Black Votes Matter Campaign Ramps Up For General Election

By Neil Armstrong
PRIDE Contributing Writer

TORONTO, Ontario — The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) has kicked off its strategy and planning sessions of its Black Votes Matter campaign in the lead up to the federal general election in October.

At a strategy session on June 13 in Toronto, several members of the Black community met to mobilize more African Canadians to vote in the upcoming election scheduled for October 19.

The Black voters campaign, using the slogan and hashtag, #BlackVotesMatterCdn, was launched on April 29 at the 2^nd African Canadian Summit: Critical Crossroad and Crisis in the African Canadian Community held at the Ontario Federation of Labour.

“It is essential that the African Canadian community have an unprecedentedly strong voter turnout for the 2015 federal election,” said summit organizers.

The summit discussed organizing around pressing issues such as: “mandatory minimum sentences within the Criminal Code, employment opportunities, the treatment and overrepresentation of African Canadians in federal prisons and various pressing matters in the area of national security (Bill C-51), citizenship and immigration.”

The CBTU, Canadian Labour Congress, African Canadian Legal Clinic, Ontario Federation of Labour and the Midaynta Community Services organized the event.

Statistics Canada indicates that the racialized population accounted for 47.0% of the total population in the 2011 Toronto CMA (census metropolitan area). 15.3% of the racialized population were African Canadians (“Black” in Statistics Canada); also the third largest population among all racialized persons in Toronto CMA.

In terms of ethnic origin, those from Caribbean origins made up 5.6% of the total population in the Toronto CMA, and those from African origins accounted for 4.0%.

Jamaicans accounted for 57.5% of the population with Caribbean origins, Trinidadian/Tobagonian 13.1% and the third category, West Indian, is 12.6%.

The BlackVotesMatter voter pledge says, in part: “The African Canadian community is an important voting bloc. Our voting bloc holds a lot of power, but only if African Canadian voters show up to the polls. The Black community is a powerful economic and political force in our city, province and country!

“In the last federal election, just a handful of voters (6,201 to be precise) made the difference in electing a majority government for the Harper Conservatives. In that same election, 9,434,184 eligible Canadian voters didn’t cast a ballot.

“It’s time for change, and it starts with you! Voting enables us to shape policies, legislation and programs that will affect us in key areas, including affordable housing, good jobs, bias-free policing, and access to quality education, justice, social services and progressive immigration policies.”

The pledge ends with, “I pledge to vote in the 2015 federal election” and “I pledge to challenge 5 more eligible voters to join me in taking the Voter Pledge.”

Co-facilitated by Jawara Gairey and Megan Whitfield, the strategy session discussed ideas such as coalition building with other ethnicities, LGBT, etc.; common ground in the issues being sought, inclusivity as more than infrastructure, and “challenges we didn’t know we had.”

“Our voices aren’t being heard and that’s where we’re failing,” said Whitfield, noting that politicians listen at the ballot box.

Among the strategies are: community town halls to raise awareness, social media, ethnic media mobilization, engaging faith communities as they care about issues of social justice (masjids, gurdwaras, churches, etc.), and challenging.

Participants identified who they are talking to — black communities and organizations, South Asian communities, and white allies and labour – but note that they should be talking to youth and youth groups, faith communities, and the business community, especially small business, and organizations.

Among the tips for building an inclusive campaign are: consider the factors – long-term struggle so that the voice of the community continues to be heard; build an inclusive team; be real, be there – meaning vote for those that have been there for the community; and think about what you ask – “Where can we make the most gains? Building the long-term relationship -. where do we put most of our energies?”

They said they have to identify opinion leaders within faith communities to help gain access, to have civic engagement, to breakdown issues to people by speaking to things that matter to them, such as youth about education and tuition, and seniors about pensions.

There is also the need to organize forums to disseminate the message and using social media, outreach to universities, colleges and youth groups to engage youth about issues that matter to them.

Small groups examined questions such as: What tools or information do we need to mobilize the Black community between now and the federal election? What are the strategies needed to engage all political parties on their party’s election platform? How do we engage candidates and support Black candidates, including organizing candidates’ forums? How do we make our votes count on October 19 and advance polls?

There were suggestions to take candidates’ forums to where the community is, at events like Caribana, Ribfest, Canada Day, among others; to create a list of community events, and to attend the local MP’s barbecue in T-shirts that say “Black Votes Matter.”

The CBTU wants to coordinate with black communities throughout the country, provide them the toolkit and support to organize around black and progressive candidates, and to organize and identify the winnable ridings.

It notes that there is a lot of work to do ahead of October 19 and encourages anyone interested in holding a forum in their area to contact the group.

Yolanda McClean, president, says a similar strategy session will be held on July 4 in Ottawa, and at later dates in other cities across the country.