Why These N.B. Business Leaders Support Indigenous Communities’ Call For Inquiry Into Systemic Racism
This is part one of a two-part feature about business leaders who are supporting the call for a public inquiry into systemic racism in the justice system in New Brunswick.
Keith McIntosh, David Alston, Marcel LeBrun, and Andrea Feunekes are among New Brunswick business leaders supporting Indigenous communities’ call for a public inquiry into systemic racism in the justice system.
“It’s not just the Indigenous community calling for this, we are calling for it, too,” said LeBrun, the former CEO of Radian6 and a venture partner at Real Ventures.
Through the Gathering Circle, an initiative including business, community and Indigenous leaders started after Chantel Moore’s death, they sent a letter early last month asking for a meeting to discuss actions on systemic racism with Premier Blaine Higgs and Dunn but haven’t received a response.
The letter was also signed by Elsipogtog First Nation education director Ivan Augustine, UNB lecturer Dr. David Perley of Tobique First Nation, retired chief of the Fredericton Police Force Barry MacKnight, and UNB Lecturer Dr. Imelda Perley of St. Mary’s First Nation, among others.
Former UNB president Eddy Campbell, Grand Chief Ron Tremblay, Green Party Leader David Coon, Dialogue NB CEO Nadine Duguay-Lemay, and Chief Alan Polchies Jr. of St. Mary’s First Nation also supported the letter.
McIntosh is the founding CEO and President of PQA Testing/PLATO, which offers software testing and automation training, as well as part-time or full-time employment for the Indigenous workforce across Canada. He says it’s important for businesses to do their part in reconciliation.
“If they feel that they want to have that inquiry, then that’s their right to ask. And we, as allies, are supporting them,” he said.
Citing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, McIntosh says business leaders, like everyone else, have “profited off of the land” and therefore have an obligation to step up.
New Brunswick is located on the traditional unceded territories of the Mi’kmaq, Wolostoqiyik, and Passamaquoddy. Call to action number 92 specifically addresses the business community in Canada to take part in reconciliation.
“We have a voice and we can use that voice to make positive change,” he said. “Having Indigenous people in the economy and participating is good for everybody. Having them feel like an equal part of society is good for everybody.”
“I think more and more business people, in general, are starting to see that it’s not just about the bottom line, it’s not just about the next deal. It’s about being part of the community.”
Feunekes, president and CEO of Remsoft, said in a LinkedIn Post that creating economic prosperity in New Brunswick is something business leaders want. But, she adds, “ensuring equal opportunity for every New Brunswicker is critical to that economic success, and also that it is unachievable until we have explored and understand the role that racism, particularly that targeted at Indigenous communities, plays in our province.”
Similarly, Alston said in a LinkedIn post that while Higgs’ “pragmatic approach” has impressed him, including when it comes to the pandemic, it has “created blinders” when it comes to building a respectful relationship with First Nations communities. He encourages the premier to seek to understand First Nations’ history and build a relationship and conduct a public inquiry.
LeBrun said as an engineer and business person himself, he understands why the premier likes to get things done and he commends Higgs’ leadership through the pandemic. But said he’s “missing the point” when it comes to the inquiry.
He wants to see government leaders “invest in listening and invest in building relationships and building trust, which allows us to lead together to the solutions,” adding that he and other business leaders are happy to help facilitate the process in allyship with the First Nations.
“The unfortunate reality is that because of the systems, we have privileges and powers that our Indigenous leaders don’t yet have that they should,” said LeBrun. “The privilege I have, I have to use it for good.”
Dr. Imelda Perley has been facilitating meetings and discussions through the Gathering Circle, which she established alongside McIntosh. She says it’s crucial that business leaders continue to vocalize their support.
“They contribute to society as business leaders. They are employers. They need to have that understanding of Indigenous cultures,” she said. “I’ve been emotional at every single meeting that we had just to hear the support we’re getting from these business leaders. And for them, if they’re going to be CEOs of their own companies, then what an example they’re setting for their employees.”
She says governments change all the time, but real change happens at the grassroots level. New Brunswickers, including entrepreneurs, can participate by taking part in trainings like the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, being more inclusive in their hiring, and being more vocal in raising awareness about issues that affect Indigenous communities.
She said it’s important too that as New Brunswick students learn about the world, they also learn about the territory of the First Nations that were here before colonization.
Calls For A Public Inquiry
First Nations communities in New Brunswick have been calling for the public inquiry for some time. The calls intensified last June when Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi were fatally shot by police.
Moore, 26, originally from Tla-o-ui-aht First Nation in B.C., was shot by an officer with the Edmundston Police Department who was called to do a wellness check on her. Levi, 48, of Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation near Miramichi, was shot eight days after Moore’s death.
Former Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Jake Stewart supported the call and said the province has a problem with systemic racism. But last month, his successor Arlene Dunn watered down a motion calling for the inquiry by taking out any references to it.
That led New Brunswick’s First Nations chiefs to call for her resignation. Chief Ross Perley of Tobique First Nation, Chief Rebecca Knockwood of Fort Folly First Nation, and Regional Vice-Chief Roger Augustine left the All Nation and All Party Working Group on Reconciliation because the group appeared to be a “political smokescreen,” Chief Perley said.
The Gathering Circle shared their letter to the public a day after Higgs’ interview with the CBC, in which the Premier touched on the inquiry. He said he wants to help Indigenous communities improve economically, and that there needs to be an open and honest discussion about why there hasn’t been an improvement over the years.
He said he’s focused on making better decisions for the future, but he’s not taking into consideration colonization, discrimination and historical injustices, saying he’s not an authority on history. McIntosh, Perley and LeBrun say that’s where Higgs went wrong.
They say it’s impossible to make better decisions for the future without understanding how a history of broken promises, systemic marginalization, colonization, and injustices erected socio-economic barriers that still exist today. The starting point of a better future is listening, building trust, and including Indigenous peoples in the decisions that affect them, but Higgs is not doing that, they say.
“[The comments were] completely disrespectful to the pain and what caused people to get here,” and conducting the inquiry will show “good faith,” McIntosh said.
Perley said it shows that the Premier doesn’t understand the “two-row Wampum Belt relationship” of peace and friendship between Indigenous people and settlers.
“I want him to listen more. I want him to come and do ceremony with us more, because I have invited him to do pipe ceremony, and we’ve yet to do that,” she said.
Higgs also supported a plan by Dunn to hold cultural sensitivity training sessions on Indigenous cultures for MLAs. But Perley conducted many of those pieces of training for government departments in the last 30 years. She said one-day or half-day training sessions are not enough to understand thousands of years of culture and history.
“It needs ongoing [effort],” she said, adding the knowledge must then be passed down “seven generations.”
“I always feel that what’s always missing cultural awareness sessions is humility. Be humble enough as a non-Indigenous person to admit you don’t know enough about the First Nations people in our territory,” she said. “Then you go into cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural competency, and ultimately, cultural safety.”
PART TWO: Why These N.B. Business Leaders Are Learning About The Racism Faced By Indigenous People
Inda Intiar is a reporter for Huddle. Send her story suggestions: [email protected]