Manitoba Music Shares Equity & Accountability Policy

At Manitoba Music, our mission is to promote and amplify the success of Manitoba’s music industry and help all members of our province’s music community reach their fullest potential.

We believe that Manitoba Music must represent and reflect the diversity of our society and our industry. Through policy and action, we always strive to demonstrate integrity, transparency, inclusivity, foresight, accountability, excellence, and passion.

We have been working to create a strong framework to help us in this important work to create a safer and more equitable music community. Our Equity & Accountability Policy has been developed with the ongoing guidance of our Equity Committee under the direction of our Board of Directors, and with the consultation of Anishinaabekwe, lawyer, and visual artist Danielle H. Morrison. We would like to thank Ms. Morrison and the Board members for their wisdom, dedication, and compassionate support.

Our team has undertaken a number of training initiatives to help us best serve the community, including anti-racism and anti-oppression, safer spaces, and accessibility, as well as Indigenous history in Canada. We’ve been honoured to host a variety of community discussions on these topics in recent years to further our own education, make new connections, and share this learning with our community. These sessions and the generous speakers and participants have helped inform our team in ways that have contributed to the creation of this policy, and we thank them for their openness.

This is a living policy that has been, and will continue to be, shaped through honesty and openness from members of our community. We are grateful to the courageous people who have shared their lived experiences with us. Their bravery and generosity has helped us to develop as an organization rooted in respect, compassion, and transparency.

By sharing this policy, we share our commitments. We want our community, members, staff, volunteers, and all people, companies, and organizations we work with to understand these commitments and to hold us accountable. 

The Equity & Accountability Policy includes our commitments, accountability principles, and the practical steps we are taking. It also provides information on how people can share a disclosure with us and transparency around what actions Manitoba Music can take in order to support the immediate needs of those who have experienced harm.

This policy is a lens through which we will evaluate all aspects of our organization, including governance, administration, personnel, and programming. Sharing it is one step in our journey.

Our next steps, which will happen in the coming year, will be to review all our existing policies, create a plan for ongoing training for our staff and board, and continue to seek learning opportunities to share with our members and the community.

We are committed to recognizing the privilege Manitoba Music has within the music community at accepting the responsibility to be leaders in advancing equity in the music community. We understand that this is lifelong work to learn and unlearn, to remove barriers and reduce harm, to honour survivors, and to centre the needs of those most impacted by systematic barriers.

All people working with Manitoba Music will be required to review and accept the Equity & Accountability Policy. It will be a part of our agreements, contracts, and applications, as well as membership applications for new members.

Feedback can be sent to info@manitobamusic.com or via www.manitobamusic.com/feedback.  

Read the Equity & Accountability Policy at www.manitobamusic.com/accountability

For more information on support resources, please visit www.manitobamusic.com/links#category-107

Equity Committee
Malcolm-Jamal Wilson (Chair)
Chloe Chafe
Desiree Dorion
Michael Jack
Ruth Shead