Despite staff recommendation, Niagara Falls won’t merge anti-racism committee with diversity & inclusion group

https://www.insauga.com/niagara-falls-to-merge-anti-racism-committee-with-diversity-inclusion-group/ 

By Don Redmond

Published December 20, 2022 at 3:38 pm

Feeling that their interests often overlap, Niagara Falls City Council recently looked at a motion to merge its Anti-Racism Advisory Committee with the Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee.

While staff was looking at a new single group, the Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Advisory Committee, the motion was shot down as Council decided to keep the two committees separate.

“Additional efforts will be undertaken to enhance collaboration and increase communication between the Committees,” said the city.

Saleh Waziruddin, a member of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association and chair of the St. Catharines Anti-Racism Advisory Committee, was a delegate at the meeting – as was Niagara Falls Anti-Racism Advisory Committee chair Sherri Darlene – and both fought against the merger of the two groups.

Said Waziruddin to council, “Please do not merge the anti-racism and diversity & inclusion committees. Having one committee instead of two means less time spent on anti-racism, and you can’t do more for anti-racism by giving it less time. Even a sub-committee won’t have the time that a full committee will.”

He continued, “There is a mistaken idea that diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism are all part of the same set. But there is a big difference. As a former elected official in Niagara had said about himself 100 per cent correctly that he was the first Polish-Canadian elected to his position, and while that may very well be diversity and it may very well be inclusion, it is definitely not anti-racism.”

“It’s an important achievement but anti-racism is something else altogether.”

He said that merging the committees would “obviously cut the time spent specifically on anti-racism and it would water down the work of the committee by mixing in people who don’t have lived experience with racism.”

“Please keep the committees separate as you originally decided to do when there was a proposal for just one diversity committee instead of a dedicated anti-racism advisory committee.”

In the end, council reversed the staff recommendation and opted to keep the two committees separate.