Unequivocally, Goldline stands in solidarity with the Black community and supports ongoing actions around the world, protesting racism, racial injustice, and inequality. We denounce any form of violence against Black or racialized persons and their communities, including the police brutality perpetrated here in Canada and abroad. We recognize that such violence inflicts physical damage, psychological, and emotional trauma, often with deadly consequences. It is not part of our culture, nor our sport.

However, our words are not an outcome, but a beginning.

In short, we apologize for our inaction and silence in this space.

We acknowledge that statements ring hollow. We need to do more when it comes to fighting anti-Black racism in our workplace, and within the curling community at large. We need tangible actions, continued engagement, transparency, and above all accountability to our community, and those communities that we have not served.

It is not enough to say, “we will do better.” We have not done enough. We have not addressed the effects of racism in our sport, nor understood the challenges and barriers that BIPOC experience belonging to our community.

Now, we are having those difficult conversations. It may be challenging for our customers, partners, and even families, but we are committed to this process, for our staff, associates, and community, and to their futures. We offer support to our staff and associates to help support and guide them in anti-Racism discussions, and navigate these difficult, emotional circumstances.

We need change. We need to flip the conversation, it’s not about at-risk communities supporting us, but us supporting these communities in need.

We have been silent because we need to listen, learn and understand. But we also must act.

Accordingly, we will begin our process by engaging the knowledge and expertise from Black voices to lead us in developing concrete ways to combat systemic racism, anti-Black violence in our community, and inequity in our industry and beyond.

We recognize these issues will not be solved overnight. But we are committed, and we will start by:

  1. Seeking guidance from independent, external sources to help craft actionable goals for change.
  2. Abide by their oversight to ensure accountability, transparency, and communication to our community as we move forward with our initiatives.
  3. Supporting our internal staff in various capacities, such as mentoring and anti-Racism training that will be communicated, and offered to our broader community.
  4. Provide timely communication of our progress in accordance with our commitment to transparency and accountability.
  5. Align with our business partners to develop long-term initiatives to address inequalities in our sport, and support our customers to foster inclusion in our sport, and our business.

This effort will take planning, but it will begin immediately.

As a first step, we are announcing a partnership with Dr. Richard Norman. His research in curling and diversity, offers us a unique opportunity to learn from him, and engage in a conversation to envision and reshape our standing in the sport of curling.

We are pleased to have Richard #ShareTheMicNow on June 19th, 2020 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm EST to discuss his connection to curling, the challenges of “race” and diversity in our sport, and what that means for our pathway forward.

Please join us on Instagram and be part of the conversion.

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