Black Member of Parliament Underscores the Power of Community Building

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Eddie Grant       Matthew Green, Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre and Yolanda McClean, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), Canada Chapter

Matthew Green, the newly sworn-in Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre in Ontario, says the substantive issues of the Black community continue to be unaddressed despite this being year five of the International Decade for People of African Descent, 2015-2024.

He said the question that he has been asked since he left Hamilton City Council as a councillor and was elected an MP is how would he stay grounded.

Green noted that the job is good in Ottawa and affords all types of benefits and perks and that he could see how people when they go there get lost in “the job of parliament and they forget about the work.”

“So they ask me how are you going to stay grounded and I tell them it’s easy for me to stay grounded because I have deep roots,” says Green who was speaking at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), Canada Chapter awards dinner at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto on November 23.

He noted that from time to time politicians “will bring us into their corridors of power and put us up at the front for photos and make us feel real good in proximity to power but unless we’re in our communities building power none of that matters.”

Green said people have told him that he is a rookie and asked him what he would be doing in the position. He replied that he is going to do the same thing he was doing at city hall when he was a rookie – “speak truth to power because there is too much at stake right now.”

Hamilton’s first black councillor said the CBTU is important because it represents the largest collective and comprehensive interest of the Black community in Canada.

Green said he is a political observer and he believes that if someone were to disaggregate the exit polls “we would find out the Black community insulated this Liberal government from having real challenges in ridings across the GTA, including places like Brampton and Mississauga and other places.”

He asked why this was done and pointed to the new appointments to the Cabinet announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which he said “still kept our people out.”

“Politics, like life, is all about moments and I can tell you this with a certainty I am not here alone. Every step along the way I had folks from our community who put on for me from day one.”

Green said the Black community is under attack by the provincial government and when they talk about gun violence they are not talking about programs of the Zero Gun Violence Movement that focus on preventative measures. Instead, they are focused on “increased policing and increased incarceration of our children.”

“We know they spend $80 million a year in Jane and Finch policing our communities and yet refuse to keep our afterschool programs, lunch programs and morning programs open,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yolanda McClean, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), Canada Chapter says governments continue to pay lip service to anti-black racism and the provincial government has meted out austerity measures since it came into power.

She said there were many racist messages from right wing folks during the recent federal election and commended NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for doing a great job in spite of them.

McClean said over the past year the CBTU has worked in partnership with several community organizations and environment campaigns.

The CBTU president said the chapter has been doing well over the past 22 years and this was the reason the theme for their annual awards dinner was “rooted in unity.”

She noted that the CBTU has accomplished a lot but still has a long way to go and will do whatever it takes that is necessary to make it happen.

Six scholarships were presented to young women who are pursuing post-secondary studies. The Young Women’s Post Secondary Scholarship was presented to: Arfi Hagi Yusuf of the University of Windsor, Chante Mundle of Humber College, Chantea Scott of the University of Waterloo, Reneesha McCormack-Pendley of Humber College, and Samantha Spence of Sheridan College. Amen Okungbowa received the Ann Newman Scholarship.

[This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, December 5-11, 2019.]