Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association denounces candidate non-responses
Five-question survey sent to all candidates only answered by five, association says
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Where do Niagara’s provincial candidates stand on issues related to racism?
That’s something members of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association wanted to know, but their questions were met with a lot of non-responses.
The association denounced candidates and campaigns Friday for failing to demonstrate they take racism seriously after less than 20 per cent of Niagara’s candidates answered a five-question survey about their party’s policies.
“How can they say they’re concerned about racism if they’re not even bothering to answer a short questionnaire or even touching on some of the provincial issues that have to do with systemic racism?” asked Saleh Waziruddin, a member of the association’s executive committee.
Waziruddin said the association reached out to all candidates in Niagara’s four ridings with five questions on May 11. Candidates had until May 18 to respond.
Emails were sent to candidates’ individual campaigns for Progressive Conservative, Liberal, New Democratic, Communist, Libertarian and None of the Above parties. Where there were no individual campaign email addresses, he said emails were sent to party email accounts for the Green, New Blue, Ontario and Ontario Alliance parties.
Waziruddin said the association followed up with phone calls on May 16 to PC, Liberal, NDP and Libertarian candidates, spoke with staff of some candidates and even reached out to a candidate on Facebook.
In the end, it received five candidate responses — three NDP, one Communist and one None of the Above.
There are 30 candidates running in Niagara.
“Some of the responses were pretty impressive in that it seemed some of the candidates were pretty aware of the issues and really up to speed on it, but that makes me wonder even more about the ones that didn’t respond,” Waziruddin said.
“They must be really lagging if they can’t even bother with a short questionnaire and were given plenty of time to answer it.”
Waziruddin said the association kept the questionnaire short because it knew the campaigns had limited resources. Members discussed the issues and came up with five questions they thought would help differentiate between the various candidates.
They included whether or not the candidate believes there is systemic racism in Niagara and what action they would take as an MPP to concretely reduce racism.
Questions also asked for their positions on diversity in constituency staff, funding for the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate and what type of resolution they would support for the 1492 Land Back Lane dispute in Caledonia.
Waziruddin said he figured some candidates might give short answers, but the sheer lack of responses was surprising.
“I think some of the campaigns didn’t even bother looking at it, frankly.”
While there’s been some discussion about racism during the provincial campaign, he said major issues, such as funding for the anti-racism directorate, haven’t been brought up at debates or on the campaign trail.
He’s hoping to see a better response during the municipal election as the association is planning on engaging with local candidates about their positions.
The association’s provincial candidate questionnaire, the responses received and a grading of those responses is available to read at nrara.org.
“I think all the voters and people living in Niagara should look carefully at seeing which of the candidates didn’t even respond and also look at the responses to see where they stand on key issues,” Waziruddin said.
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