Toronto City not as diverse as it claims

Shana Almeida

Toronto City Council is heralding its latest election as an accomplishment of equity, diversity and inclusion, but a former city staffer wants Torontonians to remain critical of its government’s claims of success.

Assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University Shana Almeida was the only racialized chief of staff working at city hall in the early 2000s.

Her latest book, Toronto the Good?, launched Nov. 16, is an archive dig of how municipal politicians have dealt with claims of racism from 1975-2018.

“I was the only one talking about race and racism,” said Almeida, who left politics for academia in 2009 after almost a decade.

“So I couched it in `diversity’ language. Whatever policies we passed on race it was because I never named it.”

Almeida’s research is a critical take on the way municipal politicians handle accusations of racism, and highlights how recycling equity committees and consultations conceal a deeper systemic issue.

“When we say diversity, we mean people who are not white,” says Almeida, noting that simply adding more racialized players to the game does not automatically translate into more diverse or progressive resolutions.

She says access to generational wealth and knowledge of how municipal councils work have for a long time been privileges available to a few. That has resulted in the exclusion of many people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds from even entering a political race.

Amber Morley

Etobicoke-Lakeshore’s new councillor Amber Morley says that’s even harder for racialized people.

“For folks from the margins who are focused on survival and having the resources to live day to day in an incredibly expensive city, financing a campaign has additional hurdles to overcome,” Morley said.

Morley says for single-income earners, transit riders, renters, and newcomers, financing campaigns in wards that are now double the size they were before 2018 means more sacrifice and people needed to run them.

Out of 163 candidates who ran for councillor in Toronto’s latest municipal election, eight overturned their ward’s incumbent, most of whom tout over a decade of service in office.

A third of City Council, officially seated since Tuesday, come from some of Toronto’s most diverse communities, given that 55 per cent of the city’s population is racialized.

“Diversity in leadership doesn’t have value if it doesn’t commit to being with and for people who have been socially and economically excluded,” Davenport’s new councillor Alejandra Bravo, said.

Scarborough-North’s newly-elected councillor Jamaal Myers – a second-generation immigrant – says he knows all too well the barriers that newcomers face, from financial instability to social stigma.

Jamaal Myers

Having grown up in Scarborough, Myers says living in community housing with a single-income family, seeing peers priced out of their homes, and time living in rooming houses as a university student has not only influenced his politics but helped him get close to his community.

“I have that perspective of seeing just how many roadblocks the government puts in place to prevent working people from leaving Toronto Community Housing,” he said. “It’s just bringing that perspective to the decision-making table.”

During the campaign, Myers was supported by grassroots organization Progress Toronto, along with what the nonprofit calls its “Progressive Champions,” including Morley and Bravo – who is the advocacy group’s cofounder – Malik and Chris Moise.

Progress Toronto supported campaigns committed to tackling affordable housing, accessible public transit, the city’s continuing responsibilities to Indigenous people; humane conditions for the city’s unhoused population; employment; police violence, and more. It also helped alleviate the financial burden and lack of personnel some of these candidates faced in order to even the political playing field.

Saman Tabasinejad

“Our theory of change is to demystify municipal politics and push for further inclusion all year round,” said Saman Tabasinejad, a spokesperson for Progress Toronto.

The nonprofit looks at the intersections between wealth, race and power, as BIPOC living in Toronto continue to face barriers accessing working transit and affordable housing, are disproportionately affected by police violence, and deal with daily experiences of racism.

The nonprofit looks at the intersections between wealth, race and power, as BIPOC living in Toronto continue to face barriers accessing working transit and affordable housing, are disproportionately affected by police violence, and deal with daily experiences of racism.