Unblind Tibbin Feels Good About His Chances in Federal Election

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed         Unblind Tibbin, candidate for the Green Party of Canada in Humber River - Black Creek, Ontario

With just a few days to go before Election Day, Unblind Tibbin, the Green Party of Canada’s candidate for Humber River – Black Creek, says he has been getting “lots of good support and endorsements” so he thinks things will turn out nicely for him and his campaign team on September 20.

In the 2011 federal election, he was the Greens candidate in York West (now Humber River – Black Creek) where the incumbent Liberal Judy Sgro has been the Member of Parliament since 1999.

 

The other candidates are Rinku Shah of the Conservative Party, Matias de Dovitiis of the NDP, and Raatib Anderson of the People’s Party of Canada.

 

“I think we’ve had 20 years of nothing. Judy has been there doing nothing, she has been misrepresenting the community and like Justin talking a good talk and doing nothing, says Tibbin who is the executive director of the Sierra Leone Union of Canada, and a youth services officer in the Ontario public service where he works with the most challenging youth in Toronto.

 

Tibbin says he wants to empower, especially the youth in the community, to know that they can do things and be engaged in issues that the Green Party is championing such as free tuition, a liveable wage, food security and sustainability, and electoral reform.

 

The equal rights, social justice, sustainable lifestyles and accessibility advocate is bilingual and cares deeply about environmental sustainability, youth and bilingualism. 

He has volunteered in several capacities with many organizations, such as the United Nations Association in Canada where he was the chair of the youth committee.

He is also concerned about childcare, senior care and a liveable wage for seniors, and plans to be engaged in conversations to “move the clock forward.”

Drawing on lessons learned from his campaign ten years ago, Tibbin says he has become more efficient and has a team of specialists with more autonomy to develop some of their ideas. 

 

While canvassing, Tibbin says he has heard from constituents that they are “sick and tired of what is going on and that the pandemic is affecting them negatively,” in terms of being able to afford their day-to-day expenses.

 

They have also complained about the poor state of housing and very little being done to resolve their problems. 

 

“I have lots of those complaints being levied against the landlords and against the system that is currently in place,” says Tibbin, also listing availability of jobs and students being indebted and concerned about how they will pay back the loans they are using to sustain themselves.

 

As a graduate of York University, he is also in touch with students there because the university has 6,000 voters and some of them may not cast their vote for various reasons.

 

For 15 years, the spoken word artist was the host of a radio show, “De Port Au Prince A Bamako,” at CHRY Radio at York University.

 

Tibbin grew up in Switzerland and in north Toronto and has a Masters degree in economics from York University. He went on to work as a French teacher for children, and as a Kwanzaa instructor in the joint Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP) and Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Mate Maisie program. He is also a published writer, spoken word artist, and martial arts teacher.

He later worked as a program manager at Friends in Trouble where he provided anti-oppression training to Toronto Public Library staff. Tibbin has also worked for the Positive Alternative to Youth Gangs project in the Jane and Finch area where he was in charge of creating holistic self-betterment programs for at-risk youth, including workshops on urban farming, food security and ecological sustainability.

“We need to understand there’s an environmental crisis and we need to go into a carbon neutral society by 2030,” says the former manager of community engagement for the Learning Disabilities Association of Peel Region. 

 

He supports removing subsidies to fossil fuels and investing that money into renewable energy through channels such as incentives to buy electric cars. Tibbin notes that there are companies retrofitting their buildings so that they are more environmentally sound.

 

Lunch programs, accessibility to food, and food security are major concerns in Humber River – Black Creek, especially for young people.

 

“They’re not eating quality food and there are some repercussions from that, they’re suffering lots of ailments which could be proactively negotiated,” says Tibbin who was employed by CUSO International as a youth development worker and spent 18 months in Cameroon and Nigeria teaching and helping to create programs for disadvantaged youth.

 

With his experience working in many different organizations, Tibbin says this will enable him to represent the community well and to get a feel for its pulse when addressing any issues in parliament.

 

He and his team have been targeting community events and places where people gather, and also canvassing virtually.

 

As a Back candidate, Tibbin is encouraging members of the Black communities who might be hesitant to seek political leadership to just do it. 

 

“There is nothing to stop us from going anywhere we want to in this society and doing anything we want. If indeed we have the calling to represent the people and with ethical, sound, political objectives then we are best placed to do that.”

 

Regarding the recent internal leadership challenges faced by Green Party leader, Annamie Paul, he said based on the rule of law she is still the person who is governing the party and still the first Black person who is leading a major political party.

 

“As she’s been demonstrating with her arguments in the debates and with her presence, she’s a person of great value. She’s of course working to establish and make these values more permanent in the Green Party.”

 

Tibbin says the Green Party itself needs to evolve and he thinks Paul is the perfect leader to enable it to grow.

 

On September 12, several organizations collaborated to host the Black Community Federal Election Candidates Meet & Greet virtually.

 

It was an intimate opportunity for community members to engage directly with a number of party leaders and Black candidates from the GTA running in the upcoming election. 

 

“An opportunity to learn more about the various party platform highlights and their personal commitments and motivation for seeking office, working with, and serving the community.  Moreover, it will create an opportunity for community members to learn how they can support their candidate(s) of choice,” noted the promotional material.

 

The organizers were First Fridays, the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA), the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators (ONABSE), Canada's National Black History Month Expo, CAFCAN, Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC), and the African-Canadian Entrepreneurs for Success (ACES). 

Two days earlier, on September 10, Operation Black Vote Canada in partnership with the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA), Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), and Generation Chosen held a virtual Black Leaders Forum.

 

It featured Matthew Green, NDP candidate for Hamilton; Greg Fergus, Liberal candidate for Hull-Aylmer; and Adrian Currie, Green Party candidate for Davenport.