The Plante administration again rejected, on Monday, the request for an independent investigation into racism at the City of Montreal made by the official opposition at city hall.
The mayoress’s troops refused to hear the request of Ensemble Montreal for an emergency debate on the question, at the city council, in the wake of revelations from Le Devoir about the prevalence of racist incidents in the City.
“For me, the time is no longer for documentation, it is for action,” explained Mayor Plante a few minutes earlier. “And that’s what we’re trying to do. […] The population told us: “we want gestures”. That’s exactly what we do. »
Ms. Plante was responding to official opposition leader Aref Salem, who reiterated his request to entrust an external investigator with the mandate to shed light on racial discrimination against city employees. “This is a question that affects us. There are people who have been assaulted,” Salem said. “There are humans behind this. »
“An independent external investigation is necessary in order to process all denunciations in an expedited manner and thus help restore the confidence of employees who have suffered discrimination”, mentioned the proposed emergency motion tabled by the opposition.