For Irfan Chaudhry, some of Edmonton's recent difficulties in implementing its anti-racism strategy follow a familiar pattern.
"The work is so focused on doing the document versus doing the actual doing, that years can go by where all you can actually really show for your efforts is the document versus the actions from the document," he told Episode 226 of Speaking Municipally.
Chaudhry, who is currently the vice-president of diversity and inclusion of Hockey Canada, joined the podcast to discuss a Taproot story about the end of the city's Anti-Racism Advisory Committee. He also commented on the city's progress in implementing its new anti-racism strategy, which city council approved in February 2022.
For some, including Chaudhry, there have been too many strategies and not enough action. He also noted that most of the documents from past anti-racism initiatives are not viewable on the city's website. This includes Racism Free Edmonton, a 2010 campaign that Chaudhry worked on involving 14 organizations, including school boards and post-secondary institutions.
"I think there's importance in having those documents… because you can see where maybe there were some promising pieces and maybe there are pieces that we shouldn't be doing," he said. "Otherwise, we're going to be doing exactly this, we're going to be recreating something."
While fighting racism is not a purely local matter, municipalities can play an important role as a convener, dealing with logistical matters that can prevent people with lived experience and expertise from coming to the table. Municipalities can also step in when other levels of government are absent, he added.
"I think municipalities have a very, very strong role to play, (which) is to supplement and provide consistency to anti-racism work specifically," he said. "We've seen in the past, relying just on provincial funds or federal funds isn't sustainable because at any given time with a change of government, that could go away."
While there needs to be more action, Chaudhry said it's a positive step that the city is still working on implementing an independent anti-racism body. A temporary advisory panel has been working on recommendations about the establishment and function of the independent body since February.
"The fact that anti-racism work is still being pushed, it hasn't lost focus, I think that to me is a positive," he said.
Hear more on the July 7 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast.
Photo: Irfan Chaudhry participated in or observed several efforts to fight racism in Edmonton before taking on his current role as vice-president of diversity and inclusion at Hockey Canada. (Hockey Canada)