Mayor Valérie Plante says she is committed to addressing systemic racism and following up on recommendations laid out in a new report detailing problems in the city.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says she is committed to addressing systemic racism and following up on recommendations laid out in a new report detailing problems in the city.
Plante said she would introduce a motion to “formally recognize” systemic racism, appoint a commissioner to counter racism, hire more minorities to public posts and improve accountability among the Montreal police service.
“I want you to know that Montreal is a city where every Montrealer is entitled to have their dignity respected,” she said Monday at a news conference in response to the report.
“I’m firmly committed to implementing systemic solutions to these systemic problems without delay, because there is no time to lose.”
The report, released Monday by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), is the result of a 20,000-signature petition presented to the city nearly two years ago, which triggered public hearings on systemic racism.
It concluded the city has “neglected” the fight against racism and discrimination and does not recognize the systemic nature of the problem.
It arrives at a time of global reckoning on the issue. Recent protests in Montreal in response to last month’s killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police also coalesced around local tensions — including Premier François Legault’s denial of the existence of systemic discrimination in Quebec.
The city’s approach to issues of race and discrimination, the OCPM found, “turns a blind eye to the debate regarding the relationship of power between majority and minority groups.”
As a consequence, “the city does not qu