On the City of Richmond Hill website it Is stated:
The goal of the Richmond Hill Character Community Initiative is to encourage organizations to foster a culture of good character.
Character Community Organizations promote and demonstrate: Optimism, Initiative, Perseverance. Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Integrity, Compassion, Courage, Inclusiveness, Fairness, Humour.
On Wednesday, June 8, 2022 our Richmond Hill Council voted to embrace the tenets of a Compassionate Community.
Three of our councillors (Perrelli, Beros, Muench) questioned why we needed the Compassionate Community initiative when we had the Character Community tenets already in place.
I’ll tell you why we need the compassionate community endorsement: even though we have had the qualities of the character community in place for 20+ years, they are still NOT practiced by our council.
At least 5 of those tenets stated above, were not followed in council on June 8.
The Compassionate Community tenets ADD TO AND STRENGTHEN the Character Community qualities, not detract from them.
What we really need is emphasis on compassion and caring:
those qualities that make us care for and about others,
that make us think that bullying, demeaning, abusive behaviour is NOT RIGHT. In fact, that type of behaviour is destructive.
If we are going to be anything close to being a Character/Compassionate community, we must be LEADERS in showing how that works!
Thank you, Raika Sheppard for bringing this motion forward. As a new councillor we hope that your input will continue to contribute to making council better and Richmond Hill better. We certainly have a long way to go with this council.
Pat Pollock