Mayor's racism summit offers chance to improve for next time, panellist says
Diane Roussin is the project director of Winnipeg's Boldness Project and spoke at the summit Friday
One: The Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion — was hopefully just that, one of many to come, says summit panellist and community activist, Diane Roussin.
"This summit is just one first step, we need to have more summits, we need to have lots more voices involved in those summits, in the planning of, and in the speaking. We just need way more dialogue," Roussin said Saturday.
Roussin works in Winnipeg's inner city with the Boldness Project, an initiative that aims to work alongside the North End community to improve outcomes for young children in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood. On Friday, Roussin spoke on the panel addressing the question: How do we move forward toward racial justice and reconciliation?
On the heels the Maclean's article that dubbed Winnipeg Canada's most racist city, Roussin said the announcement that the mayor was holding a national conversation was welcomed, as well as the creation of his advisory panel earlier this year.
"I think lots of people have been talking about racism for a very long time in this city and in this country, but to have someone in that position of power announce that there's going to be this dialogue – and the attention that it got – I think was a very positive thing," Roussin said.
The summit organized by the Mayor's Office, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation ended Friday evening; but in order for it to mean anything, it will have to serve as a learning opportunity, Roussin said.
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"We're having a summit about inclusion and there's a multiplicity of voices that are saying they weren't included. And so it's a valid point. There may have been logistical issues such as size and capacity and things like that, but I'm hoping we will have learned from this example, and next time, when there's so many people that want to be involved in this conversation – which I think is a very good thing – we can accommodate that some how," Roussin said.
The mayor's summit divided the community, with some saying the conference was a positive step forward, while others said that Winnipeg could not move toward solutions without all of its key community leaders. Roussin said she has heard from all sides and she agrees with all of it.
"I think we need to figure out how to listen to all of those voices and accept all those voices, and not think that it's going to be the thing that divides us but that it's going to be the thing that will bring us together for further dialogue," she said.
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Saturday Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman echoed some of what Roussin said following the conference's conclusion, mainly, that there was a long way still to go.
"You know one summit, one meeting certainly isn't going to end racism, and we'll likely never end racism, but there are things that we can do going forward. This was part of the journey forward and really having that discussion, bringing in some people that have experience elsewhere that we might be able to learn from, and that we can share what's working here, is part of the process," Bowman said Saturday.