The City of Montreal’s municipal opposition party is once again calling out the Plante administration for failing to stamp out discrimination within the City’s workforce.
“They’re flying blind,” claimed Alan DeSousa, Ensemble Montréal city councillor and borough mayor for Saint-Laurent.
“They don’t know the extent of the problem.”
In an email obtained by Global News that was sent to division heads and boroughs last week, the City asked leaders to identify formal or informal complaints of discrimination that happened in 2022 within the various departments.
Recipients were given 24 hours to respond.
“This is improvisation that is really, really shocking,” DeSousa told reporters at city hall.
Opposition party members claim that the City should already have this information since, according to them, in response to their calls last week for an independent investigation into discrimination allegations, the City responded that now is the time for action and not more documentation.
“I’m wondering what is the administration going to come up with as an argument against an independent inquiry,” said Alba Stella Zúñiga Ramos, Ensemble Montréal city councillor for the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district.
The City is also facing backlash from one anti-racism lobby group, whose members allege the president of the executive committee, Dominique Ollivier, brushed off a racism complaint by a racialized member of the City’s anti-racism commissioner’s office.
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- ‘Shock and disbelief’ after Manitoba school trustee’s Indigenous comments
- Several baby products have been recalled by Health Canada. Here’s the list
- ‘Sciatica was gone’: hospital performs robot-assisted spinal surgery in Canadian first
“Basically dismissing her complaints about having been the victim of racism, while she was delivering a diversity and inclusion session,” explained Alain Babineau, director on issues of racial profiling and public safety with the Red Coalition.
The group has filed a complaint with the Quebec Municipal Commission, a provincial body which oversees municipal affairs.
However, the Red Coalition also blasts Ensemble Montréal.
“They also have to take some responsibility, some blame, because some of their members were aware of this situation and should’ve been really pushing the City to take action on this, and they didn’t,” Babineau told Global News.
According to a City of Montreal spokesperson, the email that was sent to division heads last week, “is a normal administrative process, which is done periodically by the City’s human resources.”
The City also says Ollivier will respond to the allegations against her when she and the administration give a progress report Tuesday on the city’s fight against discrimination.
Comments