CCMF Systemic Racism Public Hearing Follow-Up Public Letter

His Worship Mayor Naheed Nenshi and The City of Calgary Councillors,

Thank you for hosting the public hearing on systemic racism on July 7 - 9, 2020. Although discussing racism is often uncomfortable, painful and re-traumatizing, we greatly appreciate the attention paid to this critical conversation and are awaiting the next steps.

​Our team watched the recording of the hearing, in addition the livestream, and went through the written submissions to provide you with data based on the speakers’ stories. Please note these are initial estimates based on both the livestream and written submissions. In the graph below, the number represents the total number of people who stated their concerns during their presentation, as well as the percentage of times the concerns were mentioned.

As illustrated in the graphs above, an overwhelming number of participants had concerns about systemic racism in the Calgary Police Service. There were also specific key issues mentioned within each broad concern, including:

• Police (concerns expressed by 62% of participants): defunding; reallocation of funds and roles to social services; police brutality; lack of trust in policing from BIPOC community; racial bias from members; training; lack of Black, Indigenous and peoples of colour (BIPOC) representation in leadership roles; Eliminating School Resource Officers (SROs) etc.
  
• Municipal (concerns expressed by 55% of participants): need for anti-racism legislation for all City services; TRC calls to action; lack of funding for BIPOC social services, grassroots and arts organizations; hiring practices at the City and local businesses; lack of BIPOC representation at small businesses; lack of consulting with BIPOC community; lack of anti-racism training at all levels of municipal government; inaction and lack of accountability and consequences for acts of individual racism; neighbourhood segregation; affordable housing, transit, city planning; internal staff experience with racism, CFD etc.
  
• Schools (concerns expressed by 48% of participants): whitewashing and erasure of BIPOC cultures in curriculum; lack of training and resources to teach anti-racism; racism committed by teachers; lack of representation amongst school staff; inequitable funding in various parts of the city; presence of Eliminating School Resource Officers; racial bullying etc.
  
• Workplace & Employment (concerns expressed by 45% of participants): hiring practices; lack of BIPOC representation at leadership and board levels; discrimination at work; tokenism; lack of anti-racism training; poor quality of existing anti-racism training; lack of opportunities in racialized communities; biases against names and accents; using diversity & inclusion and multiculturalism as a solution to systemic racism; questioning City’s role in improving workplace racism etc. 
  
• Healthcare (concerns expressed by 29% of participants): treatment of Indigenous & Black People; lack of BIPOC representation & cultural competency amongst staff; lack of opportunity and access to jobs for BIPOC; COVID-19 racism; lack of mental health support for BIPOC
  
• Accessibility (concerns expressed by 9% of participants): anti-racism hearing process not accessibility to BIPOC community, felt rushed and not genuine; lack of BIPOC interpreters; technology and format very dated; lack of consideration for accommodating schedules because it prevented people from attending hearing due to shift work, inability to miss work because of finances, etc. 
  
• Other concerns mentioned multiple times: lack of race-based data; media bias; follow-through on actions by City Council; need for measurable action
  

If you would like further details on the above data or more information, please do not hesitate to contact us. Again, thank you for beginning to address systemic racism in our city.

Sincerely,
Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation