Barrie’s anti-racism task force gave city council a semi-annual update presentation Monday night.
The task force is led by Donald Carty and Esther Enyolu, and includes members Brandon Wu, Cheryl Blondell-King, Haily MacDonald, Masa Sone and Irfan Toor.
Its commitment is to help transition Barrie into an anti-racist city that intentionally addresses racism in all its forms.
“We’re recognizing the existence of racism, which is first and foremost in order for us to move on,” said Carty, the task force’s co-chairperson.
The task force will develop and act on short- and long-term initiatives that progressively move forward, adding more specific measurable goals. It will work to make substantive and transformative change.
The task force’s mandate is to promote a stronger, more positive understanding and representation of the city’s racialized groups, through actively working with and holding accountable the police, educational systems, health services, community groups, associations, municipal organizations, social services, business, labour and government.
Barrie’s cultural narrative is largely built around whiteness, Euro-Canadian or Caucasian people or traditions, the task force said in its presentation to council Monday.
Coun. Sergio Morales questioned the composition of the task force’s research group, especially relating to an unattributed statement — ‘we are a group of students passionate about promoting equity and social justice within our academic work and in our communities.’
“I don’t see representation from white males and this is problematic,” he said. “If it (the statement) says we are looking to promote social justice within our academic work and in our communities, and you don’t have representation from white males on this community to shape its direction, its policy and its outreach, we are failing to capture promoting equity and social justice within the work fields and communities that white males tend to be in and that could be a white male in the trades, that could be a white male in business or that could be a white male that we’re not capturing at least the perspective and the advocacy on.
“Obviously, the intent of the anti-racism task force is to get diverse perspective, but I think failing to capture white males who sometimes are not as... don’t jump on the opportunity onto anti-racism initiatives might be counter-productive to the purpose of the committee," Morales added.
Carty said that could happen with the working groups and people are still coming on board.
“We’re at the very, very beginning of this journey. And we have those same concerns that you have,” he said. “We know that we live in a paternal society, and we know what Barrie is composed of, and yes we need to have those things. But I also think if we were to step back and look at this from a different perspective, now maybe people will have a little bit of an understanding of what it feels for us when we’re not included.”
“We want every race, every identity to be represented in the work that we are doing,” said Enyolu, the task’s force’s other co-chairperson.
Morales also said immigrants, citing students, should also be involved.
To clarify his comments, Morales sent a statement to BarrieToday during Monday’s presentation.
“We cannot fight racism and promote inclusivity by leaving out white males and immigrants from the task force,” said Morales, who is from Bogota, Colombia and has been in Canada since he was a child.
Between July and December, the task force will organize working groups, collect local feedback and data, then form focus groups. Its proposal is to be written by August and surveys are to be distributed by year’s end.
Carty pointed out that the task force’s mandate runs out in November 2022, as does the mandate of this city council.
“Racism isn’t going to end. We want to make sure that we’ve left things in place where this work will be able to carry on,” he said.
To learn more about the task force, visit barrie.ca.
