Anti-Racism Strategy

After nearly three and half months, the Anti-Racism Strategy has chosen a logo. The slogan is “Strengthening Relationships.”

“It was a real challenge to come up with a design to reflect the strategy,” said coordinator , Debbie Dedam-Montour. “We did not want it to be Mi’gmaq specific, since we are reaching out to neighbouring communities in Quebec and New Brunswick, and they need to identify with the logo too.”

The goal is to reduce acts of racism by 2020.

With only about half a year on the job, Dedam-Montour has been researching, and developing            resources and strategies. She’s creating workshops and presentations, and ways of appropriately scaling them to different demographics.

“The objective of this strategy is to build better relationships,” Montour-Dedam said. “So anything that’s going to create conflict – we want to move away from that.”

She recently held a session on being assertive when encountering racism. She said there are three ways a person can react.

They can say nothing. But Research suggests internalizing and carrying negativity can have detrimental effects, even on physical health, Montour-Dedam said.

Those encountering racism can also engage aggressively. This can often lead to conflict, which is counterproductive to changing someone’s negative opinion.

People can also address racism in positive ways. Many people have no idea some things they say are racist. 

“You don’t say – ‘you’re a racist.’ You can say – ‘your           comment was racist.’”