By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver shows unanimous support for drafting an anti-harassment bylaw.
Town council showed their support at the April 2, 2024 meeting following a presentation by Cherry Fernandez, executive director of the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services (SOICS) on their continued work on anti-racism initiatives and goal of exploring an anti-harassment bylaw for the town.
Fernandez began with a presentation on the work SOICS does in the South Okanagan, explaining that in 2023/2024 they supported over 3000 clients who collectively represent over 110 countries and territories and 94 languages spoken.
The organization helps newcomers to the South Okanagan and supports settlement. Fernandez explained their work as “building those roots and bonds in our community”.
Fernandez addressed the fact that the South Okanagan is not immune to hate and racism and there is often “persistent denial that it happens here”. She showed quotes from anonymous students in Oliver and a video explaining the presence of immigration and some of these problems in the South Okanagan.
She drew on results from SOICS’s Racism & Discrimination Survey: South Okanagan 2021, which revealed hate incidents have increased dramatically during the pandemic, which gathered results from 2019-2021.
Overall hate incidents were up 118 per cent, hate related to race or ethnicity were up 102 per cent, hate related to religion was up 74 per cent, and hate related to gender or sexual orientation was up 47 per cent.
“Recently SOICS really experienced an issue of public safety, both for the clients that we serve and for our team itself which is quite diverse.” Fernandez explained that trying to address these issues often takes the form of a band aid solution and “not the actual problem itself, the wider problem of systemic racism.”
“It’s important to do this work individually and as a community as well. And to take a stand and to show the type of community we are and that we want to be,” Councillor Aimee Grice explained.
“We have all sort of encountered those types of situations and we don’t always know what to do or what to say. So when you can undergo that kind of training or have those policies in place then it can really empower you to be actively anti-racist,” Grice said while indicating her support.
“The discrimination is real, and if there is anything we can do by way of a bylaw I think we should really pursue that,” Councillor Terry Shafer said.
Council showed unanimous commitment and will work with SOICS and see how other municipalities such as Penticton navigate these bylaws.
For more information on the work of SOICS and the results of the racism and discrimination survey see soics.ca/anti-racism/racism-survey-results/
