A City for All: Achieving More Inclusive Municipal Governance in Toronto

Over the last several months, Toronto’s fissures and inequalities have been put on display. Protests against police brutality and anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism have once again highlighted the systemic racism that undergirds many of the city’s key institutions, all while COVID-19 has disproportionately affected areas of the city with large racialized and newcomer populations.

These events have sparked many important conversations about policy gaps, such as the need for more race-based data, and policy solutions, such as calls to defund the police. They have also underlined what Brittany Andrew-Amofah, Alexandra Flynn, and Patricia Wood have called “the democratic deficits in local decision-making” – the fact that, too often, those most affected by policy changes, most dependent on public services, or most vulnerable to abuse and racism, are those least heard when decisions get made.

What changes need to be made to ensure all Torontonians are meaningfully engaged in the City’s decision making? How can the voices of racialized, newcomer, and Indigenous residents be firmly integrated into the City’s governance structures? In this video, a group of experts explore these questions and examine how Toronto can begin to address its divisions and build toward a more inclusive future.