TORONTO – At the end of a provincial tour from Windsor to Sudbury by way of London, St. Catharines, Cornwall and Ottawa, which wrapped up this weekend in Toronto, the Coalition of Francophone Black People of Ontario (CNFO) now has a comprehensive picture of the expectations of French-speaking visible minorities in the province, with regional particularities, as well as possible solutions that will guide its next actions.
One of the main lessons of this tour is that communities experience integration challenges and barriers related to racism or linguistic assimilation differently, depending on whether they live in a large urban centre or a rural area, and in a more or less Francophone environment.
It is by starting from expectations on the ground that the young organization now hopes to succeed where its predecessor – the Union provinciale des minorités raciales et ethnoculturelles francophones de l'Ontario (UP/MREF) – failed.
For Levit Koloko, a consensus emerged in Ottawa on the need for structural tools. "We don't produce statistics, studies or research. By collecting, compiling and documenting data on our communities, we will have the same statistical references in terms of identifying needs, findings and solutions when we talk among ourselves or with the government," explains the teacher from the National Capital Region.
About ten organizations took part in the Ottawa stop of the CNFO tour.
"This shows that the Coalition still has information and awareness work to do to convince part of the community," he concludes. "We have a few champion organizations, but there is no strong solidarity. We need that to build a collaborative framework that allows us to share our needs, our resources and a common strategy."
The CNFO's main challenge is indeed to get the province's French-speaking visible minorities to work together so that the young advocacy organization can establish its legitimacy with governments.
A deficit of trust and cohesion among Black people
In St. Catharines, the exchanges were "very frank," says a pleased Fété Kimpiobi, executive director of Solidarité des femmes et familles interconnectées francophones du Niagara (SOFIFRAN), who also identified "a lack of solidarity, a deficit of trust and cohesion among Black people."
Yet "you cannot exist anonymously, without taking part in community activities. In an environment that is a minority within a minority, if people don't see you, you can't do anything
"In the eyes of Canadian society," she says, "we are all Black. So it's better to speak with one voice, because we have the same struggles." Among these struggles, discrimination, integration difficulties, underemployment and access to French-language services were raised during the discussions held in Niagara.
To overcome them, she believes we should highlight people who have succeeded and could serve as role models for young people. A view shared by Patrick Auguste.
Present at the Toronto community consultation, the CNFO vice-president finds interesting the idea of "approaching those on the other side of the fence, to cultivate in them the duty to give back to the community and let it benefit from their experience."
The CNFO can act as a bridge between those who have succeeded and those for whom it is harder." He also believes that one of the organization's fundamental missions will be to get useful information to immigrants as quickly and effectively as possible to facilitate their integration.
"Developing our own tools"
Gouled Hassan, who took part in the Sudbury stop of the tour, takes away from this consultation that the community must develop its own tools. "It has to be done by the community itself," he maintains, "and not through other groups, because no one knows our needs better than we do. If, for example, the retention and integration of immigrants is entrusted to an organization for which this is not the mandate, it becomes a second-tier project."
He notes that in the North, where 90% of recent immigration is Francophone Black, people are not used to seeing diversity, which generates racism that is "very present on the surface," and that the lack of support compared to organizations in big cities means that "we are always making demands from a precarious position, begging for services instead of offering our own services."
It is time to "develop community leadership that can rely on tools on the ground. This leadership would spill over into other areas such as culture and art," he believes.
Several organizations in the cities visited also regretted recent refusals of federal government grants, without explanation. An experience that discourages them, or even deters them, from reapplying. They hope the CNFO's support will help them overcome this obstacle in the future in order to develop services for the population.
That is what the organization's president, Julie Lutete, intends to do: "This consultation carried out in the regions will now help us put in place a three-year strategic plan that reflects the reality of communities in Ontario."
