Council vows to take action against racism
Mayor notes he’s been held at gunpoint for matching description of a suspect
Hundreds of people shared stories of pain, frustration, hope and possibilities for change during Calgary city council’s three-day hearing on systemic racism this week.
As the meeting drew to an end after 10 p.m. Thursday, political science scholar Malinda Smith, who co-chaired the meeting, said council must be accountable to the people who spoke.
“Public servants act for the public good and the public good cannot be colour-coded,” she said.
“Their testimonies cannot be in vain. We cannot fail them. Their traumas cannot have been reanimated in vain.”
Smith, who is the incoming vice-provost of equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of Calgary, said the hearing has been a master class in systemic racism and how it works, but also in the courage of Calgarians who spoke out.
“One of the greatest experiments in human history with pluralism is also one where systemic racism exists,” she said. “They exist at the same time, and we cannot let the one obscure the other.”
Council members unanimously agreed to formally acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and set up an anti-racism action committee late Thursday night. But speaker after speaker this week called for concrete action beyond just listening to them bare the trauma they’ve experienced. And the city hasn’t yet decided where to go from here.
Police were a constant topic at the public hearing. Over and over, Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour talked about how they fear encounters with police, and how they’ve been harassed and hurt by officers in Calgary.
Lawyer Nyall Dabreo, a member of an expert panel the city brought in for the hearing, stayed to listen for the entirety of the three-day meeting.
At the end, he said he was happy to be in council chambers on the day the city and the Calgary Police Service officially acknowledged systemic racism. But he said people’s voices have long been ignored, and police accountability has been lacking.
“We’re acknowledging it after these three days and this is stuff that has been going on, and these people have been talking before these three days,” he said. “I’m talking about violence perpetrated by police toward individuals who never, ever have been arrested or charged.”
Councillors said they were shaken by the days of hearings, with many saying it was unlike anything they’d experienced in their years in office.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the number of people of colour who spoke to council this week is significantly more than all the people he’s seen come to public hearings during his decade in office.
And in his final remarks, he said he’s had his own experience of being racially profiled and targeted by police.
“While I’ve been lucky enough not to have any interactions with the Calgary Police Service, I’ve been on the ground with a knee in my back and the gun to the back of my head by a police officer who said, ‘You match the description of the suspect.’”
He also expressed hope, saying he has faith that Calgarians are ready and willing to make change happen.
Coun. Gian-carlo Carra said he’s long thought of the Calgary police as the “best and brightest” example of community policing, “but oh my goodness, if you are not convinced that we have a long way to go to make it right ... that was my biggest experience of privilege.”
Coun. Sean Chu, who came to Canada from Taiwan in 1985 and is a former Calgary police officer, noted that 40 per cent of city council is from a minority community — including Coun. Ward Sutherland, who is Métis and Coun. Jeromy Farkas, who is openly bisexual. Despite the stories council heard this week, Chu said that shows that the majority of Calgarians are not racist.
I’m talking about violence perpetrated by police toward individuals who never, ever have been arrested or charged.
“Yes, there is racism, but however ... many millions of immigrants come to Canada. Calgarians are very, very tolerant people,” he said.
“Can we do better? Of course we can do better.”
The approved recommendations included an addition from Coun. Diane Colley-urquhart that council acknowledges and recognizes “that systemic racism exists in our community, our government, our organization and our institutions, including the City of Calgary and the Calgary Police Service.”
The committee also acknowledged a joint statement Thursday evening from CPS Chief Mark Neufeld, the heads of the Calgary police commission and the two unions representing officers which also acknowledged systemic racism and noted they’re “committed to taking action.”
There have been repeated calls this week for the city to do more than simply make a statement or take “performative” steps to address racism. Nenshi said the city will add more to the recommendations in the weeks ahead before council discusses them again at a meeting later this month.
Coun. Jyoti Gondek said after listening, she feels she needs to do better to earn the community’s trust, but the city will be committed to change.
“We will do the best we can. It’s going to be ugly. Buckle up.”