TORONTO — The town of Deseronto, Ont., has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Protests, unresolved land claims, racial tension, violent demonstrations, police interventions.
Vic Roy
Sort of like Caledonia, Ont., only farther east.
Last weekend, about 25 people from both hot spots boarded a flight to Los Angeles to attend 2-1/2 days of lectures, tours and seminars designed to build bridges, foster relationships and be exposed to the unique brand of fostering better communities developed by Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC).
The group includes aboriginals and non-aboriginals, police, educators, representatives of the provincial government and community leaders. They hail from Stoney and Kettle Point Sarnia bands, the Tyndenaga-Deseronto area (about 30 kilometres west of Kingston) and from the Six Nations and Caledonia.
Their itinerary includes a visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance, where they will discuss the Holocaust and racism, followed by workshops to discuss ways of addressing racial hatred.
In Toronto, FSWC president and CEO Avi Benlolo had been approached by residents of Caledonia eager for help in finding a resolution to their conflict. Benlolo said he was resistant at first, because he didn’t want the Friends to get in the middle of a nasty political fight. But with increasing evidence of racial hatred, the FSWC decided it would do what it could to help those who wanted to restore some normalcy to the situation.
Wiesenthal Center facilitators will bring the participants together to help tackle these issues, including the ones that have proven so difficult in their local communities, Benlolo said.
The goal is to “foster stronger relationships and when they return to Ontario, to have better rapport and the ability to solve problems,” he added.
Vic Roy was enthusiastic about the trip, and the possibility it may give him the tools to tackle some difficult homegrown issues. As principal of Deseronto Public School, he’s been in the middle of a long-simmering dispute – both literally and figuratively.
The school, he said, educates 170 children, a quarter of whom are of aboriginal origin. Some of the tension in the community has been reflected inside the school, where he’s witnessed “real racist comments” directed at school staff.
What’s more, “the school is right in the middle of the disputed land,” Roy said.
“I’m in the middle of the divide in the community,” he added, noting that his students include children of OPP officers, as well as children of those manning the blockade.
Roy, who attended an orientation workshop at the FSWC’s Toronto headquarters last month, said he was impressed with Benlolo’s overarching theme of trying to make the world a better place. Deseronto is “a respect school,” where aboriginal culture is taught and where murals push the message of respect.
The Los Angeles experience “is an opportunity for dialogue and planning,” he added.
As a condition of the trip, Roy agreed to devise a year-long plan to develop a tolerance plan for the school.
“I would like to see us come back with more involved plan for kids to work together better and set an example to the community,” he said.
Sgt. Steve Flynn of the OPP’s aboriginal relations team is among those heading to Los Angeles. His supervisor was eager for police to participate in the FSWC’s Tools for Tolerance workshop, to develop the skills “to proactively engage different sides of an issue and resolve it peacefully.”
The Ipperwash incident (in which Native protester Dudley George was shot by police in 1995) and the dispute in Caledonia “give us the impetus to build relationships to be able to resolve conflicts peacefully,” Flynn said.
“I can hardly wait. Imagine the ideas they must have.”
