Plante shocked by city racism, but no inquiry
Mayor Plante says she was shocked by evidence of racism among city employees revealed by a report in Le Devoir this week, but doesn’t plan to order an independent inquiry into the situation. Plante is reported as thinking the city doesn’t need more studies, because it’s already aware and is acting on the problem.
bob 18:44 on 2023-03-17 Permalink
Capitaine Valérie Renault. https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME?t=10
carswell 19:59 on 2023-03-17 Permalink
“shocked by evidence of racism” but “already aware … of the problem” does not compute.
I don’t think Plante is a racist but remember how she made a show of publicly mourning the murder of white teen Thomas Trudel and totally ignored the nearly contemporary murder of black teen Jannai Dopwell-Bailey until his relatives and the media made a fuss? And now this. Used to consider her tone-deaf. Am beginning to think “privileged white who’s clueless on racial issues” is about the best that can be said of her. And if that’s true, she’s part of the problem, not someone equipped to spearhead an effort to solve it.
Kate 21:32 on 2023-03-17 Permalink
To be fair, I paraphrased her there. But she does say the city is already acting on the racism issue.
In a sense, I think it’s fair to say that there’s no need for further studies. Studies have been done. The question now is: what are you going to do about the demonstrable fact that racism is rampant among city employees?
What institutionalized racism means is that the mayor is powerless to enforce a policy that if you’re caught doing or saying anything racist, or carrying out the kind of actions that have already been observed and noted (e.g. giving Black workers the lousiest vehicles and tools, the hardest and most disliked tasks, etc., as was documented in Montreal North) you’re out on your ass. That’s because the racism runs right through the place, the workers and their foremen and their managers, and probably the union too. Nobody’s going to enforce a zero tolerance policy like that because they’re part of the mechanism that keeps racism alive – even if only by passively accepting that your men have no fear of speaking or acting in that way. Passivity is also part of institutionalized racism.
Plante does not know how to end that culture and she knows no amount of new studies will end it either. But she isn’t going to say that.
Joey 23:09 on 2023-03-17 Permalink
I’m often (probably overly) hard on PM, but is there a more thankless political role in Canada now thankless than mayor of Montreal? You have a movement underpinning you, a million ideas and enthusiastic members – and hardly any ability to implement any of your ambitious project. Valerie Plante should swap jobs with Justin Trudeau.
Chris 11:38 on 2023-03-18 Permalink
carswell: your comment, to me, is such a great example of the left eating their own. Plante is the most left wing mayor since… forever? but she’s “she’s part of the problem”. Fascinating.
MarcG 12:47 on 2023-03-18 Permalink
I’m currently reading this chapter of Disinformation Age (free PDF) that discusses how the ‘left’ has a system of checks and balances whereas the far right is insular and only critical of each other when they don’t toe the ideological line.
Tim 16:44 on 2023-03-18 Permalink
@MarcG: why use the term “far right” when it doesn’t even appear in the article to which you linked? Thanks for the link. Interesting read.
MarcG 18:24 on 2023-03-18 Permalink
@Tim: They define the majority group as “from the center-right to the far left”, which to me, leaves the ‘far right’. It’s curious that they refer to it simply as the ‘right wing’.
Kevin 10:33 on 2023-03-20 Permalink
MarcG: Well, yeah. Unquestioning loyalty is the key personality trait that is essential for the modern right-wing across the Anglosphere. It’s why American Christian Evangelicals are overwhelmingly voting Republican, and why Trump will get the next nomination from that party.