The Lester B. Pearson School Board says it will review its policies and create an action plan to tackle racism and discrimination.
The board held a special meeting over Zoom on Monday night and voted unanimously for the motion.
The vote comes after a video published by two teens who attended John Rennie High School in Pointe-Claire last year showcasing racial slurs and insults towards Black people sparked condemnation last week.
The resolution acknowledges there is racism and discrimination within the school board.
“We are in fact recognizing we’re part of the problem but certainly not all of the problem,” said board chairperson Noel Burke.
“It has to be a collaborative and cooperative effort if we are going to ensure — as we always strive to — a safe and secure environment for our students and our staff, and to do so even means looking at our own policies.”
The resolution also mandates the creation of a task force composed of administrators, commissioners, staff, students and representatives of minority communities to oversee the creation of a comprehensive action plan addressing all forms of racism and discrimination within the school board.
The board’s intercultural advisory committee will be in charge of reviewing existing policies and practices and make recommendations.
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According to the board, the committee has been in place for several years already. The committee is composed of commissioners, parents and employees.
“They may also have documentation and activities and a lot of the interventions that they previously put together maybe part of a resource portfolio that might be used,” explained Burke.
The province’s health and social services network will also provide resources and feedback.
Board commissioner Joshua Arless said much more needs to be done in order to combat anti-Black racism and urged the board to make efforts to diversify the council.
He proposed that board members consider opening up the appointment process to have one or two of its possible co-opted commissioners allowed by Quebec’s Education act to appoint two individuals to further diversify the council.
“If we are leaders in our community, then we need to start with us,” Arless said.
A status report is expected to be delivered to the council of commissioners by September 1st, in which the task force is expected to be named and its goals should be outlined.
More information about Anti-Black racism in Canada:
Racial profiling and racial discrimination against Black people is a systemic problem in Canada, according to numerous reports and experts.
Black Canadians account for 3.5 per cent of the country’s total population, according to the latest government statistics, but are over-represented in federal prisons by more than 300 per cent, as found by the John Howard Society.
A Black person is nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be involved in a fatal shooting by Toronto police, a 2018 report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission found, and Black Canadians are more likely to experience inappropriate or unjustified searches during encounters and unnecessary charges or arrests. They’re also more likely to be held overnight by police than white people, according to the John Howard Society.
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