qathet Regional District (qRD) staff have been directed to develop an anti-racial discrimination and anti-racism policy.
At the regional district’s April 28 board meeting, Electoral Area C director Clay Brander brought forward a motion to develop the policy after a presentation from lawyer Don Lidstone at the local government leadership academy convention in early April.
“Lidstone and company gave quite a sobering presentation at the local government leadership academy and I thought they were very progressive by providing memory sticks to people who wanted them,” said Brander. “They had the information on how to set up an anti-racial discrimination and anti-racism policy so any local government could go out, that didn’t have one in place, and incorporate it into their policies. I hope you’ve all had a chance to look over it and I hope you all support it.”
Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said he supports this idea.
“The information there is really good,” added Fall. “It is sometimes hard to identify things that might be seen as racist by some people without actually having a really close look at how things are set up. It’s not always obvious. Sometimes it takes something being pointed out. Having a policy is a good idea.”
Fall asked if the regional board did adopt Brander’s motion, what would be a reasonable timeline, given staff availability, to work on this.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said it wouldn’t be completed by the next meeting of the board.
“Let’s see if we can’t bring this to fruition before August or September,” added Radke.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he had some concerns.
“This should be discussed originally by the committee of the whole to get as much detail and depth into the proposal before us,” said Gisborne. “One of the challenges with systemic racism is, to many of us who have privilege, that systemic racism is not overt. It’s not apparent to many people.
“A lot of times it’s kind of baked in. It’s not direct, and in order to address systemic racism, people need to speak up. They need to have those difficult conversations and bring those challenging conversations into the assembly.”
Gisborne said his concern is: what are the unintended consequences and unintended side-effects?
“Could such a policy have a chilling effect on the assembly, where we don’t want to have the difficult conversations about what policies, what bylaws, what things and what tools contribute to systemic racism, without us knowing, understanding or experiencing the impact of those policies?” asked Gisborne.
He made a motion the item be referred to the May committee of the whole meeting. The motion did not have a seconder.
Brander’s motion then came before the assembly and passed unanimously.
