The Peterborough Public Mood as of June 2020

8/8/2020

Rosemary Ganley
The Peterborough Examiner
June 11, 2020

How ARE you?

Are you, as I am, torn between sorrow and worry about America, and euphoria, when we see folks in Minneapolis clean up the streets, or a police chief take his hat off respectfully when speaking live with the bereaved family of George Floyd.

I watch with pain a video of African-American parents giving lessons on self-protection to their children: “Be careful that your hands can be seen at all times. Say “My name is … and I have nothing to hurt you.”
But that didn’t seem to help George Floyd. Submission can be fatal too.

What on earth is society to do with racist, rogue police? Swift action from police leaders and politicians, and from union leadership, I think. Public support for proper recruitment, testing and discipline.

Are we also ready to confront Canadian racism and prejudice? Here in Peterborough, an impressive, well-organized (with masks, distancing and sanitizer), Black Lives Matter rally took place at Millennium Park and on the main streets on June 2. The crowd was nearly 1,000.

Best of all, the speakers were all from the black community; the mood was respectful, and the crowd was almost entirely young. Peggy and Richard Abbott, Sheila Howlett and I felt like the token elders. Great feeling.

The Examiner featured a picture of our police leadership taking a knee. I walked over to thank Chief Scott Gilbert and Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson.
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