Madame Premier - A Commitment to Being Anti-Racist

“Life is very short. What we have to do must be done in the now." - Audre Lord

Madame Premier strongly believes in and advocates for equal rights and the increased participation of women and diversity, specifically Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) in politics.

Today Madame Premier donated $1000.00 to Calgary's Black Empowerment Fund. This group falls outside of scope of donating to organizations that support women and girls but the time is now for individials and businesses to use our resources to support the critical work of anti-racism.

Madame Premier is committed to:

• Being actively anti-racist.
• Amplifying the voices of Black women as well as Indigenous voices and the voices of people of colour.
• Photoshoots will always include multiple BIPOC individuals. Politics is dominated by white voices and faces and it is not representative of Calgary, Alberta, Canada or the world. 
• All future collaborations or partnerships will be looked at and considered through a lens of how we are mutually amplifying BIPOC voices.
• Continuing to speak out against racism, violence and killing of BIPOC by the police and demand justice for those responsible.
• Creating and sharing content with a lens on highlighting organisations, people, statistics or facts on highlighting BIPOC communities.
• Acknowledging Madame Premier’s own privilege.  
• Always doing more, doing better and doing it justly. 

What we can do together:

• Don’t remain silent in the face of racism. Speak out even when it’s uncomfortable. 
• Volunteer, donate and vote. Do at least one but try for two. If you can’t donate money, give even an hour of your time once a week or once month. 
• Be anti-racist. Teach your children to be anti-racist. Be anti-racist yourself.
• Challenge elected officials to do better. Ask them why they support the policies they do, who they consulted in the decision making process, who was involved in creating the policies and legislation. 
• Learn. Read. Watch. Study. Our education systems fall extremely short in teaching us what we really need to know.
• Acknowledge that systemic racism in Canada exists. It exists in every public and private institution, including our governments, in our police forces and in our education systems. 
• Acknowledge our privilege. Do the uncomfortable work and really think about our privilege. 
• Don't give up. Elected officials and those that work for them expect the public to eventually become apathetic about issues. Don't be apathetic. Don't give up.

If you would like to donate to Calgary's Black Empowerment Fund Go Fund Me click here.

Telling someone what you are going to do is easy. Showing someone what you are doing is hard. Madame Premier is committed to doing the work.

If you have any comments or questions, please email hello@madamepremeir.com.

Sarah Elder-Chamanara

Madame Premier