of injustice, you are complicit. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”
Finally, to all Calgarians, these demonstrations have shown that you have an incredible capacity for compassion and desire for justice. Continue to hold your elected officials accountable by giving a voice to the voiceless. I hope that we can summon the courage and compassion to meet the moment.
George Chahal is the city councillor for Ward 5 in Calgary and chair of the public safety task force.