{"id":39880,"date":"2022-11-11T01:50:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=39880"},"modified":"2022-11-09T10:40:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T18:40:37","slug":"petitioning-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/11\/11\/petitioning-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Petitioning for change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richmond educator Alisa Magnan is petitioning Richmond city council to create, adopt and publish a truth and reconciliation policy. (photo from Alisa Magnan)<\/em><\/p>\n

On Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Richmond educator and Jewish community member Alisa Magnan hoped to attend a commemoration event in her home city \u2013 but couldn\u2019t find one. Instead, she went into Vancouver for a special naming ceremony, where Trutch Street was renamed Musqueam View Street.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Former] Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart spoke about being a settler himself, and about wanting to do more for reconciliation,\u201d she recalled. \u201cOn the City of Vancouver\u2019s website, they have a whole policy and framework for reconciliation, but the City of Richmond\u2019s website has nothing, and even their history starts with settlers in 1860. There\u2019s almost no mention of Musqueam except that they came to Richmond to work in the cannery!\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnan, a teacher at Spul\u2019u\u2019kwuks Elementary in Richmond for the past 10 years, initiated a petition with her co-worker, Katherine Myers, that she plans to present at a Richmond city council meeting on Nov. 21. The petition requests that Richmond city council adopt a truth and reconciliation policy that includes signage around historically significant places like the midden at Spul\u2019u\u2019kwuks Elementary, a commemorative event in the city for the annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and a policy on the city\u2019s website that shows what Richmond is doing.<\/p>\n

Last month, Magnan attended the all-candidates meeting in Steveston, where she asked Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie what he did on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. She said Brodie\u2019s response was that he had worked on his campaign.<\/p>\n

Magnan also reached out to Richmond city councilor Carol Day to ask why there was no land acknowledgment made prior to council meetings. Day responded that the city is in litigation with both the Cowichan and Musqueam First Nations and that, until it has been resolved, making the land declaration would compromise the city\u2019s legal position. Particularly with the litigation with the Cowichan tribe, Day wrote, \u201cit\u2019s very, very serious, affecting private land that regular people own, land owned by the Port of Vancouver and city-owned land. The court case is groundbreaking and, if the Cowichan win, it will set a precedent for the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Richmond School Board has been very proactive on truth and reconciliation, said Magnan, doing land acknowledgment and scheduling professional development days where educators learn about truth and reconciliation and pass that onto their students. \u201cOur kids are learning about this but not their parents,\u201d she noted. \u201cOne parent commented that there was so much negative being taught about the residential schools. \u2018Aren\u2019t there any positives?\u2019 the parent wondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for Indigenous voices to be heard, you have to know what they\u2019re going through. People need to be educated without having to go searching for it,\u201d Magnan said. \u201cOur goal for the petition is to encourage the City of Richmond to create a truth and reconciliation policy that\u2019s public, so we can see what\u2019s being done, or at least to show they\u2019re working towards it. We want to be proud of what Richmond\u2019s doing, not embarrassed that there\u2019s no ceremony on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To sign the petition, go to change.org\/t-r-policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/strong>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Richmond educator Alisa Magnan is petitioning Richmond city council to create, adopt and publish a truth and reconciliation policy. (photo from Alisa Magnan) On Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Richmond educator and Jewish community member Alisa Magnan hoped to attend a commemoration event in her home city \u2013 but couldn\u2019t find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21899,21901,5178,21900],"class_list":["post-39880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-alisa-magnan","tag-petition","tag-richmond","tag-truth-and-reconciliation"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}