By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo credit: Kathy Grant Legacy Voices Floydeen Charles-Fridal, executive director of the Caribbean African Canadian Social Services (CAFCAN) |
The federal government supports
the creation of a national institute for Black Canadians, an idea proposed by a
pan-Canadian group of Black organizations.
In its presentation of the 2019
budget in March, the government noted that in recognition of the United Nations
International Decade for People of African Descent it would provide $25 million
over five years starting in 2019-20, for projects and capital assistance to
celebrate, share knowledge and build capacity in Canada’s vibrant Black
Canadian communities.
On August 27, Adam Vaughan,
parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development,
Jean-Yves Duclos, announced the government’s support would help stakeholders to
create the first national institute for Black Canadians.
The Canadian Institute for
Persons of African Descent (CIPAD) will work to advance initiatives that impact
Black Canadians at a systemic level.
Speaking at A Different Booklist
Cultural Centre in Toronto, Vaughan said the government is committed to
fostering and promoting a Canada where every person is able to fully and
equally participate in our country’s economic, cultural, social and political
life.
Floydeen Charles-Fridal,
executive director of the Caribbean African Canadian Social Services (CAFCAN)
in Toronto, collaborated with the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute in
Halifax, Nova Scotia and others to submit a proposal for CIPAD.
“We are excited about the
meaning of this announcement to present and future generations of
African-Canadians as it amplifies and honours our legacy, perspective and
contributions towards building and strengthening this nation. The Canadian
Institute for People of African Descent and the intermediary model will enable
capacity building in Black communities and further underscores the value of
applying a Black lens in addressing the long-term systemic issues that we have
faced in this country for generations,” says Charles-Fridal.
On July 23 of this year, an
engagement session was held with almost 40 stakeholder organizations
representing a diverse range of Black communities and interests from across
Canada. Participants signaled support for the creation of a national institute
dedicated to looking at issues that affect Black communities.
Coming out of Meeting of the Minds (MOM) that Charles-Fridal
has been spearheading over the last couple of years, a number of Black
organizations got together under a spinoff group called the UN Decade for
People of African Descent Push Coalition to apply pressure to the federal
government to make sure that monies that were earmarked for Black Canadians did
not get lost in elections and new governments, if that does happen.
“We ended up working with the department who heard our calls
for action, worked with some of us, including MOM, and a series of meetings
with Black community organizations. They met with four or five organizations
directly and the department to make sure that our voices were not lost when it
came to what to do with those budget monies,” says Richard Sharpe, a member of
the coalition who lives in Ottawa.
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| Photo credit: Kathy Grant Legacy Voices Adam Vaughan, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development |
Their recommendations gained a nod from the policymakers in
various departments – finance, Prime Minister’s Office, Employment and Social
Development Canada (ESDC) and others – resulting in the budget announcement.
Sharpe says the $25 million will help support Black
organizations “do what they do best in terms of serving Black communities
across the country.”
Any initiative that could be considered supporting of the
Black community could qualify for this funding. The intermediary model will
have Black organizations with the capacity to do so serving as a go-between the
federal government and Black entities that are applying for funding.
They would vet, review and provide the funding follow-up, in
terms of accountability, to those that would like to submit under the program.
Sharpe says there are more than 1000 Black organizations
across Canada so they had a cross section from across the country at the
meetings – from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and
Quebec
The organizations that they targeted were mostly those that
service Black communities across the country and had a proven track record in
doing some work over the last couple of years supportive of the UN Decade for
People of African Descent.
“We wanted to get people together that wanted to get things
done. It is a rare thing in our Black community to get together from across the
country as diverse as we are and come to consensus on almost anything,” says
Sharpe who thinks it is quite a success that they were able to accomplish what
they did at the July meeting.
Sharpe says the ESDC has never focused on Black Canadians
before so he and others who know the system could say, “well, you have the
focus on Blacks here so this is how you can implement it, this is how you can
roll these monies out and we can help you bring the organizations together to
support that through MOM and through our other contacts.”
The $25 million is earmarked for Black communities, regardless
of who comes into power after the October 21 general election.
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| Photo contributed Adam Vaughan and some of the people who attended the announcement at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre: The People's Residence in Toronto, Canada |
Sharpe says $25 million over 5 years for the Black community
per capacity is nothing for a country as big as Canada with 1.2 or 1.3 million
Blacks “but what this opportunity affords us, in terms of looking forward, is
that we’ve established relationships with this department and all of these
organizations through MOM.”
The UN Push Coalition is temporary and exists to drive this
until the end of a year. Thereafter, organizations that are more established,
like MOM, Michaelle Jean Foundation and others, will carry the torch forward,
he said.
“This is kind of
a best practice. This is not something that as a community we’ve been
successful at in terms of mobilizing people from across the country,” says
Charles-Fridal.
She says Meeting of the Minds is like a think tank and tries
to engage people who are not spending a lot of time camping out in the strategic
conversations that can lead to actions that can influence policy and developing
policy frameworks and research “and really bearing witness to our experience.
So it’s about for us, by us, about us.”
[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Sept. 19, 2019.]
