Official Report 73KB pdf
A report on the gender reporter's fact-finding visit to Inverness has been circulated, but the reporter, Elaine Smith, is not here to speak to it. If anybody wants to comment on the report, they can do so, but I suggest that people will be able to ask Elaine questions at the next meeting at which she is present. Does anyone wish to make any comments now?
Usually when we hear about a fact-finding visit, we hear about the sunny clime. Poor Elaine! Inverness disnae have much sunshine, although it has lots of nice people.
The Equal Opportunities Committee is known for having fact-finding visits to places that are quite inclement—and I do not think that we have had any foreign fact-finding visits yet.
Yes. I received a photocopied document, produced by the Commission for Racial Equality but sent to me by the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities. Apparently, the council has identified some contradictions between what the CRE has said and what the race equality advisory forum—REAF—recommended. It would be worth carrying out further investigation to find out exactly what the issues are. They are to do with how ethnic monitoring is done and how the results are dealt with. The council has asked us to look into ethnic monitoring and the contradictions between what REAF recommended and what the CRE has said.
Is that agreed?
Secondly, I wish to point out that the convener and I have now set a date to meet the Chhokar family and their representatives. We are to meet them in Hamilton on 13 November. It will be a preliminary meeting, when we will be able to discuss what the committee can do, or would hope to do, in relation to the reports that were published last year on the situation surrounding the death of Surjit Singh Chhokar. I would like it to be put on the record that we have been pursuing the matter and that we now have a date for a meeting in the diary. We will bring the matter back to the committee with the hope of discussing the subject more fully.
Does Tommy Sheridan have any questions on that?
No. I am glad that the work is going ahead. I wonder whether we could agree to send a short message to Mr Chhokar this Sunday, when there will be a memorial service and a wreath will be laid at the site of the murder. Given our contact with the Chhokar family over the past year, I think that it would be appropriate for us to send a wee message of support and solidarity.
I am happy to do that, on behalf of the committee. I can have a message sent off today, which we will get translated if there is time. We will try to have it translated, as we tend to translate all our correspondence.
Brilliant.
We have been trying to organise meetings for some time, but have been unable to do so because of Mr Chhokar's ill health. The purpose of the meeting in November, which we agreed to some time ago, is to ensure that the way in which the subsequent formal committee meeting is conducted and where it is held enable the Chhokars to have their input in the way in which they want. In the past, they have felt unable to do that. Michael McMahon will report back to the committee after the meeting, before we arrange the formal committee meeting.
That is it.