The province has extended its anti-racism program to include four urban communities, and Burnaby is one of them.
The Ministry Responsible for Multiculturalism will be giving more than $217,000 to 33 organizations this year through its Organizing Against Racism and Hate (OARH) program, according to a press release. Burnaby Family Life will receive $4,500.
“Funding recipients have the power to engage and unite British Columbians under one common goal – to address racism in B.C. communities, one unique project at a time,” reads the release.
Up until this year, the program has benefited only rural communities.
Michel Pouliot, executive director of Burnaby Family Life, told the NOW that staff will be hosting a forum before next March with local organizations to discuss best practices, formalize a response team and develop protocols.
“Let’s say the mosque at Canada Way and Kensington gets graffiti with hate messages and they find some half-burned copies of the Qur’an, so in a situation like that, we would formulate a community response as to what we’re going to say to the media; we’re going to make sure the RCMP are involved in the investigation and they’re linked to the situation; we’re going to potentially do a public education campaign around the issues and offer support counselling to members of the mosque who might be affected by it,” Pouliot said.
He added even though Burnaby is a pretty civilized community, an anti-racism network is needed in every city.
“In talking to newcomers, the majority of them are feeling there is discrimination when they’re looking at applying for jobs and finding housing, so it’s absolutely there, and we don’t have to look too far to see that there is a stronger anti-immigration sentiment that isn’t as quite as visible here in Canada than might be in the States, but it’s definitely present,” said Pouliot.
The other urban communities that are part of OARH are Richmond, Vancouver and Surrey.
