A petition calling on the city to hold public consultations on systemic racism has surpassed the number of signatures it needed to move on to the next step.
McGill law student Balarama Holness filed the petition at city hall Friday after it gathered 20,000 signatures – 5,000 more than the city requires to force a consultation.
Holness spearheaded the petition with the community group Montreal in Action; the group wants the city to develop a strategy for dealing with discrimination and to diversify its workforce:
“They have three years to show Montrealers that they want inclusion and if they do not do that, well, we’re going to have to democratically fire them and elect new candidates, new representatives that adequately reflect the interests and the ethnocultural DNA of all Montrealers,” he said.
Holness said the city has 21 days to respond and to set up a timeline for the public consultations.
