In June 2020, the City of Montreal made a courageous and lucid diagnosis of the racism and systemic discrimination that have plagued its many ramifications and its first leader, Mayor Valérie Plante, pledged to fight this systemic evil by implementing “systemic solutions”. A compelling investigation by Duty comes to show that the system, precisely, seems to have swallowed the good intentions. Filing a complaint for racism with the City is not only an obstacle course but too often a dead end.
Our investigative journalist Stéphanie Vallet met some thirty municipal employees from nine Montreal boroughs who recounted having suffered outrageous racist insults, vile discrimination based on the color of their skin, degrading attacks, formulated under the laughter and silent approval from inactive superiors. The portrait painted in our reports is not worthy of 2023. It is even less so of a City which not only recognized in 2020 the existence of a major problem in its many ramifications but also promised to tackle it firmly.
Our investigation shows that the system is indeed in place, but it is failing. Tired of fighting, racialized people who have suffered racism give up, after having had the courage to file a complaint. Attackers go unpunished. Indolent superiors encourage through omerta an unacceptable situation. The scenes reported by Stéphanie Vallet are unequivocal and do not lend themselves to any interpretation: blacks who are compared to monkeys, physical altercations under racist insults, degrading actions under the laughter of colleagues. Sometimes, discrimination invites itself in a more insidious but equally scandalous form: employees who nevertheless possess all the qualifications required to access a position or obtain a new task stand still, constantly out of step with the others; others never manage to climb the ladder in the service; in some boroughs, racialized people are not welcome at other people’s tables, which creates segregation worthy of another time.
We would like with this portrait to convince the city authorities that it is time to act, but this step has indeed been taken. Following a process initiated in 2018 by a citizen group wishing that a diagnosis be made, a consultation was conducted by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OPCM), whose report released in 2020 revealed the existence of systemic racism and discrimination. The first of the 38 recommendations of this report suggested that the City of Montreal recognize the existence of systemic racism as soon as possible, a first step towards actions intended to curb it. This was done immediately, prompting praise.
The president of the OPCM at the time, Dominique Ollivier, now president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal and elected responsible for the fight against racism, affirmed in 2020 that “recognition must be more than symbolic” and called for “structural changes and accountability both at the political and administrative level”. She deplored, in the same breath, that despite a clear admission of the problem by the City, “we remain at the level of speeches”. “We must no longer hide behind grand speeches,” she said. “You have to set binding goals and put in place ways to achieve them. »
The challenge seems daunting. How long does it take to redirect a liner? “The City is a big boat to turn”, replies today Ms. Ollivier to our journalist, shaken by what has just been described to her and which confirms that reality sometimes prevails over the best of intentions. . Can the gigantism and fouling of a system overcome a desire to act? Montreal has created an Office of the Commissioner for the Fight against Racism and Systemic Discrimination, chaired by Bochra Manaï. But on the ground, complaints are sometimes heard by officials who seem to better defend the author of the insult than the insulted. On the ground, the mechanisms are not fluid and prevent a complaint from leading to a sanction. On the ground, omerta hovers and weakens racialized people. The thirty people who confided in our reporter filed a complaint but did not obtain justice. This is an unacceptable situation.
The varnish of fine words cracks. Taking action is not easy, we agree. A culture of prejudice, contempt and stereotypes cannot be erased with the snap of a finger. But it is intolerable that the City of Montreal does not ensure that the mechanisms for receiving and processing complaints that it has put in place are fluid, easy to use, respectful and above all, effective.