Report on "The Symposium on the Reality of Anti-racism Work in the City of Hamilton"
Presentation to the Corporate Administration Committee
By members of the City's Volunteer Committee Against Racism
October 6, 2004

Pauline Kajiura:

Mayor DiIanni and Members of the Corporate Administration Committee,

Thank you for the opportunity to present our Report on the Symposium on the Reality of Anti-racism Work in the City of Hamilton. We're happy to see Councillors McHattie and Whitehead here as well. Thank you to community members who have attended this meeting in support of this document and its recommendations.

I am Pauline Kajiura, the Chair of the City's Volunteer Committee Against Racism when this report was prepared earlier this year. I am one of the writers of the report. I would like to introduce David Jefferess, another of the report's writers, who is a former member of the committee, and Cindy Sue McCormack, currently the Chair of the City's Advisory Committee Against Racism.

We appreciate having time on your agenda to highlight some of our report's recommendations, and to show you how they can be implemented by the city.

We circulated this document to council and to the corporate management team in the late summer and we're glad you've had a chance to read it.

Cindy Sue McCormack

The Committee Against Racism held the symposium in October 2003. As advisors to council, the committee felt that it was important to hear and record the voices of groups and individuals involved in anti-racism work here in Hamilton, and to communicate this information to City Council.

The committee called for the participation of people in our community specifically involved in anti-racism work, stating clearly that the issue of the day was racism and not diversity. Work that acknowledges diversity, although valuable, tends not to address the impact of racism upon those who are persecuted because of it. The purpose of anti-racism work is to identify inequity and inequality, to show where they exist, and to clarify what effect they have on the lives of individuals. It is with this greater understanding that we begin to address racism and to make changes in structures and systems so there is no longer room for inequality of this type, so that policy, practices and attitudes no longer allow racism to exist.

Participants at this very well-attended symposium represented a variety of sectors - people who work in the health sector, in non-profit organizations, in grassroots organizations, students and teachers from our schools, representatives from funding agencies, outreach workers, researchers, and many more sectors of our community.

After identifying gaps in existing initiatives and obstacles to accomplishing anti-racism work, the large group formulated recommendations for the committee to pass on to advise council.

In the report, the word "racialized" refers to anyone who experiences racism because of his or her race, skin colour, ethnic background, accent, culture, or religion. Here, "racialized" includes people of colour, Aboriginal peoples, and ethnic, linguistic, religious, or cultural minorities who are targets of racism. Racialized people have different cultures, histories, religions, family norms, life experiences, and are subject to different stereotypes. What they have in common is that they are subject to racism and made to feel different because of their racial/ethnic background. The term racialized shows that race is socially constructed. Racist hatred has nothing to do with the target groups, and everything to do with how dominant groups in our society identify non-dominant groups for discrimination.

In closing I would like to thank the previous Committee Against Racism for all of their hard work in brining forth this report; and to let you know that the current Committee Against Racism supports this document and its' recommendations. 

I would also like to bring to your attention a recent report by Amnesty International entitled "Stolen Sisters:  A Human Rights Response to Discrimination & Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada". I believe this report states that Aboriginal women who are 25-44 years old are five times more likely to experience violence than other women within this age group.  Is RACE an issue here?  I guess the broader public will have to read this report and make their own decision; just the same as you, here at the local level, have to read our report and hopefully decide to move forward with these recommendations.  The current Committee Against Racism has also instructed me to let you know "WE"LL BE BACK"!!!

David

I'd like to take you through the recommendations listed on page 4 of the report and provide you with further explanation of their benefits.

• Education and Training Programmes , including mandatory and ongoing anti-oppression training for City staff and elected officials, provided by the City of Hamilton.
  
  Training would assist people in realizing and acknowledging their privilege, particularly white privlege, although it may also pertain to their sex, their sexual orientation, whether they live without the barriers posed by a disability, etc. The impact of their decisions upon those who are racialized would be considered differently. Currently, such training may exist, but if it is a one-time training or a pamphlet, it may not be effective in acknowledging the systems that allow racism to have the impact it odes. Often training tells us what not to say and silences the racism rather than addressing its impact.
  
  
• Participatory Democracy. The City of Hamilton must develop and implement a plan, with measurable goals and timelines, to increase the participation of members of racialized groups in institutions and increase their access to decision-making positions.
  
  Participants of the symposium repeatedly talked about the lack of representation in the city's institutions. We see privileged white members of the community prominent in high-profile civic anti-racism initiatives. Racialized groups and individuals need more access to the policy-making if we ever want to see increased representation.
  
  
• The formation of an Anti-Racism Coalition . Such a coalition would lobby and apply pressure to Hamilton's institutions, identify and share "best practices," act as a "support network," and keep Hamilton's institutions accountable to an anti-racism agenda.
  
  The coalition would be comprised of those who do anti-racism work with the city's demonstrated support through funding and ensuring the work of the coalition is respected and not obstructed.
  
  
• The formation of a Resource Centre. Such a centre would provide: anti-oppression training, consultation, monitoring and evaluation; research on racism in the Hamilton community; outreach and mentorship services; counselling and support services for anti-racism workers and people who have experienced racism.
  
  We stress the benefits of research in addressing racism and there is a great lack in such research. For example, what are the economic problems that result from racism? While there is a doctor shortage, there are qualified and skilled people driving cabs. What are the economic benefits if they were doing their chosen work? A resource centre would allow a place where we could learn and foster transformations. So often anti-racism is not valued, so it is short-lived. We need a place for it to be focussed.
  
  
• Funding Initiatives. Specifically, the City of Hamilton must provide funding for anti-racism initiatives in the city, as well as funding for workshops that will give individuals and groups the resources and skills to secure funding from other agencies and institutions.
  
  Outreach initiatives are particularly important to meet the needs of racialized communities, and to ensure they are integral in decision-making.
  
  
• Development of Anti-Racism Policies and Procedures . The City of Hamilton and major organizations and institutions in this community must develop and implement meaningful anti-racism policies and procedures.
  
  The city needs to begin to show leadership and to role-model. Often policies are presented in such a way that their implementation does not come easily. They should not solely exist in policy-speak but be part of the everyday language of all of the staff within departments and offices.
  
  
• Further development of, and support for, the City of Hamilton's Access and Equity Office
  
  
• The extension of the mandate of the Strengthening Hamilton's Communities Initiatives beyond 2004.
  
  
• The Commitment of the City of Hamilton to working with Hamilton's Urban Aboriginal Community to acknowledge meaningfully the historical and systematic discrimination of Aboriginal peoples and to create a statement of understanding with respect to urban Aboriginal rights.

Pauline

We hope that you will appreciate the outcome of our efforts. In this report, we present to you the reality of anti-racism work from the very voices of those who do this work in our community every day.

We hope that you will recognize the benefits of implementing these recommendations and realize that when you truly wish to address racism, that the priorities set by those in the dominant racial group are less significant than those of racialized groups.

As the report points out to us, anti-racism work is hard work, and so we hope to make it easier for the Corporate Administration Committee by putting forth the following recommendations to begin the implementation stage.

We would like this committee to recommend that the Advisory Committee Against Racism have one councillor with whom they may communicate regularly to facilitate communication with council.

We recommend that the City create a committee of council - an Access and Equity Standing Committee, as soon as possible, to demonstrate its commitment to anti-racism and equity, and to ensure that the commitment is ensconced into every facet of the corporation, in every department and every office, rather than being addressed as an exclusive issue. The mandatory anti-oppression training recommended in the document could stem from this initiative.

We urge this committee to begin to work on an implementation plan and we strongly recommend that the process be participatory - that groups and individuals representing racialized communities develop the plan. We recommend this because it is the voices of our racialized communities that will provide all of us with the most insight into how racism is affecting the day-to-day lives of citizens in our city.

Our city can no longer afford to lag behind other cities who tie progressive anti-racism policies to their economic practices. Economic development depends on the city incorporating policy to address the needs of its racialized citizens.

Thank you for your time and your attention.