Community Groups Welcome Anti-Islamophobia Strategy

By Jessica Mvutu and Adonis Huggins

Welcome to RPTV Weekly News Show Episode 7. In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters, Fred Alvarado, Murphy Brown, and Jessica Mvutu, we present news that impacts on Regent Park and other surrounding communities located in the Down Town East communities of Toronto. Episode 7 for the week of October 12th to October 19th, 2021 features segments on: A report of the first Community Benefits Learning session; Community Working Group Announces the Cut to the Access to Sports Project at the SDP Planning Committee Meeting of October 6; Report of the 2021 Second Annual SDP Deep Dive Session; Toronto teacher found not guilty in connection with the drowning of a teenage student in 2017; Anti-Islamophobia Strategy Launched at the Peel District School Board; Covid-19 and Vaccination Updates; Events in the Regent Park Area.
 
Below are two issues featured in the news.
 
Community Groups Welcome Anti-Islamophobia Strategy
By Jessica Myutu
(Jessica is a volunteer journalist at the Focus Media Arts Centre)

The Peel District School Board passed an anti-Islamophobia strategy with approval from community groups. The motion, calling for an anti-Islamophobia strategy, was brought forward and passed at a Peel District School Board meeting on September 30, by trustee Nokha Dakroub. The plan is being put in place with the intention of making schools safer for Muslim staff and students.

In a video posted to twitter, Nokha Dakroub said: “It is meant to include the delivery of mandatory anti-Islamophobia training to all staff, accountability measures, and regular communication with the broader community.”

Many community groups are supportive of the plan. Aasiyah Khan, Manager of Education Programs at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said: “As for mandatory anti-Islamophobia training for staff, such education is a way to eradicate misunderstanding around Islam, to bring in "diverse narratives" about Muslim communities, and to make sure educators have the tools they need to ensure that classrooms are inclusive.” If Islamophobia is left unchecked, it can lead to acts of violence,” she added. "Our schools aren't immune to these realities."

The strategy was put into effect following a scathing report identifying anti-black racism in the Peel District School Board and the killing, motivated by anti-muslim hate, of four members of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, earlier this year, and the fatal stabbing of a volunteer caretaker at an Etobicoke mosque, while he was sitting outside the front doors of the International Muslim Organization.

The June 2020, report commissioned by the Minister of Education on the Peel District School Board found its administrators were ill-prepared to make changes to deal with racism, specifically anti-Black racism, and that Islamophobia was a concern.

According to Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, “The accounts of systemic racism and discrimination documented in the report are deeply troubling and will not be tolerated.”

In a video posted to Twitter, Dakroub said, "The strategy will focus on education, building understanding, centring student voice and valuing lived experiences. It is meant to include the delivery of mandatory anti-Islamophobia training to all staff, accountability measures and regular communication with the broader community."
The Peel District School Board is the first board in the Greater Toronto Area to implement this anti-Islamophobia strategy.
 
Dakroub said, “the board has a responsibility to raise awareness, build understanding, ensure that schools are welcoming to all students and all staff, including those of Muslim faith, and deliver public education in a "culturally sensitive" manner.”

Considering the large Muslim population residing in Regent Park, community groups in Regent Park would like to see a similar strategy initiated in the Toronto District School Board.

Community Working Group Announces Cuts To Access to Sports Project At SDP Planning Committee Meeting of October 6, 2021

By Adonis Huggins

(Adonis is a staff member of the Focus Media Arts Centre)
The role of the SDP Planning Committee is to set the agenda for decision making items that have to be made at the SDP Stakeholders Table as well as deal with time sensitive issues related to the SDP.

On Thursday October 6, 2021, the SDP Planning Committee met to deliberate on final issues related to this evening’s first Deep Dive Session. The Deep Dive is a unique consensus decision making model, designed by the SDP Planning Committee, to determine how $500,000.00 (five hundred thousand dollars) yearly of City funding allocated towards the Regent Park Social Development Plan will be spent.
 
The SDP Planning Committee meeting of October 6, 2021, was hosted by Lindsay Jackson of the Social Development Table and a resident of Regent Park.  The following is a report of this meeting.

After a land acknowledgement led by Denise Soueidan-O’Leary and approval of the agenda, the meeting officially began with an announcement led by Joel Klassen and Walied Khogalli, who are co-chairs of the Community Building Working Group.  

Joel and Walied announced that the Community Building Working Group had recently decided not to continue the hiring of an Access to Sports project co-ordinator and to cut the Asses to Sports project.

The Access to Sports project was one of the SDP projects that was funded by the City of Toronto in 2020. The aim of the project was to hire a coordinator to design a feasibility study on models of sports engagement and develop an action plan to provide sports and life skills initiatives to youth in Regent Park.  The deadline for the project was May 31, 2022, and as of October 7, 2021, no one has yet been hired for the project.

According to Joel, the Community Building Working Group failed to identify a strong candidate for the position and decided not to continue the hiring, as the working group does not see a productive path to completing the project by the end date of May 31.
 
Instead, Joel and Walied presented a plan to the SDP Planning Committee, recommending that the $48,000.00 in project funds for the Access to Sports project, be reallocated to a group that had submitted a sports project request to the SDP for funding for 2021, under the stipulation that the awarded group would have to withdraw their current proposal request.  The funded group would not be eligible for funding in this Deep Dive round. Joel assured the Planning Committee that he has consulted with the City and the City has agreed that the funds can be re-directed to another sport’s project that has applied to the SDP deep dive funding allocation.
After presenting their plan committee members were given an opportunity to respond.

Ibrahim Afrah argued that instead of reallocating the funds to a sports group, that the funds should be added to the city funding increasing it to $548,000.00 for 2021.  Michael Rosenberg, felt that the plan was fine as long as they identified the group before the next Deep Dive session on October 14, 2021. Ines Garcia questioned why after almost 10 months have passed, did the Community Working Group wait only till now to tell us that the project wasn’t on track.  

Although there was no formal voting or decision made at the meeting, tacit approval was given to the Community Building Working Group’s plan.  In a follow up email to the SDP Planning Committee, Joel writes,  “The Community Building co-chairs are convening a meeting/s of sport-oriented deep dive applicants.  With input from the interested groups, co-chairs will as soon as possible make a recommendation to the City's Community Funding Unit for allocation of the Access to Sport funding.”