Troy Hunter: I'm a candidate for New Westminster city council; here is what diversity means to me

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      By Troy Hunter

      I'm Troy Hunter an Indigenous lawyer, born in New Westminster and raised in Cranbrook. I am married to an Indonesian citizen and she is a permanent resident of Canada. 

      When I look at the current city council in Canada's oldest city in the West, I see practically no diversity, with exception for maybe someone of the LGBTQ community (I think). 

      I attended the last council meeting before the election and saw how decisions are made at rapid speed with practically no discussion, and things were moved along with the mayor asking the question of opposed and in the next millisecond breath, carried forward as if he knew that nobody would be opposed to what was being passed at the time.

      I believe that diversity is about pausing a second and really looking into the constituency to see the faces of the people that elected you, to hear their thoughts, before you pass something at city hall. Sometimes it means having a discussion and thinking much more. It's easy to just go with the status quo, it's easy to vote for whatever everybody else is voting for, but we run the risk of creating policies, laws, or decisions that seem good on their face but can adversely impact other people, especially those that are not represented.

      It's not the same as saying I represent all people, or I represent a certain segment of people, then actually being a person of colour, being a visible minority, being an immigrant, having an accent, having a name that is different, or, even being an Indigenous person. Only then can you truly understand the situation—why it is harder to obtain meaningful employment, housing, and the benefits that come along with a certain kind of privilege associated with one's skin colour.

      The history of the 1860s shows that the New Westminster city council was passing laws to oust Indigenous people from the city limits and the affected "Indians" were being confined to Poplar Island, a regional smallpox quarantine. Indigenous people didn't obtain the right to vote until around the 1950s or '60s depending on whether these were federal or provincial elections. Indigenous people were not allowed to hire lawyers as of 1927, and that law was in place for decades.

      Today, Indigenous people are at the margins of society; they are most at risk for homelessness and addictions. They are victims and many, many women and girls of Indigenous ancestry have gone missing and there seems to have been insufficient action by the police to find out what happened and bring perpetrators to justice.

      We are now in the age of reconcilliation, with both Canada and B.C. talking about implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

      We have lawmakers passing laws in this country and we have judges at the highest court of the land also making decisions that can directly impact Indigenous peoples. There are calls for representation in the justice system, even as much as guaranteeing a seat on the Supreme Court of Canada, just as the Québécois have guaranteed seats.

      It is time to open the arms of inclusion to diversity, to people of colour, to the blind or deaf, to the disabled, to the immigrants, to the people of different faiths and beliefs, and to the Indigenous peoples.

      This is what diversity means to me. 

      I am running for city council in New Westminster and I hope that history will be made on October 20 when the first city in Western Canada elects to city council an Indigenous person.

      Troy Hunter is an author, historian, multimedia artist, lawyer, member of the Ktunaxa First Nation, and an independent candidate for New Westminster city council.

      Comments