More letters have arrived at city hall this week, demanding that council act in the wake of botched diversity, equity and inclusion training.
More letters have arrived at city hall this week, demanding that council act in the wake of botched diversity, equity and inclusion training.
City officials said this week five letters have been received so far since media reports revealed that Toronto’s KOJO Institute broke off training engagements with Sarnia’s police board and senior city staff after virtual city council training allegedly exposed the trainer to “undisrupted, uncorrected and unabated hostility. ”
Among the demands in three of the letters seen by The Observer are calls for the KOJO memo – also seen by The Observer – to be publicly released.
“I think it would provide the public with more information about what happened,” said Dawn Flegel, executive director of the Sarnia-Lambton Children’s Aid Society.
The local Children’s Aid branch sent a letter March 7 signed by 85 board members, employees, foster parents and volunteers expressing “deep concern and alarm” about the allegations.
count. Nathan Colquhoun previously said two councilors, including Coun. Bill Dennis, “choose to debate, insult, override (the trainer’s) session and challenge the reason for taking training like this.”
Dennis has not responded specifically to questions about these allegations, including a claim that KOJO trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson was accused of indoctrination and racism during a discussion about critical race theory.
Dennis, in a written statement earlier this month, said he “believes wholeheartedly in complete and total equality” and “there are many ways to approach any conversation on (equity, diversity and inclusion training).”
The Social Services Network of Sarnia-Lambton, which represents 30 different social service and health organizations, sent a March 3 letter that echoed the Children’s Aid Society, demanding information about how council plans to address what happened; a commitment to engage in meaningful learning about diversity, equity and inclusion; and a declaration that racism and hate are public-health crises in Sarnia-Lambton that council should take steps to address.
Racism exists in the community, and systemic racism exists in local institutions like children’s aid and the education and justice systems, said Flegel, who also serves as co-chair of the network’s anti-racism sub-committee.
“Before you can actually address it, you need to understand it and understand equity and understand how racism will show up in the community,” she said. “And our elected leaders have a role and a responsibility around that, a greater role I would say, and so a first step then is to take the training.”
The KOJO training with council was completed, Mayor Mike Bradley has said. He’s also said he was “devastated” by the comments reportedly made towards the trainer
“Black, racialized and Indigenous people know racism is a big problem because they live it every day,” the Social Services Network letter states.
The letter also notes that every city councilor is white, adding that white people often deny racism exists or attempt to minimize the problem.
“We are struggling to understand how council members could be so hostile to a Black woman who comes to provide training to help white leadership better understand equity,” the letter says.
In an email sent March 3 in response to the network’s letter, Coun. Terry Burrell wrote: “I am surprised that you have such an attitude as ‘you are white therefore you are evil.’ Does your organization use this attitude toward all white people? Or is this attitude reserved for city councilors.”
Flegel called the councilor’s response “extraordinarily disappointing.”
count. Margaret Bird similarly wrote: “Firstly, it was not, as you state, ‘leadership for white people!!’ That statement, in itself, is discriminatory on more than one level. One doesn’t have to be a different color to be targeted … that’s a narrow viewpoint.”
Both she and Burrell declined in their emails to the network’s Carrie McEachran to speak about meeting specifics, which was held as a closed session at the request of the trainer.
Neither of the quotes the councilors attributed to the Social Services Network actually appear in the network’s letter.
When asked to respond to Flegel’s criticism, Burrell said “they were throwing stones at us as far as I could tell.”
“And considering they have no idea what they’re talking about … it’s just you’re assumed to be guilty for whatever reason for something they have no knowledge of,” the councilor added.
Burrell, when asked about council’s role in addressing systemic racism in the border city, said he didn’t think Sarnia is a racist community
“Everybody more or less tries to help out everybody else as best as we can,” he said. “I have no idea where these people are coming from.”
Bird, who said she didn’t have a copy of the letter in front of her, said she didn’t like the way some of the letter was phrased.
“But the leadership training for white people that was all inferred there, I didn’t like the way that was worded,” she said. “Other than that, I’ve never made any comment about Black, white or any race. You’re never hear me comment on those kinds of things. I was raised rather differently to that.”
She did say she “was stounded at the lack of decorum in the (KOJO) meeting.”
“That’s all I can say at this point because it was in camera,” she said.
Community Legal Assistance Sarnia sent to Feb. 26 letter to mayor and council also calling for the KOJO memo to be released publicly, along with more information about what council will do to address what happened.
Council unanimously voted at a recent meeting for staff to review the community legal assistance letter and report back to council.
Efforts are still underway to find another trainer for senior city staff and for Sarnia’s police board, Bradley and Sarnia chief administrator Chris Carter said.
The police board training will wait until a new police chief is hired to replace the retiring Norm Hansen, Bradley added.