The ‘Indigenization’ of Toronto city hall

Interns are working in four city councillors’ offices on projects including a proposed full-time Aboriginal Office.

Thestar.com
June 20, 2017
By David Rider

Joleine Kasper has experienced different sides of being an Indigenous person working at Toronto City Hall.

When a co-worker asked about her Medicine Wheel pin, she explained the meaning, for her, in terms of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

“It’s a holistic approach that can be applied to health but also anything, so it was a chance to teach colleagues who wouldn’t otherwise know,” says Kasper, 28, a Barrie-raised member of Berens River First Nation.

Another day, a visitor explained her dog was “rescued from ‘one of those awful Indian reserves’ - like, ‘this poor dog’ - acknowledging that she saved that dog but could not even acknowledge Indigenous people are humans.”

At 5:30 a.m. Wednesday - National Aboriginal Day - Kasper will be in Nathan Phillips Square with three fellow interns hired under the city’s Aboriginal Employment Strategy, along with a host of other Indigenous people, city council members including Mayor John Tory, and many others.

The annual Sunrise Ceremony is special this year. Rather than one flag they will raise five - honouring The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation; Six Nations of the Grand River Territory First Nation; the Huron-Wendat-Wendake First Nation; The Metis Nation of Ontario; and the Inuit.

And while the past single flag stayed aloft temporarily, these five will fly permanently over the landmark square to commemorate Toronto's location on Indigenous lands.

Toronto’s famed diversity is usually framed in terms of immigrant communities, not original inhabitants.

Kasper and her fellow interns, all students or recent graduates working in city councillors’ offices until October, are part of efforts to shake off colonial views, “Indigenize” the city and live up to Toronto’s eight priority “Calls to Action” from among 94 in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report.

In interviews with the Star over the past week they expressed optimism and skepticism about those efforts.

“Here in Toronto there’s so much culture that the Indigenous people almost get pushed to the back burner,” says Jordan Celotto, 30, a member of Onondaga Nation Beaver Clan raised in Fort Erie, Ont.

“When I explain to people I’m Indigenous or Aboriginal or Native, a lot of them don’t know what it is, especially people new to Canada because there’s no education out there for them,” says the decade-long Torontonian. “That’s a big point - to educate people.”

Change is “happening - maybe at a snail’s pace, but it’s happening,” says the Humber College student. “There’s no reversing what’s been done in terms of assimilation and cultural genocide, but at least (city officials) are trying to take some steps to help in the future to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

The internship, a collaboration between city clerks, city councillors and Miziwe Biik Aboriginal employment and training centre, is overseen by the city’s full-time Indigenous Affairs Officer, Lindsay Kretschmer.

Other efforts, fostered by city staff and the Aboriginal affairs advisory committee, include steps to increase the ranks of Indigenous city employees and members of city agency and corporation boards, and recently approved Indigenous cultural competency training for city staff and councillors and their staff.

“At least positive things are happening now,” Kasper says, possibly with a push from efforts to mark Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations and Indigenous contributions.

“I do hope that Toronto doesn’t step back next year, when it’s not 150th and there’s not a lot of publicity, that they continue to move forward.”

Craig Waboose, a 29-year-old from Eabametoong First Nation north of Thunder Bay, is enjoying Toronto, even though he was hit by a car in an intersection soon after arriving.

As to why the Humber College paralegal student wanted to work at city hall, he says matter-of-factly, “I’m actually interested in politics and hopefully one day becoming Prime Minister. I’d like to learn the ropes from an outsider and insider perspective.”

Waboose says he isn’t feeling the overt racism he might expect where white and Indigenous communities are distinctly defined.

“You have such a diverse cultural city here that people just don’t have the time to get to know you but they acknowledge you as a person, where they could just ignore you as a Native person in say Winnipeg or Thunder Bay,” he says. So, Torontonians are too busy to be racist? “Exactly,” Waboose says with a big laugh.

Alexis Linkert, 31, an Ojibwa and the only intern from the GTA, sees Indigenous youth as “seed-planters.”

“We’re the first generation to fix seven generations of genocide so we want to make sure we create something concrete, and a good positive relationship with the city government, so we can make sure after we’re done here we can pass on the torch and make it better and bigger.”

The interns are working, in part, on groundwork for a proposed full-time Aboriginal Office at city hall. Like Toronto’s Newcomer Office, it would co-ordinate services and act as a hub for community resources.

Mayor John Tory’s executive on Monday voted to launch consultations on a “work plan and organizational structure” for such an office, with a report to come to city council later. Funding, however, would need to be found to turn what many have dreamed of since amalgamation into reality.

“We’ve come a long way,” Kasper says, “but there’s so much more that can be done.”