Hamilton elections campaign begins with forecourt furore
Published May 2, 2022 at 9:48 pm
On the first day of the municipal election campaign in Hamilton, city staff did not let three racialized candidates hold kickoff announcements in the forecourt of city hall.
Mayoralty candidate Keanin Loomis said he was told he could hold his announcement event in the public square between the building entrance and Main Street. He moved it in an apparent show of allyship with Ward 14 council candidate Kojo Damptey, executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), and public school board trustee hopefuls Sabreina Dahab and Ahona Mehdi. Dahab and Mehdi, who are the co-founders of Hamilton Students for Justice (HS4J), are respectively running for the Ward 2 and Wards 8/14 seats on the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
The City of Hamilton stated that “candidates are only permitted to use City facilities or property for campaigning events if the property is rented in accordance with approved corporate policies and procedures.” But the city’s events location pages says there is no rental fee for using the forecourt within regular hours.
‘The only place we could move to was the sidewalk’
Damptey, Dahab and Mehdi moved candidate announcments to the sidewalk of Main Street. That left them and their supporters standing mere metres away from fast-moving one-way car traffic, as several social media users pointed out.
“Kojo submitted his candidate papers and the City Clerk (Andrea Holland) told us the rules around use of facilities and gave us a document outlining this,” Sherly Kyorkis, communications director of Kojo For Ward 14, told inTheHammer. “We wanted to make sure the rules as presented to us were followed. We were told that we could not use the City Hall Forecourt and facilities unless they were rented out, and so the only place we could move to was the sidewalk.”
The campaign launch at City Hall has moved onto the sidewalk because the city doesn't want us here on the forecourt.
I could tweet for years and not come up with a better depiction of what is wrong with democracy in #Hamont. pic.twitter.com/mMw0wnCMLx— Jason Allen (@Janoallen) May 2, 2022
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Coincidentally enough, on Monday the current councillors on the public works committee discussed improving pedestrian and driver safety in Hamilton. Ward 8 Coun. John-Paul Danko, who represents the area that borders the ward where Damptey is challenging for council, introduced a motion to address the high number of pedestrian deaths in the city. Councillors also approved a Danko motion to add speed cushions in his Mountain ward.
Loomis, the erstwhile Hamilton chamber of commerce CEO who announced his plans to run for mayor on Jan. 19, made his official announcement a few hours later. He opted to hold it on the Bay Street side of City Hall.
Loomis also told a Hamilton radio station that he was never told he could not use the forecourt.
Doesn't jibe with what @keaninloomis told @ScottTalking today which is that he was allowed to use the forecourt without a permit, but decided not to, in support of other candidates.
— David Woodard (@davewoodardnews) May 2, 2022
The city’s entire eight-page document on use of city resources by political candidates and third-party actors is available at hamilton.ca.
Current Mayor Fred Eisenberger has not announced whether is seeking a third consecutive term, and fourth overall. Former mayor and former member of Parliament Bob Bratina said on March 28 that he will run for mayor.
Damptey, Dahab and Mehdi are each well-known community organizers and social justice activists in Hamilton. Through his work with HCCI, Damptey has been part of the Just Recovery Coalition that outlined some 150 recommdnations for shaping inculsion and the economy of a post-pandemic Hamilton. The HCCI also worked with Hamilton Public Health to create community-focused walk-in COVID-19 vaccine clinics, where nearly 10,000 residents received at least one dose.
“I am running to represent all residents of Ward 14 to create a Hamilton that looks out for every resident regardless of geography, gender, sexuality, income, status, or age,” Damptey stated on Monday.
Longtime Coun. Terry Whitehead represents Ward 14. His first 15 years around the horseshoe came as the Ward 8 councillor before a boundary revision before the 2018 elections. That boundary revision resulted in a court case that the city lost.
City council has had only two members who are racialized, and both have represented the same ward. Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann became the first woman of colour elected in 2018. Nann replaced Matthew Green, the city’s first Black councillor. Green is now in his second term as Hamilton Centre’s member of Parliament.
Activists push for school board seats
The trustee bid by Mehdi in wards 8 and 14 means she could be running against HWDSB Vice-Chair Becky Buck — one of the four trustees found to have contributed to anti-Black racism against Mehdi two years ago. Mehdi was a student trustee in 2019-20.
Mehdi emphasized Monday that her “candidacy is a direct result of her ongoing advocacy work to ensure accountability, transparency and success for students and caregivers at the HWDSB.” It also noted that the 19-year-old’s most recent initiatives include organizing with HS4J) co-authoring and co-leading a report with HCCI entitled “Community Safety and Well-Being Action Plan for Black Youth in Hamilton Schools.” She also worked at the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, which was founded by local activist Sarah Jama.
The racism findings were confirmed by Toronto law firm Koskie Minsky in an investigation whose findings were released in early 2021. Its investigation, among other findings, confirmed that racist comments were made by three trustees during a June 22, 2020 meeting about the cancellation of a police liasion program in HWDSB. The meeting took place just a few weeks after the police killing of George Floyd.
Buck became vice-chair late last fall, and her resignation was demanded by activists last December. She has publicly acknowledged making a comment on June 22, 2020 that is officially attributed to an anonymized Trustee 2, but claimed it was not racist. She has also said that she has completed anti-racism training.
The reason why the trustees — Buck, Cathy Archer, Alex Johnstone and Carole Paikin Miller — were anonymized in the public copy of the Koskie Minsky report was also controversial. Johnstone was the only one to recuse herself from an HWDSB vote on how to receive it. The other three created the decisive margin in a 6-4 vote to redact names.
The saga led to HWDSB creating an equity action plan.
Dahab, a 23-year-old recent McMaster University graduate, contributed to the equity advisory committee that helped develop that plan at HWDSB. She is running for a new seat in Ward 2, which the board has decided will have its own seat. In the last term, wards 1 and 2 were combined, but a change was made to recognize community needs in the lower city.
“Time is lost when we simply talk about what is going to be done, instead of changing the material impacts on the students who continue to deserve better from their school board, administrators and trustees,” Dahab stated on Monday.
Municipal and school board elections take place in 175 days, on Oct. 24.
(Cover photo via Twitter/@chriserl)
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