Posted by Open Letter to Dr. Gfeller.
Is the MUHC afraid to confront its own history? The question arises. In July, a representative of senior management proudly announced that the MUHC would be examining its conscience in the wake of the Black Lives Matter.
The MUHC told us that it wanted to identify if there were any cases of systemic discrimination in the institution, despite the official policies, which, as they should, are all free of discrimination.
The MUHC invited the unions to meet with the Board of Directors who would sit to hear them.
Our union immediately expressed a great deal of interest and we stressed that we wanted to have members come forward to testify to expose real cases of systemic racial discrimination.
Our response cast a chill and seems to have set the MUHC Administration back.
The MUHC’s response would have been almost comical had it not been for the seriousness of the subject. To our offer of direct testimony, we were told that “the format did not allow for testimonials“.
We insisted that a true examination of conscience requires the recognition and, above all, the correction of Injustice.
Curiously, management seemed to have guessed which cases of systemic discrimination the union was referring to. For an organization that has impeccable policies on paper, it is strange that management can instantly guess which cases of discrimination the union wants to talk about.
Since then, we have had a very general and predictable web presentation. No testimonials. We were promised to be heard by the Board of Directors, in a public session, but that is no longer the case. We are now told that there will be a small committee in charge of hearing the CSN union and we are advised in advance that this will not lead to any review of any past injustice.
So we ask ourselves the question. Does the MUHC really want to change or simply polish its image and keep the same systemic racism buried in its bowels, hidden behind official policies?
Our CSN union intends to continue its work to eradicate systemic racism. We invite all members to contact us to share their experiences.