The City of Montreal says it will revamp its complaint process for employees who say they are victims of racism.
“We hear you, we see you and we won’t let you down,” said Dominique Ollivier, the city’s executive committee chair.
A confidential phone line will be set up first, then a one-stop portal to process complaints.
An external committee will oversee the portal is effective.
“The objective of this window will be to offer human and personalized support to people who wish to file a complaint and to ensure follow up with the authorities,” Ollivier explained.
The measure was announced during the city’s second annual progress report looking into systemic racism.
It also follows reports of racism and discrimination against dozens of city employees across different boroughs were discussed.
Victims say they placed complaints but they never received justice, and they still have to work with their alleged aggressors.
Those who represent the victims say the measure doesn’t help resolve their complaints.
They want to sit down with the city.
“What is the purpose? At the end of the day you’re doing nothing. Will it change something? No,” said Gino Luberisse, a union delegate in Montreal North.
City hall’s official opposition agrees.
Ensemble Montréal doubled down on calls for an independent inquiry looking into systemic racism within the city.
“Because a lot of people decided to not put a complaint because they don’t trust in the process,” said Abdlehaq Sari, Ensemble Montréal’s spokesperson for public safety.
The city says there is nothing new for them to learn from a public inquiry and that they are ready to act now.
Fo Niemi, the executive director for the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) applauds the city’s steps to tackle issues of racism and discrimination.
But he’d like to see more done to ensure employees’ psychological and physical safety.
“The moment that staff, employees complain of violence, psychological intimidation or any kind of thing, they should remove the harasser and we have cases where basically that’s not done,” Niemi explained.
Niemi would also like to see race-based data collection that can be used to pin point problem areas.
The city promises the new portal will be fully functional by the summer.
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