By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo credit: Sophia Findlay Mayor John Tory, City of Toronto |
The City of Toronto will later this year wrap
its iconic sign ‘Toronto’ in artwork featuring African fabric prints and
symbols -- a representation of people of African descent -- as the beginning of
a celebration and recognition of the UN Decade for People of African Descent. The
design is by Toronto-based visual artist, Danilo McCallum.
“That wrap will be put on the sign and will
remain there till 2021, the Year of Public Art, so it will stay there for the
whole year so that every person who comes by will be reminded of symbols and of
that achievement and that decade that we are celebrating the accomplishments of
Black Canadians and people around the world of African descent,” announced
Mayor John Tory at a Black History Month reception he hosted at City Hall in
collaboration with Deputy Mayor Michael Thompson.
Mayor Tory said on the verge of introducing the
Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism he met with the senior staff
from the Black community who work in the public service to discuss their career
path.
He said they told stories that he would not have
thought of, “of the obstacles and of the extra mile and the mountains that they
had to move in order to get to where they got in the city’s public service.”
“That completely motivated me to see the
Anti-Black Action Plan through, to put the [Confronting Anti-Black Racism
(CABR)] Unit in place,” he said, noting that they are a small but mighty team
that has trained 4,000 public servants so far with many more to go.
Tory said they have also trained hundreds of
police officers and have gone out in the community to make sure that
Torontonians know that the city can be a place of opportunity for everybody.
The mayor said he recently went to the Toronto
Star to record a video in which he was asked what would Toronto be like in
2030.
He was asked what was the one word that he would
want to see describe Toronto in 2030 and he said “equitable.”
“I said because the biggest mountain that we
have to climb, the biggest mountain we have to move is to make sure that people
from every background, but including the historic and well rooted and loyal and
dedicated and accomplished Black community here, are finding themselves in a
situation, to a greater extent than they ever had before, where they can
fulfill their own destiny.”
Councillor Thompson said he and the mayor
recently joined the City’s Black Staff Network and the CABR Unit for the launch
of Black History Month in the rotunda at City Hall.
“We recognize the United Nations International
Decade for People of African Descent,” he said, noting that he and the mayor
have been thinking about what the City could do to celebrate the decade.
He charged everyone to think about what they
would like to do or to see and to email the mayor, himself and other
councillors to share some ideas with City Hall.
“As a city and as a community we must do more
to, in fact, recognize this historic decade which is dealing with and attempting
to address some of the issues around the challenges that people of African
descent have had for a very long period of time.”
The deputy mayor said in a city of 2.8 million
people and with the City of Toronto having 50,000 staff who mirror the city,
City Hall wants to get a handle on the challenges of systemic racism and some
of the other problems that they deal with on a daily basis in the broader
society.
“We want to get our own house in order first
because I think that’s important so we’ve set up this group to deal with some
of the challenges that we also face here in this organization,” said Thompson
about the CABR Unit.
Anthony Morgan, manager of the CABR Unit at the
City of Toronto, noted that while it has taken the City many decades to get to
this point and strides have been made they have not arrived yet.
He said there have been gains but when it comes
to issues of employment, education, healthcare, housing, transit, policing and
the justice system there continues to be consistent barriers.
[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, February 13-19, 2020.]
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