Niagara Region council is expected to vote on a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Five Year Action Plan on July 21, 2022. The Five Year Plan is the culmination of work following the region joining the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities, which was motioned in council by Laura Ip; joining the Coalition was one of her 2018 platform points of her campaign, called “Reset The Region”.
The motion to join the Coalition, a UNESCO body, passed 25-0 on Sept 19, 2019. It was signed by mayors and the chair one year later in a ceremony on the steps of Niagara Region Headquarters’ International Plaza, on Sept 20, 2020. Since then, the worker bees have been busily preparing with new committees, surveys, and reports. Now they are ready to present the Five Year Plan.
Announced with New “Pride Crosswalk” at Region Headquarters
In a June 23, 2022 press release announcing the unveiling of a new “Pride crosswalk” at Niagara Region Headquarters was a notice that the next council meeting will vote on the 2023-2027 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan — The Five Year Plan.
“Beyond Pride Month, Niagara Region will continue to promote, educate, and drive awareness to benefit the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community within Niagara through the creation and implementation of the 2023-2027 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan scheduled to be presented at Regional Council in July 2022.”
Chair Jim Bradley
Delegates in 2019 spoke of transforming Niagara’s culture
There were six delegates that spoke at the Sept 19, 2019 meeting in support of the motion for join the Coalition. Among them was a spokesperson for the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce, who said joining the Coalition was on their 2018 municipal platform, and argued due to Niagara’s aging population that immigration is an economic necessity. A spokesperson for OUTNiagara argued that non-white, immigrant, and “2SLGBTQQIA+” individuals were incentivized to leave the area for more “vibrant communities”.
Another spokesperson argued for inclusivity as an economic incentive and advocated “intersectional gendered lens” in all aspects of municipalities operations, citing World Economic Forum documents in the presentation.
The fourth delegate was a communist who started his comments by emphasizing that significant funding is required; he complained the Coalition had recent changed its name to remove “Antiracism” from the title. He said, “the first Polish-Canadian in Council may be Inclusive, but it is certainly not Antiracist.”
The fifth delegate introduced herself as a “PHD in Education with a focus in systemic racism” who addressed “the white people in the room tonight” : she referenced “an increase in hate crimes, a rise in White Supremacist groups”, income disparities, the whiteness of council itself, and a lack of racial diversity in education.
“What do we do with statistics? We can come to one of two conclusions, I believe. Either you conclude from all the data that racialized, and indigenous people, and women are less capable of leading, or that there is a systemic problem. There is a systemic problem in our organization, in our city , in our municipality that has been at work, and its unrelated to ability: it’s related to things like racism, discrimination, bias, stereotypes, assumptions, and systems that were not designed inclusively. Folks, there is systemic racism in Niagara and there has been since its inception.”
Kim Radersma, “a white woman”
The fifth delegate, Kim Radersma, went on to say that Canadian values are by themselves not sufficient: “We claim as a country to value diversity, we love our Multicultural policy which claims to ensure that every Canadian receives equal treatment by the government which respects and celebrates diversity, it sounds wonderful, but sadly it is not the reality for so many of our racialized and Indigenous Citizens”
“There is not only hypocrisy in this, but danger. We’ve created a guise, a ruse, that People of Color are often asked to pledge allegiance to, knowing that it is far from true”, said Radersma.
Radersma said joining the Coalition would be “an intentional shift” [towards Multiculturalism]. She said treating people as individuals was “failed, colourblind ideology”. She advocated for training to address “unconscious biases”–which she went on at length to describe in herself.
The sixth delegate was a spokesperson for the Folk Arts & Multiculturalism Centre. [ .. ]
Most if not all of the delegates emphasized the need for funding for programs and not empty words.
The goal is total (“intentional”) social transformation, in and out of the organization; The method is significant municipal funding and DEI outreach. And full time regional staff to be responsible for holding everyone “accountable”.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan
- Environmental Scan Report
- Staff Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Experiences Report
- Community Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Experiences Report
- Opportunities for Change Report
- Data Summary
Five Year Plan (Draft document)
“Goal: 100% of Niagara Region Divisions have incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into their work”
- “Create and promote a DEI Inclusion Charter”
- The five year plan promises to “create DEI curriculum” and “mandate DEI learning for Councillors, staff and volunteers”.
- The five year plan “inclusive strategies” that “reflect the region’s diverse population based on the Canadian Census”
Internal Goals
- Increase % of Niagara Region staff and volunteers who report that they feel heard, respected, and valued by 10% (current avg 79%)
- Provide 100% of Niagara Region employees, Councillors, and volunteers with at least one DEI related training to be equipped to support the diverse population of Niagara
- Use a variety of inclusive strategies to hire, retain, and promote the workforce of Niagara Region to reflect the region’s diverse population based on the Canadian Census
- 100% of Niagara Region Divisions have incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into their work
- Increase the DEI score for Niagara Region employees by 5%
External goals (it says Internal twice, so the second time is probably an error)
- Increase % of community members that feel they are reflected and heard by locally elected officials by 20%
- Increase % of people that believe places of employment in Niagara are free from discrimination by 30%
- Increase % of people that believe employers in Niagara do a good job of attracting and promoting people of diverse backgrounds by 20%
- Increase At least 70% of program participants believe that the Niagara Region programs and services are meeting their needs
- Decrease the % of people that experience discrimination in Niagara by 20%
- Increase % of community members that feel accepted in Niagara by 10%
UNESCO coalition
This initiative to create a five year plan began after Niagara Region passed a motion in September 2020 to join the UNESCO Coalition for Inclusive Municipalities. The motion was brought forward by St. Catharines councillor Laura Ip which fulfilled one of her promises of her 2018 “Reset the Region” campaign.
Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities
Advocates include leftists and communists
Among the delegates speaking in Sept 2019 in favor of joining the UNESCO Coalition was Saleh Waziruddin, a councillor in St. Catharines in the Communist party. Waziruddin is platformed often by local media on behalf of a front-groups, Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (NRARA). In his role on behalf of NRARA, Waziruddin spoke in favor of the motion.
The mover of the motion, councillor Laura Ip, describes herself in her Twitter profile as an “Intersectional feminist killjoy”. Her pronouns are “She/her/m’lady”. Her political positions are leftist, and in some cases are antagonistic in their presentation. It is clear that her political ideas are not centrist nor right wing and it carries therefore that her intent in joining the Coalition fulfills the ambitions of leftist political ideology.
