Politician Says Activism Can Happen at the Legislature and on the Streets

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Laura Mae Lindo, MPP for Kitchener Centre and Chair of the Ontario New Democrats Black Caucus at the inaugural Toronto Black Policy Conference

The Chair of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) Black Caucus and Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Kitchener Centre says political activism by Black Ontarians can take place on the streets and in the Ontario Legislature.

However, Laura Mae Lindo, the official opposition party’s critic for anti-racism, notes that there are real barriers facing African Canadians.

She notes that it is important for her that when she is sitting at Queen’s Park, the Ontario legislature, she knows that there are people that look like her that are outside of the building resisting.

Lindo, who is the niece of former veteran Liberal MPP, Alvin Curling, says sometimes people assume that because she is now a politician she is not Black anymore.

“ But I’m very Black at Queen’s Park,” says the former director of diversity and equity at Wilfrid Laurier University, noting that Queen’s Park is “not Black” and if a protest happens outside the legislature the security guards sometimes forget that she is an MPP although she is the only politician with dreads.

Lindo and Marcell Wilson, co-executive director of One By One Movement, were the closing keynote speakers discussing “ Political Activism: At the Table or On the Streets?” at the inaugural Toronto Black Policy Conference held at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto in November.

Lindo said Black Ontarians need to create spaces for themselves to be able to unpack what it feels like to experience microaggression or racism at work.

“Sometimes the system says it’s a microaggression but it’s racism and because it’s racism it’s weightier and so we need some spaces to have some real talk, some real talk about what’s happening and then that can fuel the movement to make those changes.”

She noted that this is, “400 years of a whole system seeing us as not worthy, not valuable, not loved.”

Lindo said she recently attended a Black Caribbean conference in the Waterloo Region which had 100 Black youth from across the region. The theme was “Being Unapologetically Black” and she was invited to bring greetings as a Black MPP in the region.

She referenced a report written by Dr. Carl James for the Peel District School Board which included the words of young Black students in high schools and elementary schools.  One child said he was called the N-word everyday at school.

Lindo wanted to know if that was the case in the Waterloo Region so she asked the students how many of them had heard the N-word at school.

She said every single child raised their hand and even though she knew that was going to happen tears came to her eyes.

The politician said there are some real issues happening “in all of the systems that are around us and those are things that we don’t necessarily spend the time to talk about and how are we going to build policy if we don’t talk about this.”

Wilson believes that both places for political activism are important -- in policymaking and on the ground.

“I think without the community involvement, the community say, the community voice, there is no activism. It’s really just people out there making noise,” he said.

He noted that there are different struggles for the Black community in Regent Park than in Rexdale and also underscored the different cultural issues of Jamaicans and Somalis in the city.

The One By One Movement's primary goal is to operate as a think tank is to decrease extreme acts of violence across the globe beginning with Toronto, Canada.

Photo contributed   Left to right: Eunice Kays, Sharnelle Morgan and Anna-Kay Russell, founders of the Toronto Black Policy Conference held at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy held at the University of Toronto on November 30.

Founded and spearheaded by  Anna-Kay Russell, Sharnelle Morgan and Eunice Kays – three Master of Public Policy graduates from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto – the Toronto Black Policy conference is a policy-driven forum which seeks to provide unique opportunities to collaborate, innovate and find sustainable solutions for policy issues affecting Toronto’s Black communities.

It was inspired by Harvard Kennedy School’s annual Black Policy Conference and lists among its goals, creating a safe space for Black community members and allies to explore policy issues affecting Toronto’s Black communities, and to encourage Black community engagement within the policy process both in a leadership and adequately-consulted capacity.