Did you know that Calgary police officers shot and killed more people in 2018 than any other city in Canada? Alarmingly, this was also more than in either Chicago or New York, the two largest police departments in the US.
This is not just an American problem.

This past week, Calgary City Council heard from over 150 Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) who detailed countless incidents of abuse, mistreatment and discrimination at the hands of Calgary police. The trauma caused by law enforcement was undeniable on their faces and in their voices as they courageously shared their stories in hopes of meaningful change.

Above the Law is a new documentary on CBC that examines three cases of police violence in Calgary. The film clearly illustrates how Calgary Police have both taken and ruined the lives of so many Calgarians. This has a wide-reaching impact on not just their loved ones, but their communities as well.

We know that police brutality disproportionately impacts the BIPOC community. Yet, Calgary police are not mandated to collect race-based data which significantly limits their accountability. Their budget is nearly 10 times that of social services and affordable housing combined, despite the fact that these types of programs are proven to address the root causes of crime more effectively and humanely. It’s also more cost-effective, enabling your tax dollars to be reallocated to other important services.
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Of the 15,963 contacts with the public recorded by Calgary police in 2018:

•  27% were related to vulnerable persons (e.g. people experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, etc.);
• 45% were related to disorder (unruly behaviour); and
• only 3% were related to weapons.

Police are not trauma counsellors, social workers or mental health practitioners. We’re recommending The City puts out a request for proposals from the BIPOC community for culturally specific social services that can address the root causes of crime related to homelessness, mental health and poverty. A percentage of the Calgary police budget should be reallocated to the selected proposal(s).

YOU can help make Calgary safer for not just the BIPOC community, but all Calgarians who’ve experienced police brutality. Share this documentary with the hashtag #DefundCPS to spread the word so that the defunding movement in Calgary is unignorable.

In 2018, 72% of interactions with Calgary Police were related to disorder (unruly behaviour) and/or vulnerable persons. Another 16% were related to drug use. This means that almost 90% of interactions with Calgary Police are directly related to social issues such as homelessness, poverty, mental health challenges and substance use disorders – often a result of untreated trauma.
Police officers are trained to deal with violence and danger to the public. They are not trained to be trauma counsellors or social workers. Policing is not a preventative measure but rather a reaction to a crime that has already been committed.
Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately targeted and impacted by the justice system, including policing. Many don’t feel safe calling police when they’re in danger because the police represent a greater threat to their safety, and possibly their lives.

Where did the phrase “defund the police” come from?
The concept of defunding police originated with Black activists and can be found as far back as the 1960s. It has gained momentum and credibility today as smartphone cameras and social media have exposed police brutality to a wider audience.

What does it mean?
Defunding police means reallocating a percentage of that funding to social services that address the root causes of crime, like education, mental health supports, affordable housing, youth programs, accessible transit and employment opportunities.
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The majority of Calgarians’ tax dollars go towards policing – the single largest line item in the City’s budget at $401 million – while affordable housing and social services receive a measly $42 million. Calgary Police have little accountability as City Council doesn’t require them to specify exactly what they are spending that money on. Police budgets should be capped and transparent so citizens know exactly what their tax dollars are spent on. Government should be involved in deciding what the money is spent on to increase accountability.

Why is it important?
Policing is a foundational example of systemic racism in Canada, meaning that the policies, practices and procedures carried out by police lead to disproportionately negative outcomes for BIPOC. We cannot claim to be a free and equitable society when BIPOC are constantly at risk of brutalization at the hands of those they pay taxes to for protection.
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Experiencing mental illness, homelessness, poverty and trauma are not crimes. And, if we are truly innocent before proven guilty, using a counterfeit bill should not be a death sentence.
Government-mandated collection of race-based data in policing is essential to ensure that police are held accountable for effective and equitable crime prevention.

Will defunding the police really work?​
Yes. Alternative response services already exist in many parts of the world, like Oregon, California and the United Kingdom. Crises are responded to by trained, demilitarized professionals with expertise in de-escalation and compassion so there isn’t fear of further violence.

Calgary already has several (currently underfunded) programs that provide successful and cost-effective alternatives to policing, such as:

• Alpha House’s DOAP Team, which significantly decreases ticketing and incarceration of vulnerable persons while avoiding unnecessary interactions with police and other city services.
• Calgary John Howard Society (CJHS)’s crime prevention programming, such as caseworker and peer support for people living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (the symptoms of which make individuals more susceptible to criminal behaviour). In 2018, close to 80% of clients in this program had no new justice system involvement.

​Permanent supportive housing provided by Alpha House, CJHS and other agencies funded by the Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF). CHF found that this type of housing decreases interactions with police by 72%,days spent in jail by 84% and court appearances by 59%.

How can I help advocate for my tax dollars to be reallocated away from police?
Support, participate and donate to defunding movements in your city. 

​Email or call your local politicians to ask them to:

• Defund police and reallocate resources to social services instead
• Collect race-based data on policing and provide regular reports to taxpayers

As part of Calgary’s commitment to anti-racism, The City of Calgary is holding a public consultation on systemic racism through a meeting of the Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services which is scheduled to start on July 7 and 8, 2020. 

How to register to present at the meeting:
Registration is now over. Thank you for registering.

How to view the agenda:
Here it is.

How to speak to the City Council committee:
Here is a document to help you prepare for speaking to City Council.

How to listen in, but not present:
We recommend all Calgarians to watch the council meeting live on the day of.

Sharing experiences of racism can be a really difficult and scary thing to do. Here are some tips that might help you stay grounded and present as you speak: 

1. Practice saying what you want to say. Say it in a way that is most familiar and comfortable for you. 
2. Remember to breathe. What you have to say is so important, and deserves to be heard. Take a deep breath and keep breathing as you speak; it will help with the nerves. 
3. Have something that might help ground you. Examples of this can be an object you hold or touch, a visual focal point, a comforting scent, a quote, etc. 
4. Find your community. Reach out to someone you trust that can be there with you, or find someone you can talk to afterwards.
5. Try to take time and space for yourself to do something restorative after you have spoken at the consultation. (Ie. Eat, take a walk, spend time with pets, take a nap, etc.) 
6. There is so much power and courage in speaking up in this way. All the others speaking at this consultation are there to support you. 
7. Thank-you for sharing your story, and giving your input. 

To my fellow Calgarians,

My name is Courtney Walcott. I am a public high school teacher in Calgary. In collaboration with the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation (CCMF), we started a petition on June 19, 2020, to ask the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) to create an Anti-Racism Task Force. In just a few days, we amassed over 7,000 signatures. The petition was featured on CBC News, Global News, Red FM and others. The success of this petition is due, in no small part, to the efforts and commitment of CCMF. They continue to strive for change in the education system through anti-racism work. 

CCMF released a study last year that illustrated Alberta teachers’ awareness of racism in their schools and the lack of tools to address it in their classrooms. Teachers indicated that they were fundamentally unprepared to create an inclusive curriculum due to a shortage of available resources.

Six days after we released the petition, the CBE committed to doing the work necessary to create an equitable and anti-racist environment in schools, and created a Collaboration for Anti-Racism and Equity Support Advisory Council (CBE C.A.R.E.S.). This is a great first step — as long as the commitment is followed with action. And the teachers, students, parents and citizens who signed the petition have demanded that action in the form of accountable, data-driven and immediate change.

While every call to action in our petition has not yet been satisfied — race-based data collection is required to effectively analyze and address systemic racism in our institutions — we have faith that the CBE will follow through on their promise to stakeholders.

Thank you to everyone for adding their voice to this cause by signing and sharing the petition. While the petition is officially closing, we will continue to hold our institutions accountable for dismantling systemic racism.

If you would like to get involved, the City of Calgary is holding a public forum on systemic racism on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 9:30 a.m., thanks to the hard work and determination of CCMF. Please share this information with your family and friends who have experienced racism so we can ensure their voices are heard and appropriate policy changes can be recommended. Follow CCMF on social media for further details on how you or your loved ones can participate:

Facebook: @canadianculturalmosaicfoundation
Twitter: @CanadianCMF
Instagram: @canadiancmf

Thank you, 

Courtney Walcott and the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation

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​Historically, the education system has been used as a tool to propagate discriminatory and prejudiced ideologies. It is well known that the ideologies and policies of the past were based on discriminatory schools of thought regarding the differences between race, gender, and class. With this as a guiding understanding, we seek to put together a task force to specifically analyze which aspects of public-school policy continue to adversely impact our minority students. The foundation of this task force will be through the collection and analysis of race-based, gender-based, and economic-based data to determine and isolate problematic structures within the public education system. It will only be through the analysis of the policies in place, the history of their creation, and the impact on minority groups within this system that meaningful change can be made.
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The task force will also look at methods of building school culture and developing the necessary school-based resources to impact the ongoing learning of students and staff. This includes, but is not limited to, the development of school-based equity committees, the ongoing process of learning about and the deconstruction of implicit bias, and the development of professional learning programs that can be facilitated to all CBE staff on the subject of anti-discriminatory work, as well as locally develop an anti-discrimination course, and a review of the K-12 Alberta curriculum to address necessary changes to reflect the diversity of the Alberta student body.

Overall Strategy:
To coordinate and strengthen anti-discriminatory work through data collection, analysis, and policy creation in accordance with the aim of disrupting systemic prejudice and discrimination.

Goals

• To build a system wide policy framework of anti-discrimination practices that comprehensively addresses the issues of systemic discrimination.
• To assess the quality of current anti-discrimination work being done across the system
• To identify problems in punishment, practice, and policy that contributes to discriminatory beliefs and actions, whether conscious or subconscious.
• To create an accountability process to evaluate the state of anti-discrimination work across the system.
• To assess, at the foundational level, the ways the current curriculum propagates systems of oppression.
• To create a locally developed course strictly focused on the subject of Anti-discrimination
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Outline of Possible Approaches
1.     Build a comprehensive data set based on race, gender, and economic status.

• This data would be collected privately by creating surveys to be filled out by every CBE students
• The data would be cross referenced with city census information for accuracy and anomalies

2.     An analysis of the social determinants of health that contribute to educational outcomes and their distribution across the system.

•  Social determinants of health include aspects of the social environment (e.g., discrimination, income, education level, marital status), the physical environment (e.g., place of residence, crowding conditions, built environment [i.e., buildings, spaces, transportation systems, and products that are created or modified by people]), and health services (e.g., access to and quality of care, insurance status)

3.     An analysis of the expected impact of the new model of equitable funding for resource allocation models.
4.     An analysis of curriculum programs and the impact they have on student success

• Ex. An analysis of the impact of International Baccalaureate programs on school culture, graduation rates, demographic shifts, and overall social environment.
• Ex. An analysis of trades programs and their impact on the school culture, graduation rates, demographic shifts, and overall social environment.
• Ex. An analysis of athletic programs and their impact on the school culture, graduation rates, demographic shifts, and overall social environment.

5.     A survey of teachers from minority and historically oppressed groups in an effort to identify the more obvious issues that face staff in their school environments.
6.     An analysis of course enrolment based on race, gender, and economic class in an effort to identify trends and possible systemic limitations to our distribution of equitable opportunities.
7.     Research the origins of current educational practices to develop a historical analysis of potential discriminatory policies that may remain in our current system.
8.     Analyze trends in hiring practices to identify potential bias in the hiring process

Potential Task Force Members
The task force would ideally be a combination of educators, policy makers, and analysts from the community.
Potential collaborative opportunities exist through partnerships with our local Universities (Mount Royal University, University of Calgary) through their Public Policy, Education, History, and Sociology faculties and student base.
This task force would need to be dedicated, and not run as a secondary duty of employees from the Calgary Board of Education. To complete this work in a timely, organized, comprehensive, and effective manner, this task force should be the sole focus of its members during its initial run. Too often is this the work of a committee meeting once a week for a year, yielding nothing.

This work is challenging. It is disruptive. However, at its core, it is the work that will have long term effects that align with the goal of public education. Public education has the rare power to direct society towards a better future. This power cannot be taken for granted in light of daunting circumstances. Sacrifices and investments must be made into developing our future. Until we seek to understand the problem, we will never truly be able to fix it.

We must do this work.

Media contact/inquiries:
Courtney Walcott, Social Studies & English Language Arts Teacher
Western Canada High School
Courtney.j.walcott@gmail.com

The City of Calgary is home to an ethnically diverse population. According to Statistics Canada, in 2016 over 30% of its population identified as a visible minority and about 3% as Aboriginal . However racist incidents and crimes continue across the city. The municipal government, The City of Calgary, has yet to tackle the discrimination that these population face. We understand The City has created a few policies and strategies to promote diversity and inclusion, but there is no concrete action taken. We want to help The City in coming up with solutions.
Please sign this petition to be part of the movement to tackle systemic racism and discrimination in Calgary. We ask The City to hold a public consultation on systemic racism and discrimination. This consultation will allow Calgarians of all backgrounds to participate in the development of concrete solutions to improve economic, social, cultural, and political conditions of Calgary residents, particularly members of Indigenous and racialized communities, and build a more inclusive equitable and prosperous city.

​Please sign and share!

We get a lot of folks wanting to learn more about racism, but want to make sure the resource is legitimate and easy to understand. We have also seen a trend of shaming others for not knowing. We do not believe this is the way to creating positive changes. Here are some common terms to help you understand and become an ally. We use these definitions in our school presentations so they are easy to understand!

Race
Before you understand racism, you need to understand race. But what is race? We sometimes hear people say race is a social construct, but what does that mean?
► Race has no basis in biological reality, therefore has no meaning independent of its social definitions. There is no gene or cluster of genes common to all blacks or all whites. Were race “real” in the genetic sense, racial classifications for individuals would remain constant across boundaries. Yet, a person who could be categorized as black in the United States might be considered white in Brazil or coloured in South Africa
►Although race is socially constructed, it significantly affects the lives of people of colour and Indigenous people, particularly in the West.
►The concept of race was created to establish a hierarchy in society.
​Here is a great video that further explains this.

Racism
We often hear politicians say racism is about ignorance. But it's not just about social attitudes. Instead racism is:
►A system in which one group of people exercises power over another on the basis of race.
►A set of beliefs, false assumptions, and actions based on an ideology of the inherent superiority of one racial group over another.
►Consists of policies and practices, rooted in established institutions, that result in the exclusion or advancement of specific groups of people. Ex - discriminatory laws, residential segregation, poor health care, inferior education, unequal economic opportunity and the exclusion and distortion of the perspectives of non-dominant Canadians.

Racial Discrimination
This is a term we don't hear very often. But it's incredibly important. And even more so, it's important to understand the difference between racism and racial discrimination:
►Racial discrimination can happen to anyone who is discriminated against based on their race and is usually an individual act. Racism is more persistent as it is not only an individual behaviour or act, but a way of thinking and is institutionalized/inherent in Canada.
►In Canada, anyone can experience racial discrimination but only people of colour and Indigenous people can experience racism.

Privilege
We hear the word privilege be thrown around often, especially white privilege, but many people don't understand how they themselves are privileged.
►Refers to gaining benefits, advantages, and rights by default at the expense of others, because one belongs to the perceived “us,” “normal” or “natural” state of the “mainstream” and/or dominant culture.
►Privilege is not visible to its holder; it is merely there, a part of the world, a way of life, simply the way things are.
Here is a great exercise that explains white privilege.

Microaggression
Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups. Here is a comic book we made about daily racial microaggressions​. As well, here is a great video that further explains microaggressions.

Bias
Do you know we all have bias? We create them from a young age to navigate the world. But what is a bias?
►A subjective opinion, preference, prejudice or inclination, often formed without reasonable justification, that influences an individual’s or group’s ability to evaluate a particular situation objectively or accurately.
►You can be aware or unaware of it.
Here is a great video on racial bias (note: there is a swear word in it, used once)

Stereotypes and Generalizations
We've heard many growing up, whether they are positive or negative, they contribute to a dysfunctional class system.
►A preconceived overgeneralization of a group of people, ascribing the same characteristics to all members of the group, regardless of their individual differences.
►Most of us fit into different categories and have a variety of interests. We might like watching sports but be non-athletic. We might like rap as well as classical music. But when we think about other people, particularly people who are a different race from us, we often have a harder time understanding that complexity. So we put people into categories and thus – stereotypes are formed.

Intersectionality
This term is thrown around a lot. It's essentially how oppressive systems are linked together
►The experience of the interconnected nature of identities, and the way they are embedded within existing systems such that they define how one is valued.
►In other words, the interconnected nature of all forms of oppression against particular groups.

Now that you are aware of all this, how can you be an ally? It's important to understand the difference between and Ally and an Advocate.

An Advocate:
►Supporting a cause that directly relates to you or affects you.
►Speaks out and takes action for change. 

An Ally:
►Listens, supports and advocates, but is not in the spotlight or the loudest voice. Stands with and not in front of.
►How to be an ally:
■Understand your privilege
■Listen and do your homework
■Speak up, not over
■Apologize when you make mistakes
■Ally is a VERB

Want to learn more about racism?

• Here is a documentary we made about racism in Calgary
• Here is a comic book we made about daily racial microaggressions
• Here is a podcast we made about hate in Alberta, particularly racism
• Here is a guide we made to help you in consuming racial products and services
• Here is an app that can help correct your language so it's not racist or hurtful to others
• Here are some spoken word artists talking about racism
• We are also working on developing resources for teachers and workplaces. Connect with us if you'd like to be involved!