Winnipeg racism summit offers hard talk on 'journey that never ends': mayor

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says this week's summit on racism will ignite a difficult but necessary conversation, but some in the city feel they're being excluded from the dialogue.

"We're hosting it in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The Tower of Hope, which is at the very top of the museum, is unfinished for a reason — because it's a journey that never ends," he said Thursday.

"The entire topic is a difficult discussion, and I've been enjoying the coverage and the discussions that you've been sharing with Winnipeggers," Bowman told host Marcy Markusa.

"I think it's really important [for] our journey forward together as a community [to have] the types of discussions CBC Manitoba's been facilitating."

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Bowman organized One: The Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion, which starts Thursday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, as a response to Maclean's magazine calling Winnipeg the most racist city in Canada.

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Bowman's summit has been criticized for not being inclusive enough because there is a fee to attend and because it favours higher-profile guests, including author Joseph Boyden and Rev. Gerald Durley, over local community activists and organizers.

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That prompted some activists to organize their own summit on Thursday evening, which Bowman applauds.

"We shouldn't be afraid to have those discussions in multiple forms, and no single summit or conference or individual or group of people have a monopoly on good ideas," he said. "It's through listening and engagement that we're actually going to move forward together.

"We're not going to end racism through one summit or even over the coming months or years, but we want to do our best to be counted as a community for trying to tackle it because the cost of not trying — in jobs, in the economy, in human spirit — is immense.

"So we've agreed to step up as a community and I'm very proud and honoured with the response, the overwhelming response we've had to the summit."

Métis federation feels excluded

Among those who feel they aren't included in Bowman's summit is the Manitoba Métis Federation, which issued a news release criticizing the mayor hours before the summit is set to begin.

"The Manitoba Métis are the largest indigenous group in Winnipeg, the province of Manitoba and arguably the country of Canada. How can racism be addressed when those who are impacted the greatest are not invited to be a part of the conversation and the solution?" MMF president David Chartrand stated in the release.

"This is just another example of racism by exclusion despite the event being heralded as a national summit on racial inclusion."

Chartrand said while he is encouraged to see indigenous youth tackling the issue of racism through the Our Summit alternative meeting, he is disappointed that Bowman "seems to have forgotten the people he represents."

But in an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Bowman said everybody has been invited to register for the summit and attend it.

"All voices matter, differences of opinions need to be heard for everyone to move forward together," the city spokesperson said.

As for his summit being exclusive due to cost, Bowman noted that Thursday's session is free and many of the sessions will be livestreamed on the summit's website.

"There is a modest cost for [Friday] but for those that couldn't attend, there are tickets that will be freely available," he said.