Following the investigation of Duty on the racism experienced by some thirty employees of the City of Montreal, Valérie Plante rejected the opposition’s request to conduct an independent investigation. The duty learned that, the same day, the General Directorate of the City had given 24 hours to all of its services and its boroughs to identify the cases of racism and discrimination that took place in 2022.
“The time is no longer for documentation, but for action,” Valérie Plante publicly declared to the media on March 20, when she rejected the emergency motion tabled by the official opposition to hold an independent investigation into racism and discrimination at the City of Montreal.
This motion echoed the investigation of the Duty, within the framework of which about thirty employees of the City, from nine boroughs of the metropolis, claimed to have suffered racism and discrimination. Employees have complained to their employer without having obtained justice.
The duty got hold of an internal email sent the same day to all human resources departments and division heads of the City of Montreal and its boroughs entitled: “Discrimination-Racisme|Urgent request, deadline March 21 at noon “.
The City’s Human Resources Department specifies that “following the allegations of racism published in The duty “, the General Management asks them to list the files that took place during the year 2022 in the departments and the boroughs “concerning complaints (informal or formal), denunciations, grievances relating to discrimination (including racism), incivility or psychological or sexual harassment”.
It is not by carrying out a survey in secret, with data collected in less than 24 hours on a corner of the table, that we will remedy racism and discrimination in the City of Montreal.
The email indicates that it is necessary to fill out a detailed form for each event that took place and to specify if the file involves a racialized person, and to return everything before noon the following day.
“These completely absurd and hasty ways of doing things show the extent to which this important issue is not taken seriously. It is not by carrying out a survey in secret, with data collected in less than 24 hours on a corner of the table, that we will remedy racism and discrimination in the City of Montreal, “declared to the Duty Aref Salem, Leader of the Official Opposition.
Mr. Salem believes that it is necessary to carry out “a real rigorous independent investigation carried out in collaboration with the union units”, otherwise “the City will continue to investigate the City. HR will continue to investigate HR.”
A recent portrait
Asked about its internal approach, the City of Montreal’s media relations department wrote to the Duty that this email was part of the review of the Respect for Persons Policy and the improvement of the complaints and reports management process initiated last year.
“The Human Resources Department wanted to have a recent portrait, for the year 2022, of the events listed in the City’s units, as well as the actions taken in these files”, indicates Mr. Nunez while specifying that “the request made to the boroughs was accelerated following the publication of the articles in The duty “.
“The compilation of the information obtained for 2022 has shown that interventions have been made and that actions have been taken (disciplinary and administrative measures)”, he adds.
The Human Resources Department also “periodically conducts accountability exercises, centralized compilation of data and status reports on various subjects and major files related to the service”.