Thunder Bay anti-racism committee member resigns over mayor's town hall comments
Vincent Simon has been with committee that advises city council on diversity issues since 2011
A nearly-ten-year member of Thunder Bay's municipal committee on anti-racism and diversity has resigned from the position over comments made by Mayor Bill Mauro at a town hall where he blamed two reports about systemic racism and policing in the city for hurting Thunder Bay's national reputation.
Vincent Simon tendered his resignation in a letter to committee chair Jason Veltri obtained by CBC News dated May 22. Simon said he's been a member of the respect, inclusion and diversity advisory committee (formerly the anti-racism advisory committee) since 2011. He is also the executive director of the Ka-Na-Chi-Hih Solvent Abuse Centre on the city's south side.
"It is my opinion and with disappointment, that the mayor of our city would use a town hall meeting to refuel and set the platform for minimizing or unjustly referring to the Office of the Independent Police Review and Ontario Civilian Police Commission reports, as the culprit for negative reviews of Thunder Bay," he wrote.
At a May 14 town hall on municipal issues, Mauro said that Thunder Bay continues to face undue scrutiny and negative attention in the wake of reports by Ontario Independent Police Review Director Gerry McNeilly and Sen. Murray Sinclair, who prepared his report for the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
The independent probes found systemic racism in the municipal police force and throughout the history of the local board of civilians tasked with overseeing police.
"I cannot continue on this committee because, you know, what's the sense, it'll be like banging my head against the wall," Simon said in an interview with CBC News.
"I was very disheartened."
Simon a 'significant contributor' to anti-racism work, Mauro says
Mauro told CBC News that he's "really sorry" to see Simon leave the committee and that he will reach out to see if he will reconsider. Mauro called Simon a "significant contributor" to anti-racism initiatives over the years.
When asked about having his town hall comments cited as the reason for Simon's resignation, Mauro said it was never his intention "to minimize the challenges that are being faced by a lot of the people in our city."
"We acknowledge that there's still a lot of work to be done for us to move forward together," Mauro continued, adding that "we're all trying to move in the same direction and build a better city."
McNeilly's and Sinclair's reports, released in December 2018, also made dozens of recommendations for improvement, with city police and the reconstituted police services board — which includes Mauro — publicly pledging to seriously consider the reports' recommendations. Mauro is also a member of the city's respect, inclusion and diversity advisory committee.
The police services board held a reconciliation ceremony at Ka-Na-Chi-Hih in January where officials acknowledged the board "failed" Indigenous people and apologized. Mauro was not present at that event; a city spokesperson said at the time that the mayor had a conflict that caused him to be unable to attend.
At the town hall in May, Mauro said his comments were to provide some "balance" in how Thunder Bay has been portrayed in the wake of McNeilly's and Sinclair's reports.
In his resignation letter, Simon referred to the two police reports as "a springboard for us," in the committee's role to reduce and eliminate racism in Thunder Bay. He also took issue with Mauro calling McNeilly and Sinclair "those two guys."
"That says a lot to me, it means that he didn't think that they were professional enough, that they didn't know what they were doing," he said, adding that both men are visible minorities. "He thought nothing of it, in my opinion."
Mauro said he's not dismissing the reports or the work that went into them.
Despite leaving the municipal committee, Simon said he's pleased with the work the group has done during his tenure, pointing to municipal initiatives like the Respect campaign and the "one city many voices" initiative — work that Mauro said must and will continue.
"I'm proud of the years that I've served," Simon said.
With files from Kris Ketonen