How disheartening to see that the new slate of borough mayors, city councilors and borough councilors voted in the city's 19 boroughs Sunday are virtually all white, and yet the city has 26 percent of us being visible minorities.
Only three percent, two of 64 seats, went to that demographic at City Hall.
The election results indicate that in spite of ample visible minorities running, only veteran mayor St. Laurent mayor Alan DeSousa and Franz Benjman will be at the party, he having been re-elected city councilor of St. Michel.*
Only Nathalie Pierre-Antoine and Monica Ricourt, both black, won borough council seats, both for Coderre's party, one Rivieres des Prairies and one Montreal North. Borough councilors do not sit on city council, of course.
And don't blame the visible minorities for their lack of initiative. Many people of the Afro-Canadian persuasion ran Sunday, including several Africans, as did a bunch of Asians and Arabs.
Here's a list based on a quick perusal of some losing vizmin candidates: Coderre Team: Youself Hariri, Anjou (city) Joly: Kianoush Rashidan, Darlington, (city), Kashmir Randhawa, Loyola (city) Andrea Kwon, Sault Saint Lasalle (borough). Jonathan Talla Tetreaultville (city) Bhaskar Goswami Cap St Jacques Pierrefonds (borough), Marie Therese Yaya Aissi Rosemont (city), Mudi Wa Mbuji Liévin Kabeya, St. Henri, (city),Claudia Olga Ouamabia, St. Paul Emard (city), Beatrice Zako Villeray (borough mayor), Dilbagh Singh, Villeray (city),Coalitition: Wilmann Edouard, Montreal North, Linton Garner, Nyrlande Marcellus, Sanjay Patel, Mubashar Rasool, Boubacar Toure, (Anjou East, (borough) Zhao Xin Wu Coalition, Rosemont, (came in last) Projet Montreal: Jeffrey Scott Latchman, RdP, Mody Maka Berry, Lasalle, Nadia Edouard, Anjou East, (borough), Romarick Okou, Lasalle, David Nelson, Mtl North, Sameer Zuberi, Bois de Liesse, Edna Constant, St. Leonard, Vladimir Gelin, Wael Hraiky, St Laurent and finally Comlan Amouzou, a hospital administration consultant, came in dead last as Independent mayoral candidate in Outremont.
Some visible minorities further hampered their chances by running for a radical party called Integrity Montreal, which wanted to further oppress the English language in this great bilingual city. Predictably, these ethnically diverse candidates attacking linguistic diversity didn't fare too well: José Humberto Salas Castro, got five percent in the Southwest borough, Joaquin Olivo Rodriguez, 2.5 percent, good for last place in Mile End Plateau, Jade Wang, scored 2 percent in Ville Marie in the St. Jacques city council race and black city bus-drivin' woman Jency Mercier scored 0.72 percent for the Verdun mayoralty
Some even ran as independents, like Nathalie Nyangono in Ahuntsic who scored only 70 votes, 2,800 votes fewer than Lorraine Page, a union official and Joly candidate busted for stealing gloves at Place Versailles 14 years back. Renée-Chantal Belinga and Vladimir Gelin could only score a combined 15 percent of the vote in Ovide Clermont section of Montreal North, where black is a popular thing to be.
Ricourt who was re-elected to her borough council seat, was born in Canada and lived in Haiti between the ages of three and eight. She is the only one of 10 board members of the local transit corporation that isn't white. Pierre-Antoine was elected via Coderre after running for the Projet Montreal in a byelection last year.
This crazy and massive snub of such a large percentage of our population is unfair, unsustainable and an embarrassment. Not so fun fact: an English-speaking black person has never won a city council seat in Montreal.
* (I didn't include the Lebanese/Armenian Harout Chitilian or Latino Luis Miranda of Anjou because my Welsh-Canadian skin is darker than theirs if I spend a at the beach and a glass of carrot juice)
Only three percent, two of 64 seats, went to that demographic at City Hall.
The election results indicate that in spite of ample visible minorities running, only veteran mayor St. Laurent mayor Alan DeSousa and Franz Benjman will be at the party, he having been re-elected city councilor of St. Michel.*
Only Nathalie Pierre-Antoine and Monica Ricourt, both black, won borough council seats, both for Coderre's party, one Rivieres des Prairies and one Montreal North. Borough councilors do not sit on city council, of course.
And don't blame the visible minorities for their lack of initiative. Many people of the Afro-Canadian persuasion ran Sunday, including several Africans, as did a bunch of Asians and Arabs.
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| Alan DeSousa |
Some visible minorities further hampered their chances by running for a radical party called Integrity Montreal, which wanted to further oppress the English language in this great bilingual city. Predictably, these ethnically diverse candidates attacking linguistic diversity didn't fare too well: José Humberto Salas Castro, got five percent in the Southwest borough, Joaquin Olivo Rodriguez, 2.5 percent, good for last place in Mile End Plateau, Jade Wang, scored 2 percent in Ville Marie in the St. Jacques city council race and black city bus-drivin' woman Jency Mercier scored 0.72 percent for the Verdun mayoralty
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| Benjamin, Pierre, Ricourt |
Ricourt who was re-elected to her borough council seat, was born in Canada and lived in Haiti between the ages of three and eight. She is the only one of 10 board members of the local transit corporation that isn't white. Pierre-Antoine was elected via Coderre after running for the Projet Montreal in a byelection last year.
This crazy and massive snub of such a large percentage of our population is unfair, unsustainable and an embarrassment. Not so fun fact: an English-speaking black person has never won a city council seat in Montreal.
* (I didn't include the Lebanese/Armenian Harout Chitilian or Latino Luis Miranda of Anjou because my Welsh-Canadian skin is darker than theirs if I spend a at the beach and a glass of carrot juice)