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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 21, 1996 - t MINUTES A meeting of the Pickering Advisory Committee on Race Relations and Equity was held in the Pickering Civic Complex on Tuesday, May 21, 1996 at 7:00 p.m. Present: Roland Rutland, Social Development(Co-Chair) Staff Sergeant Gord, McKechnie, Durham Regional Police Jane Kiyonaga, Durham Separate School Board Abou Nabe, Community Appointee Donna Bovolaneas, Community Appointee Olivia Rose, St. Mary High School Victoria George, Pickering High School Stephen Reynolds, Town of Pickering Margaret Donaldson, Recording Secretary Regrets: Councillor Dave Ryan(Co-Chair) Jack Gardner, Durham Board of Education 1. Welcome Roland Rutland welcomed all in attendance. 2. Approve Minutes of The Last Meeting The minutes of the last meeting were approved with the following addition. Roland will complete an overview of the Committee's activities forward it to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. 3. Business Arising from Minutes Youth Representation from the Durham Board of Education Introductions were made to Victoria George from Pickering High School who will be the youth representative for the Durham Board of Education. Board of Trade Representation Mr. Reynolds advised that an invitation was forwarded to the Board of Trade for formal representation. He will follow up with them for a response. Durham Free Net Mr. Reynolds advised that he received the necessary approvals from the Town to create a web site for the Town's Race Relations and Equity Committee. Ms. Kinoyaga advised that Roger has created a web page. To access this web site the code is HTTP;//WW.FREENET.DURHAM.ORG/PACRRE/ She advised that it looks really good After further discussion it was decided to invite Roger Beckett to the next Race Relation and Equity Committee Meeting. 4. Steve Houston,Managing Editor,The News Advertiser Mr. Reynolds introduced Mr. Steve Houston, Managing Editor of the News Advertiser. Mr. Houston gave a brief overview of his duties for the News Advertiser and what he does for the community. Mr. Reynolds advised Mr. Houston that the Committee would be interested in having him comment on the following areas: 1. Ways we can promote positive race relations in the community 2. The frequency the News Advertiser receives letters or reports on incidents of prejudice, racism or conflicts of a racial nature. How do you handle them. 3. Any suggestion on how the Committee can network with the News Advertiser. Mr. Houston feels the best way to promote is through communication. Each association should appoint a press liaison to be responsible for contacting the papers to advise of upcoming events. He then continued to give Committee Members ideas on promoting their events and how far in advance to contact the newspaper. Concerning the frequency of receiving letters or reports on incidents of prejudice, he advised that the News Advertiser had only ever received a couple of letters and if an item comes before the court then nothing can be published. Other discussions continued about better ways to network with the News Advertiser. 5. Developing a Data Base Ms. Bovolaneas advised that if we can create a Data Base it would be a good monitor of what is going on in the community. Staff Sergeant McKechnie advised that the Durham Region Police have a good data base but it only deals with 2 specific areas. It will supply crime numbers but no names and the crimes are not characterized by race it is done by the act of the crime. Mr. Roland advised that Karla Rhodie had been hired for the Social Development to update its Community Profile Karla will be creating a data base as part of this process. Donna Bovolaneas will follow up to identify what this database will include. After further discussion it was decided that this item should be brought forward at the next meeting. 6. Race Relations Forum Follow-Up Committee discussed the next steps in distributing the Harassment Brochures through the schools. Timing was discussed and it was decided that it would be best to distribute in September. Steve will arrange distribution with Jane Kiyonaga (Separate School Board) and Jack Gardner(Public School Board). 7. Joint Meeting of GTA Race Relations Committee Ms. Bovolaneas, Mr. Rutland, Mr. Nabe and Councillor Ryan attended the GTA Race Relations Committee Meeting. The following are Ms. Bovolaneas' thoughts and observations on the GTA meeting: • saw the meeting as an attempt to set up a GTA umbrella group, but Metro communities dominated. Only Pickering and Markham attended from outside Metro. • group had an overly ambitious agenda, including a number of hard core issues such as bias in the media,police-community relations and adequacy of anti-racism education in the schools. • eye-opening evening for Ms. Bovolaneas. Very large spectrum of views from the group ranging from moderate to borderline extreme. Anger in some cases fueled by long-standing unresolved issues and problems related to youth (dropout, unemployment rates, etc.) and negative perceptions of certain communities by the mainstream fostered through adverse or zero media attention. • felt that--based on what was said--the problems identified in many areas of Metro were far more acute than in our community, and that some of the approaches suggested at the meeting would not necessarily be relevant or appropriate to Pickering's needs. Conversely, how would a group such as ours be perceived by, say, the residents of Flemingdon Park in North York, if we were called in to show solidarity during a local incident? At the very least, our mandate would not permit us to take on some of the roles and activities being suggested by other GTA members. For these reasons, she asked members to carefully consider the benefits and risks of joining the GTA group. She then asked Mr. Rutland to provide another perspective on the proceedings to ensure that, if needed, members would receive a balanced viewpoint. Mr. Rutland did not disagree with Ms. Bovolaneas' observations, but provided reasons for the differences evident in the views and activities of other race relations committees in the region. He stated that the history in Metro is much longer and based on a very large infrastructure. This gives these groups different terms of reference. Because he shared Ms. Bovolaneas' caution, he suggested that the group wait to get the minutes from the April meeting before making any decision. 8. New Business Roland advised of a Train the Trainer Race Relations Workshop scheduled for Thursday, May 30th and Thursday, June 6th at Sarah McDonald Place on Whites Road. 9. Next Meeting Tuesday,August 20, 1996 - 7:00 p.m. Tuesday September 17, 1996 - 7:00 p.m.