After a year of secret meetings, the Mayor's committee on racism in St Catharines presented it's findings to city council Monday March 17th of this year. The committee was set up at the instigation of Susan Howard Azzeh after she presented a report to council a year ago that claimed that racism was rampent in our city. (Talking to Mz Azzeh, one gets the impression that she is the only thing standing in the way of a "Fourth Reich" being set up in our city.)
The committee was made up of the mayor, one councellor and an alternate, a Human Resources representative, and five concerned citizens from the community. These people were Susan Howard Azzeh (surprise, surprise ), Ernie Harris, Winston Heron, Richard Kumi, and Donna Bidgood.
The committees mandate was to investigate the concerns raised by the Community Dialogue on Racism. Excuse me, but does anyone else see a conflict of interest here? The committee was formed to investigate concerns raised by Ms Azzeh, and then Ms Azzeh is put on the committee. How could the committee possibly investigate critically and impartially Ms Azzeh's claims when she herself is helping to direct the committee?
During the course of the committee's work, they recieved presentation from various vested interests regarding the fight against racism. When were the "public meetings" held to collect input from the average citizen? The mayor represents all the citizens of St. Catharines. No public meetings were announced or held to the best of my knowledge, because if they were, I certainly would have been there. Actually, that's probably why they didn't hold any. They didn't want anyone to suggest that maybe St. Catharines isn't a hot bed of racism, except in the mind of Ms Azzeh.
The committe came up with an action plan consisting of five Goals. Reading it, one gets the impression the main goal is to ensure the existance of the committee in perpetuity.
Promote non-discriminatory policies and practices within the City of St. Catharines, its boards, commissions, and other institutions.
What a slap in the face to all city employees. They will be presented with a code of conduct to ensure they don't discriminate against minorities. Surely if minorities feel discriminated against by the city, there are already avenues to address these concerns. Did the committee find that this was a problem? Did they hear from people who had experienced discrimination from city hall?
Encourage increased participation of all ethnic and racial groups in the government's structure, its processes, initiatives and events.
Here we get into the same old, same old about quotas. "City staff at all levels should be racially/ethnically mixed, reflecting the Community". Councellors will be made more aware of the ethnic/racial make up of their areas. It looks like the city plans to label every citizen of our city by race/ethnic association. It's bad enough that we no longer have just Canadians any more. Every one is a fill-in-the-blank Canadian. No longer will you be a citizen of St Catharines, You will be a fill-in-the-blank citizen of St Catharines. White city employees will be re-programmed to feel "more comfortable" dealing with minorities.
The city is to invite various ethnocultural groups to visit city hall. Hey mayor, my group would like to visit, they're called the Celtic Cultural Club. When can we come?
Monitor and respond to issues/concerns where either discrimination or racial/ethnic tension has been identified.
The city will establish a Human Rights/Race Relations Committee to investigate reports of racial incidents. I think it is important to mention here how many "race crimes" we have reported in our city. Ms Azzeh uses the figure of ABOUT SIXTY over the last four years. The recently issued report on crime for 1996 published by the Niagara Regional Police states that there was an average of 100 crimes a day comitted in the region. 100 crimes per day times 365 days times 4 years equals 146,000 crimes over the last 4 years. Ms Azzeh's 60 hate crimes are less than one half of one tenth of one percent of all the crimes comitted in the region! Put another way for every one of Ms Azzeh's "race crimes" there were 2433 "non-race crimes" committed in the region! I can certainly see how eliminating those 60 crimes will make a BIG difference. How dare Ms Azzeh say Niagara is a hot bed of racism!
Anyway, the city is to monitor and comment on all incidents of "racial tension" in the city. So if your neighbour is a minority, you better be nice, or the city will find out and censure you.
The city will issue regular news releases condemming all forms of discrimination. Council will get regular reports on the state of race relations in the city. Will these reports be issued regardless of the actual occurance of racial incidents? I can just imagine the sorts of incidents the City will have to comment on. For example: a student gives another the "evil eye". The second student perceives it as a racial attack. The city will be required to comment on and condemn this terrible example of racism in our city. Will the city name names? Will we have "racist of the week" announcements?
Work cooperatively with community organizations, businesses and governmental bodies to further the work of the committee.
This one is my favorite. Here the committee ensures that it sets itself up in perpetuity. The committee will plan anti-racism initiates from now until dooms day. One gets the impression they don't want to be too successful, they might put themselves out of a job! Actually, thats not true. No matter how successful the committee is, it will never be good enough. To them, racism will always be rampant in St. Catharines. The fight will always go on and on and on.
Conduct necessary research in order to support the goals and direction of the Committee and City Council
The committee will have city staff employed investigating and reporting on "trends, hate crimes and anti-descrimination measures."
A few weeks ago city council vetoed the idea of putting up flag poles in front of various city buildings. Their reasoning was that they couldn't afford to pay a city employee for the five minutes each day it would cost to raise and lower the flags. How much money is the anti-racism committee going to cost? How many hours each day will city employees spend researching, writing and reporting on race relations in this city. The cost in stationary alone will be incredible. Add to this all the meetings with community groups and special interests. I certainly hope that all the related costs are put in the city budget as separate entries, instead of being buried in general departmental expenses. The citizens of St. Catharines have a right to know how much this pandering to the delusions of special interest forces in this city is going to cost the taxpayers. Don't we have a police force to investigate incidents of race crime?
St Catharines is a decent honorable place to live. The attack on the honor and integrity of our citizens is an insult and a disgrace. The anti-racism industry cares nothing for reality, they merely want to further their own existance and agenda. Its a terrible shame that the Mayor and City Council had to be caught up in this charade. Unfortunately, as usual, it is the taxpayers who will foot the bill for this folly.