Aboriginal Office at Toronto city hall would be step forward despite steps back, advocates say

Toronto seemed to be making strides, but the abrupt resignation of the city's Indigenous Affairs consultant among other setbacks beg the question: What is taking the city so long?

Thestar.com
Oct. 14, 2017
By David Rider

Efforts to "Indigenize" city hall have taken a major hit, yet there's a simple way for Toronto to start reconciling the treatment of Indigenous people and see that they have a real role in decision-making, advocates say.

"My recommendation today has been consistently presented to the city since (1998) amalgamation - establish an Aboriginal Office at city hall, set up the relationship (with Indigenous people) and the actual things you do will flow from that," says Kenn Richard, executive director of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto and a member of the city's Aboriginal Affairs committee.

"The relationship needs to be honoured in a significant way. The city has been paralyzed on this point for whatever reason. I don't think anyone's evil or there's a nasty agenda at play - it seems like the city cannot bring itself to move to that extra step that honours the diversity task force that they're so proud of."

Toronto seemed to be making strides. Most official city hall gatherings now start with acknowledgement they are on traditional Indigenous lands. Flags in Nathan Phillips Square permanently honour The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation; Six Nations of the Grand River Territory First Nation; the Huron-Wendat-Wendake First Nation; The Métis Nation of Ontario; and the Inuit.

The flags were raised in June at a special sunrise ceremony, applauded by a crowd including Mayor John Tory and four interns working in city councillors' offices, with federal funding via Miziwe Biik Aboriginal employment centre, as part of the city's Aboriginal Employment Strategy.

The same month, Tory's executive committee voted to launch consultations on a "work plan and organizational structure" for a permanent Aboriginal Office that would elevate Indigenous outreach and reconciliation by moving them out of the multi-file Equity, Diversity and Human Rights office.

The appearance of progress, however, crashed when the city staffer tasked with overseeing it quit and launched a human rights complaint against the city.

Lindsay Kretschmer, a Mohawk Wolf Clan member hired as Indigenous Affairs consultant in March, accused the city of "disrespectful" treatment of the Indigenous file and of violating her right to practise smudging, a ceremony that involves burning medicinal plants.

"In 2017 you're forbidding me from practising my culture. That's essentially a repeat of colonization behaviour," Kretschmer said, Metro reported last month. "It's just really bad to work there as an Indigenous person." Kretschmer declined an interview request from the Star.

Councillor Mike Layton, who co-chairs the Aboriginal Affairs committee, acknowledges the setback.

"It's a shame that the city wasn't in a position to ensure that we could keep Lindsay," he says. "She had a lot to contribute to the city and took on a file that was very difficult and under-resourced.

"This was a step backwards in both the work being done and in our relations with the Indigenous-Aboriginal people living in the City of Toronto. I hope we can resolve this quickly - it's going to take commitment from the bureaucratic side, to take seriously recommendations from the committee and to act on them as quickly as possible. But the politicians are on the hook - we need to fund and resource this work."

He supports the call for a stand-alone Aboriginal Office, noting the city committed to honouring calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation report, and now needs staff with enough seniority to cut through red tape and get change across city departments and agencies.

"Governments in Canada can't ignore the legacy of residential schools, the issues that are facing the Aboriginal-Indigenous communities in cities across Canada," he said. "They are suffering deeply and it's the role of government to address access to services, employment and equity, intergenerational trauma. We can't ignore it and we need to be an active player in resolving it."

Layton noted his committee performed, for the first time, a smudging ceremony in a city hall committee room last month and the city is hiring a replacement for Kretschmer. Also, one year from now, a four-metre-long turtle sculpture, "Restoration of Identity" by Ojibwa artist Solomon King, will be unveiled in Nathan Phillips Square's southwest corner as a site of "learning, healing and reconciliation." The Ontario government is funding the project and working on it with residential school survivors.

Denise Davad, Miziwe Biik's manager of employment, says Indigenous people need to be able to access services from other Indigenous people.

"When we're talking about Indigenizing city hall, we're really talking about Aboriginal employment, the numbers of Aboriginal people, Aboriginal taxpayers in the city of Toronto, that are on their payroll," she says.

Davad said in 2014 her agency was able to identify only eight Indigenous people across the vast city workforce.

"I can tell you there were less than five of our clients hired since then, not including the interns we placed there," Davad says. "There is no way on the city (online) form for hiring to self-identify as Aboriginal - it just asks if you are part of a diversity group - and the city does a very poor job of collecting and tracking data. I'm sure there are other Aboriginal people on the payroll but there is no means for them to self-identify and that means we can't track them."

Alexis Linkert, an Ojibwa finishing her internship in Layton's office, says Kretschmer's experience at the city "is her story to tell.

"Mine has been a completely different journey here. For me there's been no setbacks. Whatever I wanted to sink my teeth into, my colleagues and Councillor Layton has been completely 100 per cent supportive," she says.

"There's a long way to go. I'm glad to see the city making the effort. I would love to see an Aboriginal (city) councillor ... to have the Aboriginal Office as somewhere for Indigenous people to go, to connect to municipal government like people do with the Newcomer Office."

Mayor Tory, in a statement, told the Star he recognizes Toronto is home to tens of thousands of Indigenous Canadians. He stopped short of expressly backing the creation and funding of an Aboriginal Office, saying he supports examining the idea and looks forward to a report and discussion this fall.

Richard, who helped write the first call for such an office published in 2001, says Toronto needs action, not more reports.

"Been there, done that, now they've got to roll the dice - be risky, go large on this, because reconciliation is a pretty loud knock on the door and I think boldness would be applauded."