After a hundred days, as instructed by Edmonton City Council inaugural motion to come up with an anti-racism strategy in collaboration with Edmonton Anti-Racism Advisory Council, and the community, history is being written in Edmonton.
Wait a minute!
Not so fast, some are saying…
In a strict military fashion, following instructions to the letter, Andre Corbould, Edmonton City Manager, put together and made the presentation, collaboratively, with the Anti-Racism Council, representation of Edmonton youth leaders, and some representation from BIPOC communities in Edmonton.
This’s not just historic in Edmonton to see such a collaboration but this proposed anti-racism strategy is one of a kind in Canada – a journey to make Edmonton the anti-racism capital of Canada.
The strategy will create two anti-racism bodies and provide funding to anti-racism works in Edmonton. That’s, an independent anti-racism body to oversee anti-racism outside the corporate structure of the City of Edmonton, and another new collaborative anti-racism body within the city administration.
A very relaxed looking Mr. Corbould, who occasionally nodded in agreement with some of the speakers during the February 14, 2022, hearing, flavoured his presentation with even more assurances of community engagements for those who weren’t involved,
“…for those who feel that they were not consulted or not consulted to the extent that they would have liked, we want to hear from you. There’s still more work to be done, and I highly encourage you to reach out to your council, or administration, and we will ensure you have a voice in the work moving forward….”.
The footprint of this anti-racism strategy proposal seems to reflect the drawing of a crucial battle plan in which the commanding general takes command from the politicians, draws the plan, and presents it for approval by the politicians with little room from anyone within his leadership team to alter a plan with potential for seismic change within their system – from the community, directly to the City Manager’s Office, and to Council, cutting off the middlemen.
This is probably the reason why the proposal sounds community, feels community, and is accepted by community, and of course, unanimously approved by City Council.
If the City Administration and Council wanted to offer Edmontonians wrestling with racism and discrimination a Valentine’s Day engagement proposal with this February 14 anti-racism strategy, then they just did, one which BIPOC Edmontonians will be keen to open and see what’s in it.
If they wanted to offer a Black History Month present, they’ve offered something with the potential to take its place in history.
If they planned to offer a Lunar New Year wish, with all the attributes of a courageous tiger, then it seems they got one.
Hey! Hang on…
It’s just the first of many steps as they still have to go all the way to the end to tell if the content of the gift is what it seems on the outside, or if the strategy will take its place in history or fakery, or if the action was that of a fearless courageous tiger or a cunning sheep.
There’re still lots of unanswered questions from the community with hopes of being answered in the full proposal coming up in the months ahead.
Will the new internal anti-racism body within the City have a departmental status for its Deputy City Manager to have a seat on the City’s Executive Leadership Team to influence decisions at the highest level?
How independent will the new external anti-racism body be?
Given the fact that Administration’s top two leadership levels are almost entirely White in a city of about 40% BIPOC community, will the new position in these new anti-racism bodies be staffed by BIPOC community members?
Who lights a lamp and puts it under the table? How will this good news, well, if it turns out to be, get to the multicultural communities who will appreciate it the most, support, and take part in the engagements?
A longtime anti-racism activist, with multiple social work and law degrees, Ufuoma Odebala, said if you ask 100 people what racism is, you will get 100 different answers, and all will be correct. She added that you can’t comment on the beauty of a house by looking at the foundation only.
This summarizes the complex nature of this journey, to make Edmonton a better city, one crucial battle at a time, and one commanding general at a time, taking or dodging internal and external bullets.
Edmonton Mayor, Amarjeet Sohi, who ran for Mayor of Edmonton to tackle racism and discrimination, said in a recent Black History Month interview with Diversity TV, that he strongly believe in Edmonton’s institutions including City’s Administration to reflect Edmonton inhabitants.
….only time will tell…
