In the summer of 2020, amid a revigorated international discussion about racism, George Brown College (GBC) announced the creation of the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee as part of its commitments to fighting anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism at the college. But now, over six months since its inception, the committee has only met twice and no date has been set for a third meeting.
According to its framework, the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee serves to consult the director of anti-racism, equity and human rights on programming, anti-racism training for the college community, and identifying opportunities to remove barriers around services and information. The framework states for the first six to twelve months meetings should occur every two months to build its foundation and work plan.
As of March 5, 2021 the committee has held an introductory meeting on September 30, 2020 and a second meeting on November 30, 2020.
According to the minutes of the meeting on September 30, obtained by the Dialog, the meeting was one hour long and served as an introduction for the members, with little quantitative discussion on combating racism.
There are currently no more official meetings scheduled. Though Leslie Quinlan, vice-president of HR & public safety and security, said the third meeting is being scheduled and will take place at the end of March, other members of the committee report no communication about scheduling a meeting.
In January, an email from a GBC communications officer asking for information on the committee’s functionality was reportedly met with a “firestorm of upset members responses”, according to one committee member.
Though Quinlan is leading the committee now, that responsibility is set to be handed over to the incoming director of anti-racism equity and human rights services, Jennifer Grant.
