Visible minorities are under-represented on Montreal’s municipal council and that is something a group of councillors wants to change with a call for action at city hall.
A motion calling for a commitment from all political parties to recruit solid candidates from the various ethnic groups living in Montreal will be presented at the next council meeting Jan. 25-26, said Marvin Rotrand councillor for Snowdon.
The motion is supported by Coalition Montréal, Vrai Changement and five independent councillors, Rotrand said. Project Montréal will raise it at their caucus meeting later this week and members of Mayor Denis Coderre’s party have yet to respond.
The motion is a “challenge to the municipal parties to get serious and do something about the shocking under-representation of visible minorities at Montreal city council and at the borough councils,” Rotrand said at a press conference Monday morning, accompanied by Sud-Ouest borough mayor Benoit Dorais, Édouard Narcisse of the Ligue des Noirs du Québec, and Côte-des-Neiges-Snowdon school commissioner Khokon Maniruzzaman, among others.
Of 208 elected officials in the Montreal agglomeration, only six are of visible minorities, he noted.
“There is a problem right across Canada,” Rotrand said, pointing out that some cities have a majority population who are from visible minorities but have even less or no representation on city council. “It’s a national scandal.”
While there was a record number of candidates from visible minorities during the last municipal election, Rotrand says many were put on the ballot at the last minute, and in places where they had little chance of winning.
Dorais, leader of Coalition Montréal, says the motion doesn’t want to impose ratios on the number of minority candidates, but rather encourage political will from all parties.
“It’s to represent the diversity of Montreal,” Dorais said, adding that parties could hold information sessions for visible minorities to better explain what politics is all about and how to get involved as a way of encouraging candidates.
“We need to do things that are proactive,” he said, adding that the issue extends to the provincial and federal levels.
Dorais points out that in the Montreal agglomeration, 30.3 per cent of the population is from a visible minority, while in Montreal it’s 31.7 per cent.
In the 2013 municipal election, there were 485 candidates, but only 54 were from visible minorities and 61 people belonged to ethnic minorities.
Erik Hamon was one of those candidates in 2013, running for Coalition Montréal in the Darlington district of the Côte-des-Neiges─Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.
“I wanted to be in a position where I could affect change in my community, in the district and in the city as a whole,” he said of his decision to run for office.
“I learned that people felt that they weren’t really represented at city council,” Hamon said. “I actually met quite a few people who had never met their city councillor and couldn’t name their elected representative.”
He says voter turnout from the Philippine community in his district increased with his name on the ballot, and that is another reason to have members of visible minorities on the ballot.
“A city council that is more reflective of the people it represents makes for a more effective city council,” he said.
Narcisse believes it’s time for community members to step up and take advantage of their right to run for office.
“Don’t put pressure on an elected official to give you what you want, we can be elected officials and we invite each one of you to participate,” he said. “Don’t ask the other to do for you what you can do for yourself.”
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(Starting 3rd from left) Montreal City Councillors Marvin Rotrand, Benoit Dorais, Steve Shanahan, and Erika Duchesne, alongside supporters of their call to increase the representation of visible minorities within city council during a press conference held at the Black Coalition of Quebec offices in Montreal on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.
By the numbers:
Montreal
63 city councillors — Two members from visible minorities
39 borough councillors — Two members from visible minorities
105 elected officials in the rest of the Agglomeration of Montreal (on-island suburbs) — Two members from visible minorities
Non-white population: 32.3 per cent
Laval
21 city councillors — Two members from visible minorities
Non-white population: 21.3 per cent
Longueuil
15 city councillors — No member from visible minorities
Non-white population: 14.2 per cent
Calgary
Mayor is from visible minority (Naheed Nenshi) and 21 city councillors — One member from visible minorities
Non-white population: 35.3 per cent
Vancouver
10 councillors — Two members from visible minorities
Non-white population: 53.8 per cent
City of Toronto
44 councillors — Five members from visible minorities
Non-white population: 49.8 per cent