NDP's Black caucus translating community needs into the language of the legislature

Laura Mae Lindo is reminded of the challenges of advocating forthe Black community from within a system that has often trampled itsrights whenever she steps inside Ontario's legislative chamber.

"When I look at the speaker and above his head it says 1867, I'malways reminded we weren't considered people at that point," theNew Democratic representative for Kitchener Centre said in a recentinterview.

"So I'm in a system that has taken quite a long time torecognize my humanity as a Black person and theintersectionality of who I am as a Black woman."

Just a few years ago, Lindo was the director of diversity andequity at Wilfrid Laurier University and as a community member shewould urge the Ontario government to take anti-Black racismseriously. Next month, the legislature will debate her privatemember's bill titled Racial Equity in the Education System Act.

It feels like her life has come full circle, she said.

"Some days, it's so hard inside because I feel like I'm in thebelly of the beast, that I wish I was on the other side," Lindosaid.

"But we get this reminder from communities that they need us onboth sides of it. We need people outside that are pushing the systemto do better and we need people inside who are talking about why thechanges are so important. It's sort of translating what thecommunity is saying outside into the language that this particularsystem at this particular moment in history understands."

Lindo is the chair of the Ontario NDP's Black caucus -- the firstBlack caucus in the legislature's history. The five-membercaucus,formed in 2019,also includes Jill Andrew, who representsToronto-St. Paul's, Kevin Yarde, who represents Brampton North, RimaBerns-McGown, who represents Beaches-East York, and Faisal Hassan,
who represents York South-Weston.

Representation is very important, Hassan said in an interview.

"The Black caucus gives also our next generations an opportunityto be inspired and also to dream to be politicians at Queen'sPark," he said.

Hassan, who is also the NDP's youth opportunities critic, createdhis own youth council and people from predominantly Black andIndigenous communities applied. A 14-year-old girl approached Hassana few months ago and wanted to volunteer because she could relate tohim, he said.

"I think that's also what the Black caucus doing is to inspiremany, many young people in our communities, not only the Blackcommunity, but also young people of all identities andbackgrounds," Hassan said.

Lindo said the Black caucus has been doing a lot of work tobetter engage with the community and to raise its issues at thelegislature.

One way the caucus has been connecting with the community is byholding practice committee deputations, Lindo said. It can be adaunting process to testify at committees, so they set up rooms likethe ones at the legislature, had the elected officials sit at thefront of the room, and turned off the microphones after a certainamount of time.

After a series of practice deputations, there was a growing listof people who wanted to be informed about issues being discussed atthe legislature, including a lot of people outside downtown Toronto,

In areas where Lindo said Black communities tend to get ignored.

Inside the legislature, Lindo was on the finance committee andhas spoken about anti-Black racism and advocated for measures tohelp Black business owners.

Caucus members take opportunities to raise issues of anti-Blackracism within other discussions at the legislature, she said, including food insecurity, border crossings, and employment.

"Being able to amplify people's advocacy -- that's a reminderthat the work that we're doing is meaningful and the work that we'redoing is important and it circles back to the reason that communityasked us to form a Black caucus in the first place," Lindo said.

The idea of a Black caucus started as a joke, Lindo said. Afterthe 2018 election, the NDP arranged a celebration with Black leadersfrom across the province. With five Black members in the room, thecommunity leaders remarked that it was the first time they had seenso many Black elected officials and jokingly said they should form aBlack caucus.

Lindo later officially proposed the idea to NDP Leader AndreaHorwath, who was supportive of the idea so long as there was anactual master plan and wasn't performative, Lindo said.

"I told her, I'm not interested in doing the performativestuff," Lindo said. "So as long as she's ready for -- in the wordsof Beyonce, that jelly -- then we are ready to go."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11,2022.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.