City of Fredericton to create anti-racism task force, social inclusion committee

The City of Fredericton says it is responding to calls made by residents to combat racism in the community.

The city is creating its ownsocial inclusion committee, along with a task force on anti-racism, said Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers, in an interview.

It has also created thenew staff position of community inclusion program manager, and has joined about 90 other Canadian cities in becoming a member of UNESCO's Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities, she said.

Being part of the coalition will give the city a framework to guide it towardbeing more inclusive.

"We know that there's challenges that have been going on for years now," Rogers said.

"They certainly came to light this past year with, you know, the expos that was done through CBC, and ... the community as a whole became very aware of some of the challenges."

A CBC News story published in February revealed that residents living in Fredericton's Doone Street neighbourhood have for years been the target of racist attacks, pushing someto leave the province altogether in search of more welcoming communities.

Rogers said the city has put a call out for residents interested in being part of the committee orthe task force, adding that she wants themto be community-led.

"I think the idea is that we're just going to have a public meeting and ask and invite the public to come and to speak on how they feel we need to go about doing thisthe anti-racism task force work, what the task force would look like, what it would encompass.

"And we didn't want to be prescriptive at all in who it is that would be participating. We know thatwe would like a vast representation from the community that's been most impacted."

The move by the city comes after it announced last October that it, and the Fredericton Police Force,would look into how their policies affect people of colour.

And in March, the Government of New Brunswick announced it would spend about $85,000 to study indicators of systemic racism in the province, and the barriers it creates for Black people.

Yusuf Shire, president of the New Brunswick African Association, said it's good the city is taking such steps, and hopes community members get the chance to voice their concerns over racism in the city.

"We want this to be driven and informed by grassroots and racialized organizationsand communities," Shire said.

"And we want to see them given the resources they need to ensure this has far-reaching impact."

Shire said his group has been advocating for the city to provide a forum for his members to share their experiences and come up with strategies to combat them.

"There are a lot of people with a tremendous amount of experience of anti-racism and thelived experiences and they... already showed their interest in taking part [in]this."