The City of Calgary’s Anti-Racism Program is gathering recommendations to address and remove systemic racism for Indigenous, Black, and diverse Racialized communities in Calgary.

The focus is on public safety, making sure that all who live, work, and visit Calgary feel safe.

Public safety can be understood as where each resident, especially Indigenous, Black and Racialized communities are free from harassment, discrimination, hate, harm and systemic discrimination. It means that people are able to fully take part in community life, use public spaces and city services and receive fair, equitable and dignified treatment from enforcement. City services are accountable, bias free , culturally responsive and racially equitable

Unfortunately, not all Calgarians treat each other with respect. Hateful behaviour and speech continue to negatively impact the lives of many Calgarians, especially Indigenous, Black, and Racialized Calgarians. We need to understand the root causes of hate in public spaces and work together to identify ways to make public spaces hate-free for all Calgarians. Therefore the goal of this work is to identify and gather suggestions on creating an equitable, hate-free city.

Equity is not about equality or adapting existing ways things are done. Equity is about liberation, transforming how things work, and stopping the things that reinforce and keep racism alive. It requires transforming the systems and practices. To do this, equity has to:

• be defined by those most harmed by systems and actions of oppression
• be fundamentally about building power, capacity, and leadership to reverse structural and institutional racism
• recognize people are made up of many overlapping identities such as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, and ethnicity
• be a human right, providing opportunities and creating positive outcomes for everyone