Gemma Victor says racism in North Bay is more prevalent than people may realize.
“It’s very subtle. There are very subtle ways that things have happened for a long time,” noted Victor, one of the founders of North Bay’s Equity and Inclusion Working Group.
Immigrating from St. Lucia almost 20 years ago, Victor says she’s bit her tongue in the past when she encountered racism.
“As a Black woman in this community, I’ve always seen it. As a mother with a child in the community, I’m ready to say a bit more about it,” she said.
Last week, the City of North Bay declared 2021 as the Year of Inclusion and Equity. When Victor pitched the idea of an equity and inclusion working group, she pushed for that very proclamation.
“It will go a long way for the working group just for hope. It’s a lot of work but we think having the city on board and leading by example…that will help us,” said Victor.
The group began as a book club that Victor and a handful of others were a part of where they discussed a manual on racism, sparking the idea to have a working group in the city.
In September, Victor gave a presentation to city council requesting their involvement. That led to councillor Mac Bain sitting on the group as a council representative, as well as last week’s proclamation.
So far, Victor says much of the group’s work has been planning on how to create a conversation around racism.
“We are working diligently in the background to try and create more resources or schools and maybe some more employers in the community,” she said. “We just want to provide places for different folks to find the resources they need to better educate and create awareness around those issues for our community members.”
North Bay also became a member of the United Nations’ Canadian Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities in the fall, which Victor says will help align some of the group’s planned events.
“We’re hoping throughout the year we can tie in a lot of events that are tied in with a lot of the events hosted by the United Nations,” she explained.
Between the pandemic and a heightened public sense of racial tensions brought forth by last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, Victor thinks now is the time to begin having the “tough” conversations about racism and inequality.
“All of us need to do that work to disrupt the status quo. It’s going to be messy, it’s going to be uncomfortable for White people,” she said. “We have to get our community members as well as the leaders within the community to recognize some of the issues within their various workplaces.”
Victor hopes with the conversations she plans on creating, she will no longer have to think twice about speaking up on racism.
“When I do this, I am definitely coming from a place where I’ve held back for a very long time and not interrupted a lot of situations I probably should have,” she noted. “It is my lived experience, it’s not something that came on my radar because of last summer.”
The Equity and Inclusion Working Group is planning virtual events in the coming weeks, including a presentation on March 1 from Sudbury lawyer Leonard Kim, who served as chair for the city’s diversity advisory panel.
