By Neil Armstrong
 |
| Matthew Green, City Councillor, Ward 3, City of Hamilton Photo contributed |
In light of March 21 being International Day for the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I am sharing excerpts of comments made by
four community partners at the launch of Ontario’s 3-year anti-racism strategic
plan, A Better Way Forward, by the Anti-Racism Directorate on March
7. The plan was announced by Michael Coteau, Minister Responsible for
Anti-Racism at the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office in Toronto.
The theme of the UN-designated day is, “Racial profiling and
incitement to hatred, including in the context of migration.”
“Every person is entitled to
human rights without discrimination. The rights to equality and
non-discrimination are cornerstones of human rights law. Yet in many parts of
the world, discriminatory practices are still widespread, including racial,
ethnic, religious and nationality based profiling, and incitement to hatred,”
says the United Nations on its website.
A Better Way Forward includes these goals:
Developing a framework for the
collection of race-based data in various institutions,
including the child welfare system and
the justice, education and health sectors.
Collecting race-based data is a
valuable way to better understand where racial
inequalities exist, which will help
government work toward solutions to address it.
A new Ontario Black Youth Action Plan
targeted at increasing access to supports and
opportunities for Black children, youth
and their families to address outcomes
disparities.
Implementing an anti-racism impact
assessment framework to help anticipate and
remove unconscious bias in proposed
policies, programs and decisions.
New legislation that would, if passed,
ensure the sustainability and accountability of
the province’s anti-racism work by
providing a framework for government and
organizations to identify and combat
systemic racism.
Public education and awareness
initiatives targeting racism, including Islamophobia
and anti-Semitism
Eliminating systemic racism and
advancing racial equity is part of Ontario’s plan to create jobs, grow our
economy and help people in their everyday lives.
Matthew Green, City
Councillor, Ward 3, City of Hamilton
“… I would also like to begin by acknowledging the decades long
work contributed by our frontline organizers, activists, elders, cultural
groups and civic leaders who have fought tirelessly to ensure that our
collective experience as racialized people have not been erased. And who
consistently suffered the discomfort of having to lead this values conversation
in our society despite facing further marginalization and public critique. And
who consistently hold us accountable as elected officials for the ongoing
history of systemic injustice demanding that it be addressed at all levels of
government with policies that are commensurate to the collective impacts of
racism and discrimination.
“Sisters and brothers, we are definitely indeed in historic
times. It is an era that I call the New Civil Rights, not because the issues
are new for any of us but because they demand for a new level of
responsibility. A new level of accountability and a new level of solutions must
be met with an immediate action and ongoing commitment to the same. And I
believe that the New Civil Rights has been led by the direct action of our
young Black and Indigenous women and queer folk which has resulted in this
escalated response by different levels of government to properly and rightfully
address the systemic barriers faced by racialized Ontarians.
“And as an inner-city councillor all the way from Hamilton,
I’m proud to report locally that as a follow-up to the ARD consultation that
with our youth we continue to provide an incredible leadership, organizing
community-led initiatives that support the ongoing work of the Anti-Racism
Directorate with a clear and critical intersectional analysis and
participation.
“It was historic for us to have the minister provide his
time and attention specifically to hearing the youth voices on the issues of
racism that they face every day in our city, with the intention to continue to
include and centre them in the conversation. We are in historic times in this
province when our Premier provided the mandate to the Hon. Minister Coteau, a
man who himself understands these issues through the eyes of his own lived
experience and through the Anti-Racism Directorate is providing much needed
leadership.”
[Matthew Green will be
participating in an upcoming event at the Jamaican Canadian Association. If you’re
thinking about running in the upcoming 2018 elections and you don’t know where
to start, check out “So You Think You Can Run” organized by the JCA’s Political
Advocacy Committee for Saturday, April 15, 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the JCA, 995 Arrow
Rd., Toronto. See the details in the attached flyer.]
Avvy Go, Clinic Director of Metro Toronto Chinese
& Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, and currently the spokesperson for Colour
of Poverty-Colour of Change
“As a member of the Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change
Network, a broad-based racial justice, education and advocacy network in
Ontario, I’m very pleased to see that a number of the key recommendations that
the network has been pushing for are now incorporated into the 3-year
anti-racism strategy.
“In particular, we are very pleased to hear that the
government will be introducing legislation to give the minister the power to mandate
the collection of disaggregated data on the basis of race and other social
demographic identities in order to better measure and understand the impact of
government policies, programs and practices on racialized and other equity
seeking groups. The collection of disaggregated data is foundational to the
success of any anti-racism strategy. Without such data we simply cannot
properly measure the progress over time of any plan that the government might
choose to adopt or implement. The data will also help government set more
appropriately targeted goals and objectives, as well as identify gaps in areas
that need attention and improvement.”
Go said Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change also fully
supports some of the population specific measures that the government will be
undertaking to address anti-Black racism and racism facing Indigenous people.
She noted that she will be looking forward to more announcements in the future
on how the government will be addressing Islamophobia.
“Apart from the data collection and the introduction of a
legislated framework, the Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change has also been
urging the minister and the government to introduce strategies to address the
colour-coded systemic discrimination in workplaces across the province’s labour
market. A recent study by Ryerson University finds that employers are far less
likely to hire people with East Asian and South Asian last names as compared to
Caucasian- and European-sounding names. This is just one of many studies that
highlight the economic disparities in the labour market in which members of
racialized communities are denied fair and equal employment opportunity simply
because of their race or ethnicity.
“We acknowledge with hope that some positive initiatives
have been undertaken by the Premier to achieve more equitable hiring and
employment outcomes for those who have for too long gone without. One example
is the incorporation of targeted hiring objectives for historically
disadvantaged communities into the Community Benefits Agreement negotiated for
the Eglinton Crosstown transit project. So we look forward to seeing similar
hiring expectations and obligations attached to all such public infrastructure
projects and investments because more needs to be done to ensure all Ontarians
have equitable access to employment regardless of their race, gender identity,
sexuality and disability.”
Go called on the leadership of all political parties in
Ontario to support this strategy in the legislature and beyond for the shared
prosperity for all Ontarians.
Ontario Regional Chief
Isadore Day
“…As I listened
to the minister and looking at the policy, legislation, education, and
partnership mix that is built within the strategy, I can tell you that I’m very
confident that what is the path forward will include First Nations people.”
Highlighting two points, Chief Day noted that:
“From the First Nations perspective, we have been afforded
and we certainly work closely with the Ontario government on these types of
initiatives. Where we are very clear on and make the distinction is that much
of what we’re dealing with, with Ontario, with Canada, with municipalities and
other jurisdictions, we deal with issues on a government to government basis.
And in this case, we look at racism and two points of history -- one being
that, I’m not sure if folks know this but there is a history of racism that is
very deep here in this country. The
first point is that in April 1876 the Indian Act was given royal assent and the
Indian Act is a piece of legislation that is still alive and well. It is still
utilized by the federal government and supported, just by convention, by the
provinces and territories. So institutional racism born out of the Indian
Act is one issue that we are working very closely with other governments to
ensure that it gets eradicated and that we begin to move closer towards a
government to government relationship.
One that respects our nations, and as the young elder and as the
minister spoke I can’t help but think about the treaties and the original
history that the settler colonial government had with our people when you
landed here on these shores.
“I also want to point
out that the Indian Act has also been awarded some recognition in the
development of the apartheid system in South Africa. In the early 1900s, the
Indian Act was offered up by the British monarchy to the South Africans for a
model of race-based segregation. Yes, these are hard discussions, yes,
these are things that most Canadians don’t know about but these are things that
governments are willing to work with First Nations on in moving forward. I am
very appreciative of this Ontario government -- Premier Kathleen Wynne and her
ministers. But when we come to these events, I’m very keen to recognize the
work that lay ahead and as such I want to just assure you that I had spoken
with Minister Coteau and he’s assured me that within the next two weeks we will
be meeting together. We will be discussing what the parallel processes are
going forward because, yes, we need to be part of this type of a strategy but
on a government-to-government basis. We still have the colonial aspect of that
relationship to deal with directly.”
Ihsaan Gardee, executive
director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims
“In the last few months, both in Ontario and across Canada,
we have witnessed an increasing number of incidents that can be classified as xenophobic
and racist targeting various communities. They’ve ranged from verbal abuse to
vandalism to arson to assaults against women in broad daylight, including one
in this very neighbourhood. This is a dangerous and startling change that we
need to be aware of and vigilant about, and announcements like today will
hopefully put a spotlight on these troubling incidents. My Ontario, our Canada is
one of inclusivity, not just acceptance. It is one of respect, not just
tolerance.
“At the end of January of this year, the results of a recent
analysis of Canada’s online behaviour commissioned by CBC’s Marketplace suggest
a 600% jump in the past year in how often Canadians use language online that is
racist, Islamophobic, sexist or otherwise intolerant. The Ontario Human Rights
Commission has recognized that anti-Muslim discrimination is “a leading form of
contemporary Creed-based discrimination in Ontario. Stereotypes of Muslims as a
threat to Canadian security and Canadian values have been particularly
pronounced.” Echoing this, according to Statistics Canada in the last three
years hate crimes targeting Muslims have doubled. Muslims report experiencing
discrimination or unfair treatment in the past five years and 62% of Canadian
Muslims are worried about discrimination. These figures mirror the data that the
NCCM has been collecting on hate crimes and incidents targeting Canadian
Muslims. To be clear, no one is saying that we shouldn’t have a robust, even
passionate debate about how we best manage our growing diversity or that we
should not be vigilant about and vociferously defend our cherished rights. At
the same time, however, unchecked political rhetoric can drive and foster
environments of fear and hate. Just over 17 months ago, we had a federal
election here in Canada where Muslims were targeted by similar rhetoric we have
seen elsewhere. Today, we still have some elected officials implying that
Muslims and other minorities need to be screened for anti-Canadian values.
“Moving forward the NCCM is proud to lend its expertise,
knowledge and experience to support the development of new and enhancement of
old initiatives.”
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