WINNIPEG\u2014The mayor of Manitoba\u2019s capital tearfully promised Thursday to fight racism and intolerance after his city was branded Canada\u2019s most racist by a national magazine.<\/p>\n
Brian Bowman stood surrounded by dozens of aboriginal and community leaders and admitted that Winnipeg has a problem with racism. The city\u2019s first M\u00e9tis mayor broke down in tears as he talked about passing on his heritage to his young children.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife is Ukrainian heritage. My family is M\u00e9tis,\u201d he said as he choked back tears. \u201cI want my boys to be as proud of both of those family lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macleans magazine published a cover story that gave Winnipeg the dubious distinction. It cited the huge gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginals, as well as the recent high-profile death of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, whose body was found in August wrapped in plastic in the Red River.<\/p>\n
It also comes shortly after an inquest report into the death of Brian Sinclair, an aboriginal double-amputee who died during a 34-hour wait for care in a city hospital\u2019s emergency room in 2008. Some staff testified that they assumed he was drunk \u2014 \u201csleeping it off\u201d \u2014 or homeless.<\/p>\n
The reaction to the article from city hall was swift. The police chief, the provincial treaty commissioner, chiefs and community leaders assembled \u2014 not to refute the article \u2014 but to promise to do something about the issue it highlighted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have racism in Winnipeg . . . You can\u2019t run away from facts,\u201d Bowman said following a closed-door traditional smudging ceremony. \u201cIgnorance, hatred, intolerance, racism exists everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinnipeg has a responsibility right now to turn this ship around and change the way we all relate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowman said that means having an open dialogue with aboriginal leaders before taking concrete action, which he said is coming.<\/p>\n
Grand Chief Derek Nepinak with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said keeping the lines of communication open is key. But he warned that combating racism is a huge challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guarantee you that, right now, somebody is having a racist experience in a restaurant or on the streets in Winnipeg somewhere. I\u2019m not here to pacify that or to say that it\u2019s okay,\u201d Nepinak said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who are wilfully blind, wilfully ignorant to the reality of indigenous people in this society. But we will challenge them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ovide Mercredi, a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he has experienced racism, but has not let it embitter him. There are many within the aboriginal community with the energy to fight prejudice and ensure there is \u201czero tolerance\u201d for racism, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a right to be different. If we as a society make that a basic principle \u2014 that all human beings have a right to be different \u2014 we\u2019d go a long way to solving the intolerance that many people experience,\u201d Mercredi said. \u201cInstead of putting each other down, we should be trying to lift each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg police Chief Devon Clunis, who is black, said he doesn\u2019t believe Winnipeg is the only city grappling with racism. Racism exists across Canada and is part of the \u201chuman condition,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have a difficult conversation in our city respective of race,\u201d Clunis said. \u201cI think you are seeing who is starting that conversation today.\u201d – Toronto Star<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WINNIPEG\u2014The mayor of Manitoba\u2019s capital tearfully promised Thursday to fight racism and intolerance after his city was branded Canada\u2019s most racist by a national magazine. Brian Bowman stood surrounded by dozens of aboriginal and community leaders and admitted that Winnipeg has a problem with racism. The city\u2019s first M\u00e9tis mayor broke down in tears as … Continue reading “‘Racism exists across Canada and is part of the human condition’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[10896,1017,10895,157,10894],"class_list":["post-17544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-brian-bowman","tag-canada","tag-manitoba","tag-racism","tag-winnipeg"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17545,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17544\/revisions\/17545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}