What should have been a straightforward amendment to the adoption of a report from City Staff outlining the creation of a Leadership Table to implement Peterborough’s Community Safety and Wellbeing (CSWB) Plan, devolved into a display of white fragility in the Council Chambers late Monday evening.

The Safer Ontario Act of 2019 mandates that every municipality adopt a CSWB Plan in order to “take an integrated approach to service delivery by working across a wide range of sectors, agencies, and organizations to proactively develop and implement evidence-based strategies and programs to address local priorities related to crime and complex social issues on a sustainable basis.”

The priority areas already identified by City Staff are Housing & Homelessness, Poverty & Income Security, Health & Mental Health, Substance Use & Addictions, and Transportation & Connectivity.

Town Ward Councillor, Joy Lachica introduced an amendment to include the component of “Race and Cultural Identity” alongside the other five priorities identified in the staff report.

“Since this report came together; there have been egregious events in our community related to race,” Lachica said as she spoke to her motion, noting its timeliness coming during Black History Month which, while being recognized by Mayor Jeff Leal, has not seen an official City-led event organized.

Lachica explained the importance of City organized events and the need to communicate this to residents. For many under-represented communities, having official events organized by the city and inviting individuals and groups from the community to be recognized at Council meetings during specific months and times of year would be extremely meaningful.  

Speaking directly to the ways in which her amendment would align with the CSWB Plan, Lachica cited recent hate-based events such as the harassment of Federal NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh in May of 2022, the repeated intimidation of Betty Baker over Drag Story Time events, and most recently, the story of a Fresh Co. employee who received a racist letter at her workplace. 

“Queer culture is identity. Those people living with disability, that’s identity” she explained, identifying herself as the one BIPOC member of Council and a member of the LGBTQ community. “It’s time to enhance our work and do everything we can from our respective quarters.” 

Monaghan Ward Councillor, Don Vassiliadis asked City Staff if they could speak to how Lachica’s amendment would impact upon the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work already underway at the city.

In an Examiner article published last June when Vassiliadis announced he would be seeking a third term on Council noted his commitment to the continuation of the City’s first Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Officer at City Hall, Reem Ali. At the time, he was quoted as saying that “I will do everything in my power to make sure this (position) is permanent…we’re building a group around her.”

Commissioner of Social Services, Sheldon Laidman, noted that at present there is no staff to initiate or organize events on the scale that Lachica had been speaking to. He did, however, note that the City provides funding for many groups who carry out work which is in line with the initiatives Lachica was outlining. Among those mentioned were the Community Race Relations Committee, EC3, and the New Canadians Centre.

Laidman also noted the fact that the current Council has yet to receive an update from Ali and suggested that perhaps an interim report is required soon. 

To this, Vassiliadis moved to defer the vote on the amendment to the report until such a time as Council can hear directly from Ali.

Ashburnham Ward Councillor, Keith Riel, piped up to say that he’s not convinced this is anything more than a communications issue and admitted that the City needed to do a better job promoting events by their partners. Despite this, he was set on supporting the deferral, as he remained confident that more information from Ali would suffice and better inform his understanding of the situation. 

Leal commended Council for having the “courage” to make Ali’s position permanent.  

Lachica stated that unless there is something wrong with what is written in the motion then she can’t understand the opposition to accepting the amendment alongside and in addition to, agreeing to invite Ali to address Council in a month’s time. 

“This is the voice of a Councillor who is not white and who is not male,” Lachica added. “It would be one less thing for Reem to do” referring to the drafting of more policy to ensure the City would actively organize its own events recognizing significant dates throughout the year. 

Northcrest Ward Councillor Dave Haacke stated that he took “exception to that last comment.” Before going on to say “I’m not going to apologize for being a white male. That just infuriates me. I’m sorry but I was born this way – I was born white. I was born a man, and I can’t help it.”

Lachica interjected with a point of order: “I was not disparaging in any way. I was just saying I am not white and I am not male. I didn’t ask anyone to apologize.”

Unable to back down, Haacke responded that he took exception to the comment about race during a discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Bierk used his final discussion slot to mention that it’s incredibly important for every Councillor to take DEI training.

The motion for deferral on the amendment passed 7-3 with Lachica, Bierk, and Monaghan Ward Councillor, Matt Crowley voting against. The main motion to implement the suggestion for the development of a Leadership Table for the CSWB passed 9-1 with only Lachica voting against. Due to Councillor Beamer’s absence, the total number of votes was only ten at this meeting.  

Following up on his initial suggestion of the importance of DEI training, Bierk motioned that the training be mandatory for all Councillors which passed unanimously shortly before the meeting was adjourned at exactly 12:00 AM.