Semaji November 2017
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Semaji Black Community Resource Centre Supporting Youth, Building Communities, A Holistic Approach Volume 13, Issue 2 November 2017 Inside This Issue 2 A Word From The President Semaji Has Now Increased By 4 Issues*!!! See Below for The New Semaji Release Schedule 3 COMMUNITY -Word from The President Continued 4 JUSTICE Upcoming Schedule for Volume 13 (2017-2018) -Righteous Outrage Over Racism Is Now More Important Then Ever in Quebec Issue 3: December -- Release Date: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 5 HEALTH -The BCRC is Honoured by Hema Quebec Issue 4: February -- Release Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2018 6 COMMUNITY -Community Events Issue 5: March -- Release Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2018 7 COMMUNITY -Community Events Continued Issue 6: May -- Release Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 8 HERITAGE Issue 7: June -- Release Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 -Canada’s Black Walk of Fame 9 LEISURE CLUB Issue 8: August -- Release Date: Tuesday, September 4, -Historical Word Find 2018 -Cozy Up With This Book!! -Stay Tuned!!! *Thanks to our partner, Black Studies Centre (BSC), for the funding to increase Semaji issues. Opinion: Righteous Outrage Over Racism Is Now More Important Than Ever In Quebec By Yvonne Sam (Chairman of the Rights and Freedoms Committee) Originally Published in Hungton Post, November 27, 2017 The cancellation of systemic government announced that it would security and culture. Premier Couil- racism hearings means that there look into the issue. lard mandated the Quebec Human will be no focus on understanding Rights Commission to organize and Then, in May, Kathleen Weil, immigra- lead the consultations, with the aim the perilous eects of the problem tion, diversity and inclusion minister, to put forward concrete and perma- on visible minorities' well-being. unveiled plans for a public consultation nent solutions that engage all of on systemic discrimination and racism Quebec society in combating these After Québec Solidaire MNA, Amir in Quebec, which was scheduled to problems. Khadir, tabled a 2,662-signature start in September. petition in the province's National The commission would submit Assembly, calling for "a consultation Public consultations would address recommendations to the govern- commission on systemic racism" to be discrimination in employment, educa- ment, which was expected to release created, Premier Philippe Couillard's tion, health care, housing, public Continued on Page 4... the ndings and an action plan next spring. In a September ninth La Presse piece, Francois Cardinal also urged Couillard to In April, just a month before plans were abandon the consultations, if he didn't set to be revealed, the Parti Quebecois want to be found guilty of arousing the accused the Couillard government of ashes of intolerance. playing with re. The party launched a racialized people, have been left out in petition against the commission. If the truth is to be both known and told, the cold and they cannot aord to be not only is a trial needed, but also long put on hold. On Oct. 18, the Couillard government overdue. This continued reluctance to announced an overhaul to the controver- forthrightly confront racism persists and The overwhelming response of disbelief sial initiative, cancelling systemic racism is also responsible for the economic at the cancellation should herald the hearings and changing the focus to disparities which impede race relations beginning of new commitments to economic opportunities for visible gains. sustain and transform righteous minorities and immigrants. outrage into a collective resolve, Another challenge lies in the fact that focusing on strategies that would Couillard, among many others, covertly unapologetically benet all aected “Blacks, along with other dismisses the fact that in Quebec, racialized minorities. Racism remains a racialized people, have certain privileges are aorded and major issue that cannot be ignored. The been left out in the cold and enjoyed by certain people, and further facts are undeniable and should discounts any relevance of past Quebec continue on the path of they cannot aord to be put practices having a bearing today. To disingenuousness, a very painful on hold.” behave as if racism does not matter is to confrontation may eventually ensue. deny the absolute truth, and this again is According to Pope Francis, "racism part and parcel of how wide the divide today is the ultimate evil in the world." In addition, Weil lost her immigration and is. diversity portfolio to David Heurtel. The Premier Couillard cannot have his say project is now called "the commission on Plainly put, the cancellation means that and also his day — he put in motion an valuing diversity and ghting against there will be no focus on understanding independent process under the control discrimination." I hope that there are no the perilous eects of interpersonal and of the Quebec Human Rights Commis- plans to sweep racism under the rug, as institutional racism on both the psycho- sion, only to dabble at the rumblings of the emanating dust would be too much. logical and physiological well-being of a rabble. minorities. Let us not be misguided in My recent column, "Political Demission at thinking that institutional racism applies Sustaining righteous outrage is now the Quebec Human Rights Commission," to a physical institution or building. We more important than ever. is now being revisited, because there has are the institutionalized racism, and been no response to the announced become part of institutionalized Original article can be found at: cancellation. behaviour each time we fail to stand up, http://www.hungtonpost.ca/yvonne- turn a blind eye, walk away thinking that sam/righteous-outrage-- Quebec appears blind to the reality of it is not our problem, hold our heads over-racism-is-now-more-important-tha racism and discrimination, and also the down or fail to intervene when we see n-ever-in-quebec_a_23265250/ possibility of ensuing pain — a pain that someone being harassed or discrimi- unleashes itself in structural circles, nated against. meanders through the docks of court- rooms, nally ending in the unjustiable Yes, the very racism which Quebec has deaths at the hands of law enforcers. so long failed to acknowledge can psychologically aect its victims by Politically speaking, the pendulum of allowing society to deny their true value public attitude regarding racism and as individuals, and by compelling them discrimination has reached the limit of its to internalize the racist conceptions of swing, once again exposing the cold, hard themselves held by the dominant truth that the story of racism will never be culture. Notwithstanding the odds, it is told, especially since from the outset imperative that the present cancellation opposition parties had, in no uncertain be seen as an opportunity to bring terms, called on the government to scrap collective weight to bear. Sustained the consultation process altogether, public pressure is the only way to make claiming that it puts Quebec society on this happen. Blacks, along with other trial. The cancellation of systemic government announced that it would security and culture. Premier Couil- racism hearings means that there look into the issue. lard mandated the Quebec Human will be no focus on understanding Rights Commission to organize and Then, in May, Kathleen Weil, immigra- lead the consultations, with the aim the perilous eects of the problem tion, diversity and inclusion minister, to put forward concrete and perma- on visible minorities' well-being. unveiled plans for a public consultation nent solutions that engage all of on systemic discrimination and racism Quebec society in combating these After Québec Solidaire MNA, Amir in Quebec, which was scheduled to problems. Khadir, tabled a 2,662-signature start in September. petition in the province's National The commission would submit Assembly, calling for "a consultation Public consultations would address recommendations to the govern- commission on systemic racism" to be discrimination in employment, educa- ment, which was expected to release created, Premier Philippe Couillard's tion, health care, housing, public 2 Semaji Volume 13, Issue 2 November 2017 A Word From The President The Carl Whittaker Communology and Black Progress at Canada 150th and Montreal 375th Semaji Volume 13, Issue 2 November 2017 By Dr. Clarence S. Bayne President of BCRC Editor Ashlie Bienvenu and improvement in the wellbeing of the populations of African ancestry seem to The Black Community of Montreal has stem from the fact that the community Contributors Dr. Clarence Bayne recently (November 2017) lost a leader that racialized as not-White were fragmented Yvonne Sam played a key role in the settlement of the into a multiplicity of subcultures associ- Ashlie Bienvenu large inux of Black immigrants to Montreal ated with and having their origins in many in the period 1960 to 2000. Carl (Lamumba) countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Whittaker. He was one of those immigrants other parts of the world. Moreover, that came to Montreal from Barbados, W.I., notwithstanding their racial identity in in 1966, to study at Sir George William Canada as Black (of African descent), these Layout/Design Ashlie Bienvenu University. It was a time of major social and cultures were essentially closed to each political change in the former British other, social and cultural distance, and colonies, and in North America. The histories of colonial capitalism, and emergence of Black organizations in neo-liberalist capitalism and administra-