THUNDER BAY – A crowd of about 80 people gathered outside Thunder Bay city hall, withstanding a frigid winter night to stand together to oppose racism.
The Tuesday night rally was a grassroots organized demonstration, aimed at building unity and awareness to address racism in Thunder Bay.
Elder Sam Achneepineskum, who delivered an opening prayer, said racism is at the forefront of the community, particularly in wake of two reports that found systemic racism exists within both the city police force and the police services board that is meant to provide oversight.
“I think the time right now people are thinking about what should we do and how we go about addressing those things,” Achneepineskum said.
“It’s really quite simple actually. I think if people move forward and accept things the way they are and accept people for who they are. It’s a very simple thing to do but sometimes it’s really hard for people.”
Scott Hobbs, who organized the rally, acknowledged himself to be the epitome of privilege as a white man. He wrote an essay four years ago entitled I Used To Be A Racist that had been shared more than 7,000 times and has been seen by nearly 100,000 people.
“I think the big thing is unity. We can’t fight this in a bubble. We have to work together because we all have different perspectives,” Hobbs said.
“I, for example, have never faced racism in my life whereas the person next to me might have faced that all their life. It’s the different perspectives and quite frankly I don’t think the onus is on Indigenous people to fight racism. I think it’s on us. I think we should be standing next to them and fighting alongside them.”
Achneepineskum commended Hobbs for coming forward and said he hopes people will follow his example.
“If I came out here and was going to start a rally about doing something against racism, I wouldn’t really get that positive response,” Achneepineskum said, adding he would likely be seen as another Indigenous person “talking and complaining.”
“That’s how the public sees it but I think for (Hobbs) to come out and come to terms with how he looked at people and the change he came through and be able to tell people, I think that’s very important for him to come out and say that in public and the media.”
Hobbs put a call out on social media last week to ask people to come out and admitted he wasn’t sure of what kind of turn out to expect.
“I honestly wasn’t sure how many people were going to show up,” Hobbs said. “I thought if there were more than a dozen of people that I don’t know here, then I’m happy. This is great, there’s at least five, six times what I was expecting.”
Timing the gathering to coincide with a city council budget meeting, Hobbs hoped to send a message to those sitting in chambers.
“Especially with it being a new council I just want them to challenge themselves to think a little bit about what they can do to reduce racism in this community,” Hobbs said.
“Certainly, the onus isn’t just on the municipal government, this is all three levels of government and at the individual level as well. There are things the municipality could do to combat racism.”
