Featured Guest
You’ll find this guest among our growing roll of Urban Champions.
Thierry Lindor
Co-founder, Happly.Ai
Patrick Brown
Mayor of Brampton
Kate Graham
Senior Advisor, Colliers Project Leaders
Janice Abbott
CEO, Atira Women’s Resource Society
5 Key
Takeaways
A roundup of the most compelling ideas, themes and quotes from this candid conversation
1. Confronting the ‘cloak of secrecy’ within essential workplaces
Transparency is critical, according to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown. In Brampton, major essential sectors like food processing and transportation logistics have been busier than pre-pandemic—hiring additional staff and adding additional shifts with increased demand from consumers. But too often, employers are cutting corners. Says Mayor Brown, “The privilege of operating during a lockdown must come with a greater level of scrutiny.” Employees are sacrificing their health, and we have to in turn have to ensure that regulations and enforcement is in place to guarantee that employers are doing everything possible to keep their workers safe.
2. Place-based solutions for place-based problems
Thierry Lindor, founder of Colors of COVID—a website tracking the experiences of BIPOC communities’ experiences during the pandemic—reports that 71% of respondents in a recent survey said they would not be ready to take the vaccine if it were offered to them tomorrow. He points to a lack of trust in authority, based on histories of systemic discrimination and broken trust between Indigenous and racialized populations, and the institutions meant to protect them. The solution, he proposes, is to work block by block, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, connecting to and working through people directly on the ground.
3. You can’t tackle what you don’t measure
According to CUI’s Kate Graham, better data leads to better knowledge, information, and outcomes. And that data needs to cover the range of challenges that people are facing during the pandemic. While the majority of Canadians will not contract the disease, the impacts of COVID across the population continue to be deeply felt—from job losses and precarity at work, to mental health impacts and the impact on children with virtual learning. Data needs to be collected at as granular a level as possible, at the city, neighbourhood, workplace, and population levels, and also with an eye to intersectionality, to understand how particular equity-seeking groups are impacted. Agrees Thierry Lindor, “You can’t tackle what you don’t measure.”
4. Balancing transparency with further stigmatization
Janice Abbott, CEO of the Atira Women’s Society in Vancouver and Surrey, describes the challenges of making hyper-local data about COVID infections and deaths more transparent to the public. Drawing from her experience working in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, she talks about pre-existing stigmas facing vulnerable populations, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
5. An honest conversation about racism and COVID
Says Thierry Lindor, COVID doesn’t see race, but it does see poverty—and poverty is more likely to impact vulnerable groups, including women, racialized, and Indigenous communities. He cites a recent report on neighbourhoods across Montreal showing a direct correlation between price per square foot in real estate, and the number of COVID cases. “Our understanding of the pandemic has to do with fighting another pandemic called racism. We need an honest conversation if we don’t want to go through a third wave and potentially even more waves after that.”
Additional Resources
Full Panel
Transcript
Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software. Manual editing was undertaken in an effort to improve readability and clarity. Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to events@canurb.org with “transcription” in the subject line.
Full Audience
Chatroom Transcript
Note to reader: Chat comments have been edited for ease of readability. The text has not been edited for spelling or grammar. For questions or concerns, please contact events@canurb.org with “Chat Comments” in the subject lin
From Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://canurb.org/citytalk
12:59:58 From Christina Sisson : Happy New Year!!
13:00:37 From Laurel Anne Snyder : Hello from Stratford, ON. And yes, Happy 2021 to everyone 🙂
13:01:05 From Catherine Hendrick to All panelists : Hello from Milton!
13:01:13 From Craig Gurney to All panelists : Happy Burns’ Night and Happy St Dwynen’s (Welsh Valentine’s Day) too!
13:01:19 From Catherine Soplet : Hello from Mississauga !
13:01:53 From Anne Basque to All panelists : Hello from Downtown Moncton Centre-ville in NB
13:02:08 From Fernando Cirino : Good Afternoon!
13:02:19 From Eunan Quinn to All panelists : Happy New Year from Donegal, Ireland – Athbhlain faoi mhaise daoibh….. 🙂
13:02:48 From Canadian Urban Institute : Welcome! Folks, please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
13:03:06 From Canadian Urban Institute : Attendees: where are you tuning in from today?
13:03:14 From Cameron Watts : Slàinte Mhath
13:03:20 From Craig Gurney to All panelists : Tuning in from Caerphilly, in Wales but working (on social harm and housing) at University of Glasgow, UK. Transmission rates still very high here and lockdown firm
13:03:37 From James Anderson to All panelists : Downtown Vancouver
13:03:46 From Craig Gurney : Tuning in from Caerphilly, in Wales but working (on social harm and housing) at University of Glasgow, UK. Transmission rates still very high here and lockdown firm
13:04:02 From Craig Gurney : Happy Burns’ Night and Happy St Dwynen’s (Welsh Valentine’s Day) too!
13:04:25 From Kendall Christiansen to All panelists : happyhappy from the newly liberated U.S. (Brooklyn, in particular)
13:04:35 From Elayna Paulk to All panelists : Tuning in from Miami, Florida. Looking forward to the conversation
13:04:45 From Elayna Paulk : Tuning in from Miami, Florida. Looking forward to the conversation
13:05:04 From Julie Bourgoin to All panelists : Howdy from Saint-Lambert, Quebec!
13:05:15 From Sheila Simpson to All panelists : Coming in from London, ON
13:05:29 From Andrew Martschenko : Sunny Toronto!
13:05:31 From Fernando Cirino : Greetings from Windsor
13:05:35 From Kayly Robbins to All panelists : Hello from Barrie!
13:05:40 From Dennis Van Staalduinen : Ottawa. The Wellington West Business Improvement Area.
13:05:42 From Donna Dolan : Hi from west end of Toronto
13:05:43 From Gavin Blondeau to All panelists : Here from Saskatoon, SK
13:05:50 From Gay Stephenson to All panelists : Greetings from downtown Vancouver!
13:06:00 From paul mackinnon : Hi from Halifax!
13:06:10 From cam guthrie to All panelists : Happy to listen in from City of Guelph!
13:06:34 From Craig Gurney : Waves back
13:06:39 From Canadian Urban Institute :
Kate Graham, Senior Fellow, Municipal Leadership, CUI @KateMarieGraham
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-graham-9308b526/
Thierry Lindor, Founder, The Colors of Covid
@ColorsCovid
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierry-lindor-9400b861/
https://thecolorsofcovid.com/
Mayor Patrick Brown, Mayor of Brampton
@patrickbrownont
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-brown-12b800198/
Janice Abbott, CEO, Atira Women’s Resource Society @FreeOfViolence
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janice-abbott-07115/
13:07:40 From Canadian Urban Institute : Check out our reports here: https://covidsignpost.ca/
13:11:42 From April Sora : Greetings from Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Metis, Saskatoon. It’s -33 which adds a whole different layer to equity and access to services, homelessness and housing in a time of COVID in our Cities.
13:13:44 From paul mackinnon : Halifax has a large % of government workers, most of whom are still working remotely. We continue to advocate for gov’t to mandate workers to return to the office (safely) as a free measure gov’t can take to stem the closures. Is anyone else seeing gov’t workers return and is it making a difference?
13:14:01 From ruth mora to All panelists : People that cant work from home are at a higher risk, no matter what colour
13:14:11 From paul mackinnon : https://www.iheartradio.ca/max-104-9/ctv-news-atlantic/downtown-halifax-businesses-hoping-workers-return-to-offices-soon-1.14417926
13:14:30 From ruth mora to All panelists : It’s a very sad example, so young
13:21:15 From Gay Stephenson : On that point, Vancouver Coastal Health is sharing the names of companies with bigger outbreaks on Instagram (I believe when they aren’t able to contract trace everyone) https://www.instagram.com/vchhealthcare/
13:22:15 From paul mackinnon : All municipalities are experiencing fiscal constraints. Any advice on where they need to be targeting their investments?
13:22:31 From Sylvia Roberts : how do we hold Cities like Brampton accountable for not dealing with dire overcrowding? Brampton has a dozen or more people living per rooming house, and there are hundreds of these, where people can’t isolate, and have to go in even if they are sick, so they can keep a roof over their head (they are temp workers, so even if paid sick days happened, it wouldn’t apply to them)
13:24:36 From Sylvia Roberts : if buses are so crowded in Brampton (and they are), why wasn’t Mayor Brown pushing for more service?
13:26:33 From ruth mora to All panelists : Can you share Thierry’s link…to see the researchand the numbers he is referring to
13:27:11 From ruth mora to All panelists : education ( or lack of) is also a barrier
13:27:27 From Canadian Urban Institute : For more information: https://thecolorsofcovid.com/
13:28:06 From ruth mora to All panelists : thank you
13:30:38 From Mayor Patrick Brown to Sylvia Roberts and all panelists : Eight replacement buses to maintain fleet reliability; 40 new transit shelters; $175M towards third transit maintenance and storage facility to meet future growth
13:31:14 From Mayor Patrick Brown to Sylvia Roberts and all panelists : we are investing and running transit at full capacity. physical distancing and masking has had some slight modifications
13:36:58 From Dennis Van Staalduinen : Ottawa Public Health releases a ward-by-ward snapshot of COVID incidence every two weeks. https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiY2JlOWU2MTQtYzE4Zi00ZTk4LTkxOTktMjdiZDFkZWViYmVhIiwidCI6ImRmY2MwMzNkLWRmODctNGM2ZS1hMWI4LThlYWE3M2YxYjcyZSJ9
13:38:10 From Lise Bendrodt to All panelists : from Vancouver- thanks for all you do Janice
13:38:34 From Chloe Carducci to All panelists : Question for any panelist to answer: what lessons can we learn from other countries who were able to get their COVID-19 cases quickly, even within their marginalized populations (ex. New Zealand, Iceland, etc.) ?
13:38:59 From Chloe Carducci to All panelists : **lower their COVID-19 cases
13:40:03 From Catherine Soplet : YES !! to PAID SICK DAYS, isolations centre and more testing. Way better investment of public dollars, way more compassionate policy approach, and can mitigate trauma impacts going forward.
13:42:02 From Marisa Creatore to All panelists : Depends on whether you have kids (who have school exposures) and where you work (eg. LTC vs. office)
13:42:20 From Gavin Blondeau : I think the question here is how does covid come into the home
13:42:25 From ruth mora : Trust in the vaccine/ vaccination also come with more information about how safe it is. Also, assurance that the 2 dosis will come…reassurance that the ones used here , have little secondary effect, etc..And most of that is an education campaign, a care campaign at all levels
13:42:43 From Marisa Creatore to All panelists : Short answer Mary is “no”
13:43:13 From ruth mora : of course because they have to travel…everyday
13:43:16 From Canadian Urban Institute : Reminding attendees to please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
13:44:00 From Catherine Hendrick to All panelists : Our essential workers are forced to continue working while their salaries do not cover adequate housing. Our most vulnerable are the ones who are still being suppressed.
13:44:06 From Eunan Quinn : Happy New Year from Donegal, Ireland – Athbhlain faoi mhaise daoibh….. 🙂
13:44:15 From Craig Gurney : Reports published by AHURI in Australia and CaCHE in UK in the last few weeks have demonstrated that during the last 300 days poor housing has amplified pre-existing social gradients in health and that these are experienced at home – thus mental health crises, exposure to intimate partner violence coercive control show marked social patterns – any similar data in Canada or thoughts on this?
13:44:55 From Eunan Quinn : The lack of locally relevant ddata
13:45:32 From Fahim Khan to All panelists : (1) What do you think municipal, provincial and federal governments do to support local businesses in the long term? They continued to face challenges even before the pandemic. Hence we need long term planning and solutions. Otherwise we will be left with large big box stores and corporations that will have complete monopoly. (2) How can we alleviate health care inequity? Although we think our healthcare is universal, it’s actually not. There is still so much inequity particularly when it comes to regular public health issues, dental and eye care and many more.
13:45:57 From Eunan Quinn : …the lack of locally relevant data remains a problem that has and will continue to result in poor decisions.
13:46:07 From C Kagan : and he likely travels on public transit because he can’t afford a car. public transit is a very large part of the problem, in specific areas of each city. I keep hearing about this in a toronto re. the E and W. ends.
13:47:56 From Kendall Christiansen : happyhappy from the newly liberated U.S. (Brooklyn, in particular)
13:48:50 From Catherine Soplet : Thanks Thierry for your passion – very difficult and shameful story about Marcel
13:52:01 From Thierry Lindor : It truly is. We know there’s hundreds of them in Canada. He became a hero in Quebec during the 1st wave. Heart goes out to all the “Marcellin François” across Canada.
13:54:41 From Diane Dyson : I would love to see Public Health interventions specifically prioritized to target to neighbourhoods that have higher portions of the working poor and to those where people live in overcrowded (measured by residents per bedroom vs. high density) spaces. These measurements re important and I am seeing places ignored by the use of broader measurements.
13:56:16 From Jimmy Johnson to All panelists : happy new everybody
13:56:30 From Cheryl Cohen : And, in Toronto, closing access to ALL public washroom!
13:57:09 From Sylvia Roberts to All panelists : Mayor Brown, none of that helps the worker who has to get to work at the Amazon warehouses. 8 replacement buses, is this a joke? that’s like saying Brampton should be happy because it got Brampton Civic Hospital
13:57:09 From Canadian Urban Institute : You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our sessions at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk
Keep the conversation going #citytalk @canurb
To support CityTalk and the Canadian Urban Institute’s other city building initiatives, please donate at www.canurb.org/donate.
What did you think of today’s conversation? Help us improve our programming with a short post-webinar survey – https://bit.ly/39gr9tl
13:57:15 From paul mackinnon : Great session. Thanks.
13:57:22 From Catherine Soplet : Why poverty … forever the question, forever the human condition
13:57:39 From Julie Bourgoin to All panelists : excellent questions!! Great job CUI!!
13:57:46 From Michael Roschlau : There are very few if any documented cases of COVID transmission on public transit. There are individuals (both transit passengers and employees) who have tested positive but to my knowledge no confirmed traces back to transmission on a bus or train.
13:58:13 From Michael Roschlau : That’s why wearing masks is so critical.
13:58:14 From Janice Abbott to All panelists : People who can move to less risky/less populated areas will and who will be left in the cities will be people who are made poor.
13:58:49 From Catherine Soplet : Peel Poverty Reduction Strategy 2021 Priorities – https://bit.ly/PPRSC_2021-Set-Priorities-Meeting_2020-11-27
13:59:00 From Catherine Soplet : get rid of anti-Black racism
13:59:42 From Olusola Olufemi to All panelists : Poverty and Accessibility continue to be constraints to achieving the optimal for the less privileged in our communities.
14:00:27 From Thierry Lindor : YASSS @Catherine Soplet
14:00:35 From Emily R : Brilliant conversation! Thank you all.
14:00:36 From Dennis Van Staalduinen : Amen Mary.
14:00:40 From cam guthrie to All panelists : appreciate the discussion today! thanks so much!
14:00:40 From Diane Dyson : Bravo all. This is so important with the likelihood of a third wave.
14:00:41 From Julie Bourgoin to All panelists : SAfety measures on public transportation are effective, as mentioned earlier in the chat.
14:00:43 From Laurel Anne Snyder : thank you.
14:00:49 From Cheryl Cohen : Important conversation. Thank you!
14:00:56 From Thierry Lindor : THANK YOU ALL!
14:00:57 From Dennis Van Staalduinen : Thank you all!
14:00:58 From Thierry Lindor : Take the survey
14:00:59 From Lise Bendrodt : Thank you
14:00:59 From Eunan Quinn : Many thanks everyone.
14:00:59 From Desiree Geib to All panelists : thank you so much for the great discussion!
