Amid a growing rift at Regina City Hall, a group of community organizers have released a letter condemning Mayor Sandra Masters’ response to a lawsuit last year that she described as “tinged with sexism.”
The signatures include more than 100 women and non-binary people who say they are standing up to Masters’ opposition to a lawsuit attempting to force the city to include a motion to end homelessness in its proposed budget for record in 2023.
“If you’re homeless and a woman, you’re more vulnerable to being attacked and attacked and you’re not going to get the credibility you have because of a lot of other issues. So this is a feminist issue,” she told Mirtha Rivera, board member at Carmichael Outreach.
READ | Letter to Mayor Sandra Masters
On Friday, Rivera was among the five signers of the letters who gathered at City Hall to deliver the letter to Master’s office.
While they were turned away at the town hall reception, the letter was released to the public.
The City of Regina has not responded to the letter as of the time of publication.
end homelessness
On June 15, 2022, the council unanimously passed a motion directing the city government to include “full operational funding to solve city-wide homelessness” through a Housing First model as a separate line item in the proposed budget, according to the published on Minutes of the meeting on the city’s website.
But when the preliminary budget was released, there was no administration recommendation that the city should proceed with the application.
In response, Ward 3 Count. Andrew Stevens and concerned resident Florence Stratton filed a lawsuit against City Manager Niki Anderson to force her office to take up the recommendation.
The couple was represented by Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc, who is also an attorney.
Masters promptly denounced the lawsuit.
“If you ask me personally, I find it disgusting, I think that the first female city manager has sexist tones in it [the lawsuit]’ Masters said during a post-council scrum on Nov. 23, 2022.
The lawsuit would ultimately fail and the council would not vote to include funds to end homelessness in the final budget – despite presentations from more than 50 people urging them to act.
Friday’s letter was just the latest in a series of responses to the lawsuit, which included the council’s removal of LeBlanc from a board position and Anderson’s public allegations of bullying and harassment.
“Ending homelessness is feminist”
The letter is signed by residents of the community as well as members or representatives of many organizations dedicated to ending homelessness in Regina, including the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, Carmichael Outreach and the Regina & District Labor Council.
“It is not sexist to expect our elected officials to remain accountable for their obligations,” the letter said.
“Ending homelessness is feminist.”
This opinion was also shared by those who were at City Hall on Friday.
The group said the letter was prepared and signed by the grassroots organization and is intended to serve as a message that there are many women and non-binary people behind LeBlanc and Stevens.
“The point here is to ensure elected officials remain accountable for their commitments, but also just to show that behind councilors who stand up for the community and do what the community asks of them, there is a lot of community support stuck,” said Alysia Johnson, CEO of Carmichael Outreach.
