More than 200 people, from a hundred organizations, are gathered this week by the Network for Peace and Social Harmony, in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as part of the Diversity Forum and inclusion. Convergence of practices for unity of action. The intention is a call for mobilization, for the importance of rallying all our efforts, because the situation is serious. Exclusion, racism in mentalities, in our companies, in the workplace, even in our public institutions, hence the qualification of “systemic”, which disturbs, but which is no less real and dramatic , undermine and destroy lives.
Our thoughts are with Joyce Echaquan, her children, her husband and loved ones, and many more.
The damning facts have long been laid out, in a number of reports and investigations. The lists of complaints, offenses and unfair treatment grow longer. But the denial persists, to the highest level, sometimes to the point of insult, because asking those who bear witness to it to be silent is one of them.
But never mind, we who sign here together and participate in the reflection, with the same and deep sense of urgency, believe that the end of inadmissibility is part of the problem and makes it worse. Exclusion is violence. We must be aware of the devastating impacts.
We are both of these populations most affected by this violence which mainly and seriously affects the indigenous communities and the black communities. Data collected by Statistics Canada confirms this.
See who’s talking, you’ll say, one was the 27and Governor General of Canada, the other is a Senator. Think again, we have experienced discrimination and exclusion in our flesh, throughout our journey, we know its bite and humiliation, and it still happens to us, and to our children as well, to feel the outrage and anger.
We also have eyes to see, we take the time to hear and we have no shortage of words to say what marginalizes, endangers, exposes to all risks, shatters dreams and aspirations, produces shame, throws in a sense of impasse, despairs and causes death.
How many times have we had to rebuild ourselves? We, the dispossessed of everything, including our humanity, whom colonialism has sought to decerebrate, calling us savages, brutes and chattels, in short, clearly, an inferior race? Despite everything, we resisted and survived. We know the strength of our struggles and our accomplishments. However, we do not emerge unscathed from these centuries of ignominy. And the racism of today still says that of yesterday. Believe us, it is there, including in those institutions that keep us on the sidelines and flout our rights.
Nothing without us
Eradicating these situations that we are constantly describing and explaining and, be aware, this very often exhausts us, must be everyone’s business, including the authorities and decision-makers. But what we ask is: never anything without us. Never anything without taking into account what we live and our way of expressing it.
Especially since the social cost of exclusion is a major deficit for society as a whole. A lack of justice and participation. A lack of ideas and perspectives. A lack of energy and constructive synergies. A lack of action and responsibility. A lack of vision and possibilities. A deficit of democracy and development at all levels, including that of economic growth. It is time to understand that what we are demanding is for the common good and in the general interest.
What we are essentially saying is that we must see to it collectively and above all courageously. Blinkers hinder dialogue. To think that naming the problem is divisive and, consequently, inadmissible, is to miss so many sensitivities and so much suffering that must be heard and about which we must learn in order to act better.
We must work in an inclusive, collaborative and responsible manner, community organizations, academic institutions, artistic and cultural organizations, with youth and women activists, public and private sector actors, also prioritizing the most sensitive environments, especially those justice, education and health. Let us be partners, finally, in this fight of which we will have every reason to be proud.
Let’s stop talking about the indigenous “problem” or the “problem” of blacks, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, Jews, foreigners. What is in question is a matter of justice, humanism and social project. Diversity is a wealth. Include is a sum of added values.