Attendance

Members Regrets

Councillor E. Shapero Deputy Mayor F. Scarpitti

Murali Visvalingam Councillor K. Usman

Ghulam Sajan Moe Mohammed

Linda Stewart Rohit Ummat

Iris Leung

Vicki Brar

Raza Sumar

Alex Ribeiro

Officials

C. Raynor, Committee Secretary

The seventh meeting of the Markham Race Relations Committee convened at 7:35 p.m. with Councillor E. Shapero in the Chair.

1. ADMINISTRATION

The Town of Markham Race Relations Committee recommends:

That the Minutes of the Town of Markham Race Relations Committee meeting held on September 13, 2004, be adopted.

2. “NO DISTANCE BETWEEN US”

The Committee agreed to defer viewing the video, “No Distance Between Us” until the December meeting of the Committee.

3. DISCUSSION OF MANDATE

There was extensive discussion surrounding the future direction of the Committee, and whether a future discussion of the issues should be facilitated.

Each member was invited to provide comments on the current work, scope and future strategy of the Committee. Comments included:

· The Committee should be involved in more events;

· Education programs, particularly in schools, can help to foster greater tolerance;

· The Committee should help facilitate problem resolution;

· Better archiving may be necessary to allow easier access to Committee resources

· Should individual members promote themselves as representatives in their communities?

· Should the Committee broaden its scope to include diversity issues other than race?

· Corporate outreach can help encourage better diversity training in the workplace;

· The Committee should encourage community feedback in order to better understand the key issues;

· The Committee should take a more proactive role in offering policy recommendations to Council;

· The Committee can produce such things as binders, or displays, aimed at providing information about other cultures, especially regarding major events such as Ramadan and Hanukah;

· The Committee should formulate policies on how it will react to high profile events, and how it will deal with sensitive political issues, if at all.

It was agreed that it will be useful to bring in a facilitator to oversee more detailed discussions of these matters at the November 8, 2004 meeting. Some members suggested they may be able to find facilitators willing to provide services for free, or at least at a substantial discount. It was agreed that information on these potential candidates will be forwarded to the Clerk by October 12, 2004. It was also agreed to examine the possibility of using Town resources.

The Committee noted that it was willing to meet on a different date if the selected facilitator is unavailable on November 8, 2004.

THE MARKHAM RACE RELATIONS COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS:

That the members of the Markham Race Relations Committee consider their contacts, and Town of Markham resources, to determine whether there is a suitable facilitator willing to offer their services at a future meeting of the Committee, for free;

And that, in the event that there is no suitable candidate offering free services, the Committee hire a suitable facilitator, to be funded from the Markham Race Relations Committee 2004 budget account number 200-9985859;

And that Councillor E. Shapero be authorized to select the appropriate candidate.

CARRIED

4. REPORTS

· Many Faces of Markham

Ms. L. Stewart advised that a date needs to be set for the 2005 Many Faces of Markham event. Currently, the preferred date is April 7, 2005. Councillor E. Shapero agreed to follow up on the matter.

5. OTHER BUSINESS

· International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Ms. L. Stewart advised that the theme for the 2005 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will be “Racism. Stop it.”

7. NEXT MEETING

The next regular meeting of the Committee will be held on Monday, November 8, 2004, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ontario Room.

8. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting closed at 9:10 p.m.