By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo credit: Clive Sewell Peter Flegel, Director of Programming and Development at the Michaëlle Jean Foundation speaking at the first National Black Canadians Summit in Toronto in December 2017 |
Canada’s capital, Ottawa, will be the meeting place for hundreds
of people from across the country to converge for the four-day 2019 National
Black Canadians Summit to celebrate Black History Month and the UN
International Decade for People of African Descent.
Under the theme “Mapping Our Future: Face to Face with our
Lawmakers,” it will be held at the National Arts Centre from February 1 to 4
ending with a meeting with parliamentarians at “Black Voices on the Hill” and
an official Black History Month reception.
Peter Flegel, director of programming
and development at the Michaëlle Jean Foundation and organizer, said the
first summit held in Toronto in December 2017 celebrated the International
Decade for People of African Descent, 2015-2024, and its theme, “People of
African descent: recognition, justice and development.”
This involved 800 black leaders and
stakeholders across Canada working together to develop a strategic action plan
to implement the goals of the decade – recognition, justice and development.
He said over the course of three days
they had structured and strategic conversations around what should be the
goals, objectives and targets for an action plan addressing issues such as
access to justice, housing, black wealth and ownership, and a host of other
issues that affect the Black community.
Flegel said out of that came 300
recommendations which were synthesized over a year into one action plan which
will be unveiled at the summit.
“What we’ll be doing now is then
looking at which of the organizations are already doing the critical work that
are identified as key objectives and targets of the plan. And then secondly,
where are the gaps in terms of services, funding, legislation and policy and how
can we fill those gaps.”
Based on those gaps, in light of the
federal election in October this year, they will determine which three or four
asks they should be making to the government and to the other federal political
parties.
Speaking of “Black Voices on the Hill” on
February 4, Flegel said, “Black leaders who were at the summit will go meet
with Cabinet ministers as well as representatives of the other federal parties
to make those asks and to ensure that the priorities of the Black community across
the country become part of the platforms of the main federal political
parties.”
Responding to feedback from the first summit
that there needed to be more outreach across Canada, particularly to black
youth, he said funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage allowed organizers
to do consultations that focused on anti-Black racism.
These Black community jam sessions were
held in five cities to engage black youth and get additional recommendations
for the plan.
“We also did an online engagement which
has reached over 100,000 Black Canadians from across the country, again gaining
feedback for the plan.”
Flegel says moving forward they will
continue to engage with their partners through Black community organizations
and individuals to try to ensure that as many people as possible can be
included in the process.
The plenary -- “Bring the Canadian
Judiciary into the 21st century” -- was inspired by the recent
Ontario Judicial Council hearing of a complaint brought against Justice Donald
McLeod for his involvement in the Federation of Black Canadians.
“The complaint was rejected by the
council and there was actually, kind of, a precedence within this decision
which stipulated that engagement in, kind of, Black organizing is essential to
fighting anti-Black racism within the Canadian judicial system and ensuring of
public trust in the Canadian judicial system. So that’s a precedence that we’ve
never seen before in Canada, and I wonder if that’s actually been done anywhere
in any other jurisdiction around the world.”
Flegel said this will give Justice McLeod
a chance to speak about his ordeal and to place it in a national and also global
context “in terms of looking at a more engaged judiciary than we’re used to
seeing in Canada and in elsewhere.”
There will also be a workshop session
where a member of the Federation of Black Canadians will speak about what it
has done since its inception and plans for the future.
Flegel said what the Michaëlle Jean
Foundation is doing is giving a platform to the Canadian Black community.
He is expecting about three hundred
people to attend the four-day event.
Flegel says the feedback from the first
summit was very positive with many saying that it was a wonderful opportunity
to meet likeminded movers and shakers from across the country.
He said it is rare that one gets the
opportunity, if from Ottawa, “to meet somebody from Vancouver or Halifax or
Montreal that is doing something similar to what you’re doing.”
“It was a great opportunity to network,
share ideas, to build relationships, build new projects and just the energy, we
were told, was also extremely positive.”
Flegel said as organizers they listened
carefully to the positive feedback and also the critiques and have tailored
this year’s programming accordingly.
They are planning to have one more
summit in 2020 that will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia to honour the historical
African Nova Scotian community.
At that one they will look back at what
has happened since the first summit and where they want to go from there.
With the community they will determine
what the next step will be but Flegel thinks the most important thing is the
strategic action plan, which goes up to 2024 when the International Decade ends.
He says it allows the community to
provide itself with “a blueprint and moving forward in terms of meeting the
goals that are laid out in the International Decade which is higher development,
better access to justice and recognition.”
Among some of the speakers at this
year’s summit are political strategist Tiffany Gooch, political commentator
Brittany Andrew-Amofah, and vice-president of the Women’s Federation of Quebec,
Marlihan Lopez.
One recommendation from last year was
to have a cross-cultural conversation so they have invited Bernie Farber,
former executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress and Nadia Hasan, deputy
director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims to share their best
practices around what worked for them in terms of advocating the government.
“There’s an opportunity for us to learn
from other communities and for other communities to learn from the Black
community,” says Flegel.
This year’s summit is being organized
in partnership with the Federation of Black Canadians and the Somali Centre for
Family Services, as well as approximately 20 Black community organizations from
across the country.
To register, visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2019-national-black-canadians-summit-sommet-pancanadien-des-communautes-noires-2019-tickets-54919448549
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