October 2020: Anti-Racism and the City of Calgary - What's Next?

In my September newsletter, I introduced as frank an overview of, and call-to-action regarding, the beginning of Calgary’s journey towards an anti-racist society as I was able to from my position of privilege. To recap, it began with Calgary’s May and June Black Lives Matter protests spilling out of COVID lockdown and standing in solidarity with the international movement reacting to the murder of George Floyd. It was then followed by their call to City Council to bring their work in our streets formally into the halls of of our City Government.

On July 7-9, 2020, we responded to that call with an inquiry into systemic racism within Calgary. Council’s deeply moved response to the inquiry was unanimous acknowledgement of systemic racism within our City and its institutions, and endorsement of a plan to begin the work of dismantling those systems.

I beg everyone to try to empathize with the frustration that must be felt by our BIPOC neighbours - 36% of Calgary’s population - as we acknowledge the systemic racism that they experience every day as we set in motion plans, and then as we settle back into the day-to-day comfort of business as usual as we wait for this work to effect its slow, grinding changes.

As such, the next major milestone in the work (which came two months later) - the Calgary Police Service’s public meeting with City Council to report on its plan to address systemic racism within the service - was met with an emotionally fraught combination of hope, trepidation, frustration, and anger.

The good news is that September 10 opened with a comprehensive speech from Chief Neufeld that, I believe, sets the bar for law enforcement anywhere, in terms of acknowledging and understanding their complicity in the problem of systemic racism.

The medium news was that their plan to address the problem had vagaries and to-be-determined components that needed a lot of clarity - but to be fair, that’s exactly what we were there to address.

The bad news was that a couple of my colleagues - Councillors Chu and Farkas in particular - seized the moment to walk back on the commitments that they had supported, and instead, introduced an alternative political agenda intended to question the existence of systemic racism, and characterize the Police Service’s plan as a coerced attempt by radical forces to undermine the safety of our society by defunding our police’s ability to do their work.

The low point was when Councillor Farkas, after establishing the narrative above, directly asked Chief Neufeld the deliberately divisive, and mind-bogglingly simplistic question, “Is the Calgary Police Service a racist institution?”

The Chief’s deeply problematic reply was that it was not.

I was the next questioner - the third of the day. My team and I had prepared extensive questions to ask the police that were intended to seek clarity regarding the details of their plan. But, with the Chief’s mishandling of that question ringing in my ears, with the political plan of those who seek to divide us by rejecting complexity and exploiting anger and fear just framed by some of my colleagues, I decided that a deep dive into the details of their plan was not what the moment was calling for.

I spent my time asking the Chief questions intended to allow him to reset and reframe the work before the Police Service as complex, collaborative, and deeply respectful of Calgary’s BIPOC experience. I attempted to frame what my colleagues were attempting to do with their just introduced counter-narrative and ask the Chief how he was intending to remain faithful to his pursuit of anti-racism within the service.

I tried to lead him to the ideas that I believe stand at the core of the Police Service’s work.

In retrospect, my line of questioning was a hot mess and should not have been a line of questioning at all.

I should have just clearly stated the following:

1. If you declare that systemic racism exists within your organization, then there are only two correct answers to the question, “is your organization a racist organization?” The first is, “Yes, we acknowledge that systemic racism exists within our structures and processes and we’re working to change that.” The second would be, “It’s complicated but we acknowledge that systemic racism exists within our structures and processes and we’re working to change that.”

2. It is inadequate for a Police Service to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement with an acknowledgment that systemic racism exists within their structures and processes, to formulate a plan to move to an anti-racist stance involving a reallocation of funding from law enforcement work to crisis, social, and mental health and addiction work, and to not explicitly address Defund the Police.

Defund the Police is how Black Lives Matter has framed and branded such reallocations.

The Calgary Police Service has committed to a deeply involved conversation with the community that will explore and execute on a plan to:

a) better coordinate all existing resources regarding homelessness, mental health and addictions;

b) reallocate law enforcement money in the police budget to more holistic resources and responses within the service;

c) reallocate law enforcement money in the police budget to more holistic resources and responses outside of the service;

d) a combination of all of the above.

There is no way a fruitful conversation will occur with our BIPOC community regarding this work if the Calgary Police Service avoids addressing the terminology of Defund the Police (especially since the emergence of the racist counter-narrative Defend the Police).

3. If a good faith conversation is to be had about systemic racism within the Calgary Police Services’ structures and processes, then the fundamental structure of the Calgary Police Commission - currently considered an international best practice - must also be on the table, as well as the Commission’s relationship to the Calgary Police Service, Calgary City Council, the City of Calgary’s administration, the Province of Alberta, and the Alberta Police Act (which all parties agree is an archaic document badly in need of serious overhaul).

4. If a good faith conversation is to be had regarding rooting out systemic racism within the Calgary Police Services’ structures and processes, then an upfront commitment to the current best practice of Community Policing must be reviewed as part of the conversation, leading to one of three possible outcomes:

a) a recommitment by the community and the service to Community Policing;

b) a renaming of Community Policing to a different name less steeped in current oppressive practices; or,

c) an evolution from Community Policing to an emergent policing practice better suited to anti-racism.

The City of Calgary and the Calgary Police Service have a long journey ahead of us, and I believe the points above are critical in order to embark on these good faith-conversations. We cannot allow overtly racist headwinds distract us from our mission, and I hope that I have provided clarity on my commitment toward a sustained and resilient anti-racist state. I have no doubt that it will continue to be difficult, and imperfect, but these lessons are part of the journey, and I invite you to learn with me as we build a better future together.

Sincerely,

Gian-Carlo Carra
Councillor, Ward 9
City of Calgary