2020 RVBIA AGM — Social Justice & Anti-Racism Committee Update
By: Derek Vaz
Tags: Bias, Roncesvalles, Toronto, Social Justice, Anti Racism

Remarks delivered by Derek Vaz, RVBIA Board Member and Co-chair of the RVBIA Social Justice & Anti-Racism Committee — November 10, 2020

Thank you to the Chair, my fellow board members, committee members, and BIA members joining us here for your time. I also thank our elected officials joining us from the city, province and federal governments and for the work they have been doing in this space already. I will share the text remarks below publicly.

As we heard in the land acknowledgement earlier, Roncesvalles is situated on the traditional territory of First Nations peoples including the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, Haudenoshonee and Wendat. It remains home to many First Nations, Inuit and Métis. However, for many Black, Indigenous and other people of color — like myself— we know there is more work and opportunity than to just acknowledge history.

Speaking personally, I have lived in Roncesvalles for the last few years as a resident and more recently a business owner. I run a design studio focused creating community-centred digital products and brands. Moving here represents a culmination of a dream and vision for many immigrants like my family. As the most ethnically diverse city in the world, Toronto as a whole represents a pluralistic vision of what societies around the world could look like. Unfortunately, despite that diversity at a city-scale, our neighbourhoods still remain segregated based on racial and socio-economic class boundaries [1]. Roncesvalles Village, while shifting in demographics, is not immune to this and it is important to understand why.

The formation of the Social Justice & Anti-Racism committee is a proactive step of the BIA to identify, address and inform ways our community can be more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. The previous work this BIA has led to honour Indigenous lives and culture — like the Dundas Peace Garden and The Original People Leading to the Eighth Fire mural at Garden Ave — were celebrated locally and globally as important steps toward truth and reconciliation in a society that has long relied on the views, cultures and traditions of settler colonial points of view.

For those unfamiliar, Anti-Racism initiaves are not about policing racism at a individual level, though our impact fails if we continue to have acts of racism in our community. Rather, anti-racism is about

an action-oriented strategy for institutional, systemic change to address racism and interlocking systems of social oppression [2]

These institutions like police, public services, private businesses, education, healthcare — are all essential ingredients of our community.

When we speak of Social Justice, we are talking about how we as a community can collectively work together to eliminiate injustices in these institutions. Inspired by movements like the Rainbow Coalition of Fred Hampton and Jesse Jackson in the US or more recently the movement for Black lives, the SJAR committee represents a collection of business owners, parents of bi-racial children, labour lawyers, consultants, artists, and existing organizers from Roncy and Parkdale among others. Whether Indigenous, Black, white, Asian, gay, straight, young, old, differently abled — we have come together with the support of the BIA to work toward a mandate to benefit our community — especially for Black, Indigenous and people of color, inclusive of intersectional groups of LGBTQ2S+, and persons living with disabilities.

Roncy SJAR Mandate

The Social Justice and Anti-Racism Committee (SJAR) is here to help remove barriers to equity, diversity and prosperity in the community we refer to as Roncesvalles, particularly for Black and Indigenous people and other marginalized groups.

By creating tools for local businesses, providing access to support and information, and elevating the voices of our marginalized neighbours, we hope to continue to build Roncesvalles as a neighbourhood that celebrates unique voices and stands up to racism, hate speech, and social injustice.

Co-Chairs Derek Vaz and Sarah Davis are happy to welcome any community member who wishes to participate or provide support; working together is how we achieve these goals.

Our formation was driven by a push both from the board at the Executive level in the wake of the movement for racial justice and our mandate as Canadians to pursue Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous peoples. These incidents not only impacted our American neighbours, but was felt right here. From a racist interaction just this past week, targeting an Asian family on Roncesvalles, to the passing of Regis Korchinksi-Paquet during an interaction with Toronto Police this past summer.

I think about Regis often — she likely could have been a patron at one of your businesses. Some of you may know her. As a 29-year-old Indigenous-Ukrainian-Black Canadian woman, she quite literally represented the multiculturalism we as a country claim to embrace and champion. Our public services failed her at a time of need, during a mental health crisis. Just as the residential school system failed generations of Indigenous children who have grown up with the tramua of that experience. The dwindling faith we have seen in these institutions have led to calls for reform, rooted in abolishinist movements who for years have championed alternative, community-led ways to address these challenges.

These are sustainable, successful frameworks that succeeeded for thousands of years and it is necessary to heed those learnings, in a time when the pandemic, climate, and systemic racism have pushed many families and small businesses to the brink.

While our work ahead and the challenges we face can feel daunting, it is stories like Regis’ and the commitment of those in our neighbourhood that motivate and inspire our committee.

We know everything from how we interact with police, to how mental health crises should be addressed, to issues of food insecurity, the diversity of our businesses, and our health, especially in a pandemic, can be improved with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusivity and justice.

With that vision in mind, the committee established 3 areas of focus and these related, initial actions…

Outreach

Feedback, suggestions and any experiences related to our mandate can be submitted on the RoncesvillesVillage.ca website

Surveys and other methods will be conducted so we are informed by our community, including this group of members, as well as other voices who aren’t often represented

We are always accepting feedback

2. Education

We are evaluating paid consultants from the city’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism unit to receive proper anti-racism training. These learnings and resources will be made available to the BIA membership

We launched SJAR resource page on the Roncesvalles website, live now and featured on the home page, with references for books, events, articles, contact information for crises responses, links to grants and funding for diversty and equity based initiatives, and other questions, and more

In 2021 we’ll expand this effort to continue to share via other social channels like the RVBIA Members Facebook Group and Instagram (@sjar_roncy) as well as email newsletters. Please follow and share

3. Activism

Partnering with other committees like the Marketing, Streetscape, and Beautification Committees, for joint efforts like the work in the space at Garden to build on the Eighth Fire Mural

A planned virtual speaker series to educate and inspire our community through storytelling, panels and workshops focused on SJAR

Forming partnerships with neighbouring BIAs, city run groups and organizations like Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) to further our education and amplify our efforts

We are still seeking BIPOC Board Members with the vacancies we have

I want to end by saying that in light of the fact this is a devastating year for many of you, the outpouring of support we have felt for this initiative is remarkable and inspiring. On behalf of our committee, we appreciate your support. If you wish to be involved, please feel free to contact us via the Roncesvalles Website.

We look forward to creating meaningful change for all those often pushed the margins. If we can, then it will be for the benefit of us all as we work toward a vision of Roncesvalles that inspires Main St communities like ours, across the globe.

Thank you. I defer the remainder of my time to the Chair and welcome any questions in the chat for discussion later or as a follow-up.

[1] Toronto is segregated by race and income. And the numbers are ugly; Contenta, Sandro; Toronto Star, 2018

[2] Racism and Anti-Racism in Canada; Este, David; Lorenzetti, Lisa; Sato, Christa, Fernwood Publishing, 2018