Human rights complaints ongoing as Vaughan takes steps on anti-Black racism

In 1 incident, VACA request to raise Caribbean flags refused, while other flags allowed

Yorkregion.com
August 21, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

While Vaughan praises itself for its inclusivity and being the city that speaks 105 languages, a head of a local group thinks otherwise after filing an 18-page complaint claiming anti-Black incidents to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario last year.

It’s the same year that the Summer of Sound Festivals Inc. (SOS) sued the City of Vaughan for $25 million for cancelling the Caribbean cultural festival in August 2018.

The city argues SOS didn’t comply with the terms of the permit, leading to its revocation amid noise and public complaints received by both the city and the York Regional Police.

However, Shernett Martin, executive director for the Vaughan African Canadian Association, believes tensions could have been easily resolved if the city had worked with the organizers to at least turn down the volume.

“This made us extremely frustrated and upset with the city,” Martin said. “I completely support the lawsuit by the SOS group.”

For Martin, VACA as an organization has been “faced with anti-Black racism for many years in the city.” This is why she filed the human rights complaints. From that file, she shared three incidents with the Vaughan Citizen.

No to raising Caribbean flags?

With August -- considered as emancipation month for Caribbean nations, marking their independence from British rule -- Martin wanted to celebrate at city hall, where she said, “We can raise a flag, we can have food, dance, culture, all these things that support Caribbean heritage.”

Initially, VACA was denied to fly any non-Canadian flags inside city hall, so the organization suggested outside where there is a fountain and a big flagpole.

But it was also denied the opportunity to raise a Caribbean flag outside by the fountain, with the city citing “safety hazard” since people can fall into the water, said Martin.

Later VACA cancelled the request. “This is not being unsupportive but racist,” she added.

However, there were other non-Canadian flags seen raised outside near the fountain, Martin said. For example, there was the lighting of the menorah at the same platform where the water is, coupled with the Israeli flag flying. She pointed to other events that included flags, including those for Philippine heritage month and Italian heritage month, which had access to the city's bathrooms.

Martin said if they wanted to hold their celebration, the were told they needed to bring portable potties and couldn’t use the city's bathrooms.

Another incident VACA included in its complaint arose from a deputation Martin made on May 2, 2017, when she asked for city support to build the African-Canadian Cultural and Community Centre.

Martin explained how other community groups have their own centres, citing Italian seniors and those for Latinos and Filipinos.

According to Martin, Coun. Alan Shefman at the time suggested that a Black member of the community should try to run for council to make it happen.

Martin recalled Shefman saying that the Black community “must pull its bootstraps like the Jewish community did.”

To Martin, the incident showed overt microaggression toward the Vaughan Black community. “Are you telling me that when I go to the election box, I'm supposed to vote for somebody who looks like me for someone to listen to me?” she asked.

In his defence, Shefman said that he had heard four versions so far of what was said at the time. “They are all inaccurate,” Shefman emphasized, adding, “I do have witnesses.”

Following Martin’s deputation, Shefman said “council's response was to say thank you, we will look into it.”

He added, “She was very distraught and it was evident. At the end of the meeting, having been her friend for at least a decade, I went over to her and we were talking.

“In our wide ranging conversation,” Shefman recalled saying, “political representation is very important; that it would be very valuable to have broader representation of our diversity on council, including someone from the Black community.

“I was in fact encouraging either her or someone she might know to run for council,” he said. “I gave as examples, that Councillor Racco and I are members of two distinct groups and we have both been proud to address issues that have arisen.”

Shefman is part of the Jewish community in York Region, which is home to a large Jewish population.

After this incident, Martin decided to file a human rights complaint in the summer of 2018, wondering how many of other councillors “hold that same view.” However, she said VACA “didn’t hear anything about it” from the city by October. “So we refiled (to the tribunal) by winter 2019, and we’ve gotten a barrage of emails from the city's lawyers,” she said.

“We have seen nothing, nothing, zero for the black community in the last 17 years,” she added.

No bold statements on anti-Black incidents?

Martin said there is also an absence of others showing camaraderie toward the Black community.

In 2017, Vaughan citizen Charline Grant was called the N-word by a York Region District School Board trustee, and there were other incidents in schools, including spray painting the N-word or swastika, Martin said.

While some provincial and federal officials denounced these acts, municipal officials stayed quiet, Martin claimed.

“Can you please make a statement?” she said. “Can you come out and say something, because, as a Vaughan resident I feel unsafe; we feel like we're not being supported.”

In 2018, VACA made a deputation to the council, asking to hire a director of diversity and inclusion diversity, which only recently became a reality.

On Jan. 28, the City of Vaughan adopted York Region’s Inclusion Charter. The Inclusion Charter is a community initiative that brings together local municipalities, police services, hospitals, school boards, conservation authorities and agencies with a common commitment to create an inclusive environment with equality for all who work, live and play here.

Amid the Black Lives Matter protest, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua’s issued statements on June 3 and June 16, explaining how the ongoing solidarity against racial injustice continues to be an important priority for him and all members of council.

Vaughan council also decided on June 16 to change the name of its August civic holiday, known as Benjamin Vaughan Day since 2014, to honour John Graves Simcoe -- the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada and a leading proponent of the Act Against Slavery.

Amid the Black Lives Matter protest, on July 20, Vaughan finally “established” the new role of a diversity and inclusion officer, a request made by VACA almost two years ago.