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"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere." - Martin Luther King

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"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere." - Martin Luther King

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In this video you will see two young boys fighting, for what exact reason, is unclear to us, and the police who enter the scene. However, this does not stop them from racially profiling the black boy. The two police are seen running in and, while one of them goes to gently sit with the white boy, the other cop can be see brutally pushing the other boy further into the ground. Yes, the boy with black skin, who was already on the ground, was violently shoved where he lay. Both cops end up arresting this boy using their knees to pin him down, while the white boy simply stood over him with his white privileged superiority. This cannot be ignored or dismissed any longer.

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Alberta researchers have published a study that shows evidence of widespread discrimination against indigenous patients in Alberta hospital emergency departments, as well as nation wide.

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Pamela Beebe has spent much of her professional life advocating for the rights of indigenous people.

"A lot of the work that I do is, whenever anyone asks me to talk about truth and reconciliation, I readily agree," the Kainai First Nation member said from her home in Calgary.

In her private life, however, Beebe has had to spend a great deal of time advocating for family members who need medical care.

"I guess in our family we call it the racial tension that exists. When somebody has to go to the emergency room and gets sent home right away, nobody is surprised in my family," said Beebe. "We get asked immediately: 'Are you on drugs?' 'Are you high?' 'Why are your eyes red?' All these questions that are just not appropriate, rather than: 'What's going on?' and 'What do you need help with?'

This week, Alberta researchers published a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that shows evidence of widespread discrimination against indigenous patients in Alberta hospital emergency departments. Data collected from 11 million emergency room visits between 2012 and 2017 found that emergency room staff consistently rated First Nations people as less urgent than non-Indigenous patients.
READ MORE: Alberta First Nations people tend to get a lower level of emergency care: study
Cheryl Barnabe is a co-author of the study. She is a professor of medicine/community health sciences at the University of Calgary and a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta.

"I think many of us recognize that this is the daily experience in the emergency departments," said Barnabe. "But I think having the ability to show it in this large scale, with these large numbers, really puts it into perspective. This isn't just a one-time event or a bad day that one health-care professional has had. This is a daily constant experience that we see in our province."

The Alberta research adds to a growing body of evidence that systemic anti-indigenous racism in health care is a national problem. In November of 2020, the B.C. government apologized after a months-long investigation found widespread racism in the health-care system including fear from Indigenous people to access hospitals due to racism.
READ MORE: The B.C. government apologizes for systemic racism towards indigenous people in B.C.'s health-care system
The report called for mandatory health-professional education, better public education about Indigenous history and health, and a new School for Indigenous Medicine.

The death of Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman who was subjected to racist taunts by health-care staff as she lay dying in hospital has also prompted calls for change. Echaquan, a 37-year-old mother of seven, posted a video on Facebook live of the derogatory comments made toward her by a nurse and orderly. She died shortly afterwards on Sept. 28, 2020 at a hospital in Joliette, northeast of Montreal.

An inquiry into her death found Echaquan's death was accidental, but preventable - and that racism and prejudice contributed to it.

The coroner called on Quebec to recognize systemic racism within the health care system and recommended more training for staff on racial sensitivity and standards of care.
READ MORE: Joyce Echaquan's death 'unacceptable,' Quebec coroner says in addressing inquiry findings Gabrielle Lindstrom, an Indigenous ways of knowing education development consultant at the University of Calgary, said racism within the health system has become a barrier to access for many First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.
"I can't speak to all indigenous people but definitely within my own family, it makes us very reticent to access health care services," she said. "We don't do so unless we absolutely have to."

Lindstrom believes a reckoning is overdue.

"What needs to happen is critical anti-racist education that starts right at kindergarten and is reinforced at home," she said. "What we have in motion is a pattern of intergenerational racism that has been passed down in settler families. And once we start to understand that and have a consensus about what racism means and how it lives in society, then we can start really seeing systemic changes in an equitable and fair way and indigenous people will not have to keep dying in these systems."

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Evidence of racism against Indigenous patients is growing: Is a reckoning in Canadian health care overdue? | Globalnews.ca

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Pamela Beebe has spent much of her professional life advocating for the rights of indigenous people. "A lot of the work that I do is, whenever anyone asks me to talk about truth and reconciliation, I readily agree," the Kainai First Nation member said from her home in Calgary.

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Hair schools in Canada continue to ignore teaching their students how to properly care for, style, and cut Black hair.

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Deanne Simms remembers walking into a salon as a teen and being met by a woman who was frantically running toward her from a back room, waving her hands in the air, yelling, "No, no, no; we don't do your hair here!"

Years later, after she had her first child, a stylist at a different salon told her it takes generations to get rid of her hair's texture and it's a big "problem to solve."

As a biracial woman, Simms says her hair is important to her and tied to her identity. Throughout the years, she's gotten used to hearing comments about her hair or people touching it without asking.

"Communications around this seem to implicitly drive the narrative that there's something wrong with my hair, as opposed to a lack of skill or resources or ability to appropriately care for my hair," said Simms, referring to her experience with some stylists.

"That's been something that, especially as I was younger, was really difficult to navigate. And it left me feeling confused and at times pretty isolated."

As a clinical and health psychologist in Toronto, Simms says she understands the importance of self-care and finding a place for that where people are welcomed, supported and accepted. It took decades for her to find the right stylist, she says.

While there's more diversity in salons now, the education hasn't changed much and many within the industry feel textured Black hair is being ignored. Ontario's program standards include very little training on textured and curly hair, which leaves clients with no assurance a stylist is capable of working with their hair, and stylists feeling unprepared to work in the field.

"You're learning one side in school, and just completely not the other, for such a big portion of our population," said Michele Bonnick, a longtime Toronto salon owner and Simms's stylist.

Filling the gaps

Bonnick grew up in Toronto, where girls in her neighbourhood would braid her hair. She learned to braid her own hair when she was 11. Later, she trained under her uncle, who opened one of the first Black hair salons in Toronto.

She also got her licence in Toronto, but wanted more education on working with Black hair, specifically on how to naturally care for and maintain healthy hair, as well as how to better cut textured hair. So she travelled to the U.S. frequently for workshops on textured hair and to learn from Black stylists, before opening up Amani Hair Studio in 2000.

"I forced myself to leave Toronto because I felt so inadequate about my skill set," said Bonnick. "I didn't want to do it anymore if I couldn't do my own people's hair."

She found herself doing a lot of corrective work for Black clients coming from other salons. Some were developing alopecia, when hair falls out in small patches, or thinning hairlines because their hair was being pulled too tight. So Bonnick started offering workshops for stylists across Canada to learn the basics of working with Black, textured and curly hair, including braiding, weaving and extensions.

"It's different - but it's not that much different where it's totally foreign," she said. "It's all about technique and just taking your time."

She and other hair stylists who specialize in textured hair say there's a double standard when it comes to the province's education model: Everyone, including those who specialize in Black hair, must learn techniques that cater to straight hair types, while the only mandated techniques for Black or textured hair are Eurocentric - learning how to chemically relax hair to straighten it.

Ontario College of Trades says it's working to diversify standards

The Ontario College of Trades (OCOT), which sets education standards for hairstylists in Ontario, said it's aware of concerns related to a lack of diverse training techniques. Its program standards act as a road map for schools to develop their curriculum.

An OCOT spokesperson said work on incorporating Black and ethnic hairstyling techniques began in 2017, but the standards were never revised. OCOT blames the winding down of the agency; in 2018, the Ford government passed legislation to transition OCOT into a ministry-led system.

While there are different paths to become a hairstylist in Ontario - a diploma program at a college, private hair school or through an apprenticeship program - each stylist writes the same provincial certification exam to become licensed.
WATCH | Stylist who created petition speaks on the importance of diversity in hair education:

While some may learn about Black or textured hair in their specific program - for example, in 2018 Ottawa's Algonquin College included more training for textured hair, and Bonnick has been hired by a private school in Toronto to educate its teachers - there isn't any mandatory training. And the licensing exam includes very little about textured hair.

The program standards mention chemically relaxing curly hair, and under the industry term for hair types, it lists "straight, wavy, curly and super curly."

Deanna Douglas, the hairstyling program co-ordinator at Algonquin College and secretary of the Ontario Professional Hairstylist Association, says the standards are too ambiguous and schools can interpret them differently.

"I think it's time for a change," she said. "It's time for the curriculum to be updated and to be really laid out."

Cherice Beeso, who graduated from a Toronto hair school last year, knows how to work with curly hair because she and her children have it. But she says her program hardly scratched the surface.

"We barely even touched on [textured hair], and if we did, it was mainly how to get it straight; not even how to deal with making curls pop, dealing with different hair textures. It was more so getting rid of that texture," she said.

OCOT says it's researching and reviewing the current training standards, including how they relate to Black and ethnic hairstyling techniques. It says it anticipates the process for developing the new standards will be finalized by the end of this year.

"During the program development update process, the College has been, and remains committed, to ensuring that a wide cross-section of diverse stakeholders from the hairstylist industry are engaged, followed by a broader public validation process of interested stakeholders," a spokesperson said in an email.

Hair part of identity, culture and history

Beeso now works at Ziba Style Bar in Toronto, which prides itself on serving a diverse clientele. The owner, Solange Ashoori, says in her hiring process, she found a lot of stylists weren't able to work with textured hair.

Last summer, she started a petition demanding the Ontario government include a comprehensive training program for Black and textured hair. But since then, Ashoori says she hasn't heard from OCOT and is frustrated the program standards haven't changed.

"I feel like a lot of these things are made to look like they're much harder than they are to implement - and it's rooted in systemic oppression and racism to me," she said.
WATCH | Stylists say there should be more training on Black, textured hair:

Similar petitions have been started in other provinces. While each province manages its hairstyling education differently, many program standards and the interprovincial Red Seal exam all stem from the National Occupational Analyses (NOA). Its exam preparation guide doesn't include any separate knowledge of working with textured hair, other than cutting "diverse textures," using chemical relaxers and hair extensions.

Ashoori encourages schools to implement their own curriculum to include textured hair education, even if governments don't mandate it.

"I believe that every person that walks into an establishment for beauty services should feel amazing and accepted," she said.

Ashoori and Bonnick both opened their salons to fill a gap they experienced, and say hair is rooted in culture and identity.

Bonnick often explains the historical significance behind certain styles to her clients, including mention of slaves braiding maps in their hair to help with escape.

"They found a path to freedom so hair is really tied into Black culture."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians - from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community - check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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Ontario's hair school standards still ignore Black hair 4 years after work began to include it | CBC News

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Deanne Simms remembers walking into a salon as a teen and being met by a woman who was frantically running toward her from a back room, waving her hands in the air, yelling, "No, no, no; we don't do your hair here!"

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https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/358895/Images-from-Quebec-high-school-homework-assignment-called-out-as-racist

Centennial Regional High School’s “educational” assignment, condones systematic racism states civil rights advocate, Joel DeBellefeuille.

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This article talks about how the past few years have shined light onto that fact that racism is still an active, ongoing issue in our country.

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Michael Adams is founder and president of the Environics Institute for Survey Research. Marva Wisdom is a senior equity and inclusion practitioner, a fellow at the Environics Institute and a senior fellow at Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
The past two years have witnessed a transformation in the national conversation about race in this country. Within this relatively short span of time, the tragic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has crystalized the issue of anti-Black racism and the excessive use of force by police. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed underlying inequities experienced by many racialized people when it comes to employment and health. The horrific killing of the Afzal family in London, Ont., has reminded us once again about the reality of Islamophobia in this country. And the discovery of unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools has laid bare the tragic consequences of the cultural genocide inflicted on this land's First Nations.

So it is timely that the Environics Institute and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (with the support of Pfizer Canada) are publishing new research that provides a comprehensive picture of Canadians' perspective on race relations, capturing the opinions, perceptions and lived experiences of the country's major racial and ethnic groups, and how these have evolved since 2019. The research confirms the reality of racism in Canada and its effects on the country's racialized population - especially among people who are Black or Indigenous, but by no means uncommon among those with other racialized identities.
For real change, African Nova Scotians should look to grassroots organizing - not representation Opposition to books and theories that teach students about racism is a dangerous form of censorship
A significant proportion of Canadians experience discrimination because of their race or ethnic background, and many witness others receiving such mistreatment. Racial discrimination takes place across a range of settings, such as public spaces, in the workplace, in stores, at schools and universities, and at the hands of the police and the justice system more generally.

The frequency of reported experiences of racial discrimination has been largely stable since we last measured this in 2019, but perspectives on the issue have changed noticeably over this time. Public awareness and recognition of racism in this country is now more widespread than before - among non-racialized and racialized Canadians alike - especially as it is affecting people who are Black or Indigenous, but also those who are Chinese due to anti-Asian sentiment arising from the COVID-19 pandemic being linked to China. Moreover, there is increasing acknowledgment of the systemic basis of discrimination in terms of racialized Canadians being treated less fairly than white people.

What significance can we draw from these latest findings? We know from our research that Canadians want to celebrate their country for its multiculturalism and inclusiveness, but there is an expanding dissonance between this vision and the growing recognition of racial inequality and injustice in society. As this gap between aspiration and reality grows, there are rising expectations for change. Our social norms may be changing as it becomes less acceptable to deny racial discrimination or to stand by passively when we see it happen. The backlash against racial progress evident among some elements of society in the United States and Europe has yet to be detected in more than a tiny minority in this country, and it has yet to find any organized voice in our Parliament.

Governments and other institutions are under increasing pressure to acknowledge and address racial inequities in their own operations and among the people they serve, and this pressure will continue to intensify. But this trend also means our leaders can count on stronger public backing and political support to be more aggressive in taking the necessary steps to address systemic racism. New policies and initiatives are needed in many areas, such as making online platforms safer from hate crime, modernizing employment equity standards, and finding ways to reduce the use of unnecessary force by police.

The path forward is by no means easy or a straight line from A to B. Building a society that provides racial equity and justice for all is a daunting but necessary ambition; it is a world that has never existed in Canada or anywhere else in modern society. We indeed have a long way to go, but the way forward is opening before us.
Keep your Opinions sharp and informed. Get the Opinion newsletter. Sign up today.

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Opinion: Canadians are waking up to the reality of racism. Now is the time for leaders to act

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Michael Adams is founder and president of the Environics Institute for Survey Research. Marva Wisdom is a senior equity and inclusion practitioner, a fellow at the Environics Institute and a senior fellow at Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The past two years have witnessed a transformation in the national conversation about race in this country.

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A new study prepared by the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario's Black Nurses Task Force surveyed 205 Black nurses and nursing students across the province, and found that most participants reported experiencing racism and discrimination in their line of work.

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Anti-Black racism 'deeply entrenched' in nursing, says new report calling for immediate action

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Anti-Black racism 'deeply entrenched' in nursing, says new report calling for immediate action

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https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6343782

Approximately 88% of Black nurses experience racism and or discrimination in their work. Daria Adèle Juüdi-Hope, offers CBC her insights into her experiences and her letdowns of society.

“It dehumanizes you as a person and makes you feel inferior," (Daria Adèle Juüdi-Hope)

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Chinese-Canadians face incessant micro aggressions and racism throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as the virus is coined the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus”.

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Chinese-Canadians voice worries about racism, job losses one year into pandemic

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COVID-19 has taken a toll on many Canadians, but for Chinese-Canadians the impacts have been magnified by racism aimed at individuals and businesses, community leaders say.

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This article shows 5 interesting charts of what systematic racism looks like in Canada.(Average total income, Unemployment rate, Proportion of population with low-income status, Expectations for higher education, and Hate crimes by motivation based on race or ethnicity)

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TORONTO -- George Floyd's killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis and the ensuing wave of global protests have prompted many Canadians to take a deeper look at systemic racism, and national data reveals the stark racial divide in this country.

The most recent census data from 2016 shows that Black Canadians face far steeper economic challenges than white Canadians and other racial groups. For example, Black Canadians make significantly less money than non-racialized Canadians regardless of how long their families have lived in Canada.

First-generation Black Canadians make an average income of nearly $37,000, compared to an average income of $50,000 for new immigrants who are not members of a visible minority.

That wage gap doesn't go away over time. Third-generation Black Canadians make an average income of $32,000, compared with $48,000 for Canadians who aren't a visible minority - a demographic that, due to the way census data is collected, includes Indigenous Canadians, who also experience income disparity.

Those numbers are troubling but not surprising, says Andrea A. Davis, chair of York University's department of humanities and co-ordinator of the university's Black Canadian Studies Certificate.

"Often when people see statistics like this, the assume that well, there's clearly a rational and a good reason for this disparity," Davis told CTVNews.ca in an interview Thursday.

The reality, Davis said, is that Black immigrants are up against a system that makes assumptions about them based on the colour of their skin. She said many Black immigrants face a tougher time getting hired because employers say they want someone with "Canadian experience."

"Many of us have heard the stories of new immigrants who are doctors who can't get jobs, engineers who are driving taxi cabs in Toronto. That sort of reincorporation into the labour force is harder for Black people because they can be weeded out because of the colour of their skin."

Unemployment rates among Black Canadians are higher than other populations, and are more than double the rate of other visible minorities.

"Some racialized groups are seen as more productive, harder working, smarter - a 'good minority' - so they get absorbed far more quickly into the mainstream than Black new immigrants," Davis said.

But the income gap between Black Canadians and non-visible minorities doesn't go away for the children or grandchildren of Black immigrants. Davis said that's because many teachers treat Black children differently than their peers.

"These children go into an educational system that marks them as a deficit, that sees them as problematic, and then they struggle to integrate. And so they under-achieve in many cases and are unable to live up to the desires, the hopes of their parents. And once they enter the labour force, they repeat the struggle of their parents," she said.

"So it's a kind of cycle that doesn't break. And it can be invisible, so many Canadians don't see it because they don't know how to narrate it, or it's not narrated for them."

The data shows that Black youth are keen to achieve a higher education. Nearly 94 per cent of Black young people aged 15 to 25 surveyed in 2015 said they would like to complete a university degree, but only 59.9 per cent thought it was possible.

That gap between hope and expectation doesn't exist for the rest of the population. Eighty-two per cent of other groups surveyed said they wanted to achieve a university education, and 78.8 per cent believed they could.

Davis said this data falls in line with what she sees in her classroom. She teaches a first-year course on race at York University in Toronto, and the majority of her students are Black.

"They work tremendously hard and their aspirations are great. But very few people have told them they can be successful," she said. "I don't think it's about funding. Really, I don't. I think it's about the belief in self ... 'Do I belong here? Can I do this?'"

As part of her research, Davis studied the impact on violence in youth communities in Toronto and Jamaica. The most profound finding, she said, was how strongly Black youth in Toronto pushed back against the idea that the greatest violence they had faced in their communities was physical violence.

"They insisted that the most sustained, daily violence was the violence of the education system. It was teachers who did not believe in them, who stereotyped them, who over-disciplined and over-punished them, who constructed possibilities for them that were different from the possibilities for other children."

When it comes to hate crimes in Canada, Black people are far more likely than any other racial group to be victims of hate crimes, according to statistics from the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety.

Canada is often celebrated as a multicultural nation, but Davis said that doesn't mean racism isn't a present and pervasive force here.

"It's difficult for Canadians to hold in their minds at the same time this idea, this fervent belief, that they live in a democratic and even a multicultural society, and that racism can exist in that same society. When they see acts of racism like George Floyd's death, they're convinced that racism is perpetuated by only a few individuals or bad apples, but it's not widespread," she said.

"We have to acknowledge that racism can look like hate, it can look like what happened to George Floyd, but that's only one way it shows up. It shows up in apathy, in silence, in ignorance, in the refusal to really learn.

"The reality is that racism is expressed not just as conscious acts of hate or violence, but it's far more complex than that. It evolves out of a set of deeply rooted systems in our country. So deeply rooted that it might be easy to miss."

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Black Canadians make significantly less annual average income that non-racialized Canadians, according to Statistics Canada data. (Area of square represents values.)

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Five charts that show what systemic racism looks like in Canada

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George Floyd's killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis and the ensuing wave of global protests have prompted many Canadians to take a deeper look at systemic racism. National data detailed on CTVNews.ca reveals the stark racial divide in this country.

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https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5658622
Toronto high school student talks about how the way history is taught is bias. The teachers can pick what they teach based in their views, there for shielding students and making them think the same way. Students end up getting blinded the certain Canadian issues. She says that if we want to fight systematic racism we have to start with how we teach about it.

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This column is an opinion by Nasima Fancy, a high school student in Toronto. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
I felt dissatisfied as I neared the end of my Grade 10 history course earlier this year. As somebody who enjoys learning about Canadian history on my own, what my textbook and curriculum outlined wasn't nearly good enough. And given the protests across the country supporting the Black Lives Matter movement that have been shining a light on systemic racism in Canada, this felt even more problematic.

There are simply too many important events and aspects of historical Canadian life that weren't mentioned or emphasized nearly enough in high school history class.

Ontario's Grade 10 curriculum takes students from the start of the First World War to present day. However, it's up to individual teachers and textbook writers to decide what examples from this time period they choose to include in their lessons. Restraints on time, textbook page counts, and general bias make it quite easy to avoid historical events that are inclusive of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) experiences.

These events include appalling examples of cultural and social segregation in Canada, as well as the Sixties Scoop and Africville. If we don't tackle these topics in school, then we are holding our society back from learning not just about history but also from history, and that's how racism perpetuates.

We need to rethink how we teach history. Here are three suggestions.
1. Teaching students historical events beyond their political significance
Too often, historical education is limited to the role of pioneers, settlers, and the governments they eventually formed. Students must be taught about historical events from perspectives that go beyond their political significance.

Everyday individuals were affected by these events, and often still are. Students need to hear their first-hand accounts and stories.

For example, when it comes to teaching the tragedy of Air India flight 182, there is more to it than the Mulroney government's response, or lack thereof. We need to explore the experiences of those who lost loved ones, whose pain was for far too long overlooked. The lessons we take from this tragedy must go beyond looking at the role of terrorism, and take into account its effect on everyday Canadians turned victims.

2. Rethinking how much of our history we shield students from
Students cannot be sheltered from the harsh realities that come with the history of our country.

Too often, subjects like slavery and segregation are swept under the rug. With other atrocities, such as residential schools, brutalities by the RCMP, the Sixties Scoop, and land settlement disputes, we barely scrape the surface.

It's undeniable these are difficult topics to discuss. However, students continue to see the effects of systemic racism daily - perhaps more than the general public may think. It's not like we don't hear individuals calling each other terrorists or derogatory terms like the N-word as we walk down the hallways of our schools. It also isn't uncommon for us to see generational poverty and police brutality daily in our news cycles and social media feeds.

If we appropriately and considerately instill the facts and realities of our history and discuss how these racist actions continue to affect us to this day, students like myself will be better prepared to challenge systemic racism - and maybe one day eliminate it for the next generation.

3. Emphasize analysis and critical thinking
Our schooling puts too much emphasis on learning names, dates, and key events, instead of encouraging students to fully contemplate the consequences of those historical events. Students must be taught to emphasize evidence, analysis, and critical thinking. There should also be a clear mandate for teachers and textbook writers to ensure that BIPOC perspectives are taught in full and no longer ignored.

It may seem difficult to fit all of this into one course. But it could be done by moving some of the curriculum, such as the First World War, into earlier grades and beginning in-depth historical education earlier than Grade 7. That would leave more high school years to learn different perspectives, expose students to more of our history's harsh realities, and offer opportunities to discuss and reflect on their significance.

Education is a unique and extremely powerful medium that shapes young minds, and in turn the future of our society. If we don't want to repeat history and perpetuate systemic racism, we need to teach history differently and fully acknowledge the unpleasant truths of our past.

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OPINION | Opinion: If we're going to tackle systemic racism, we need to rethink how we teach history | CBC News

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This column is an opinion by Nasima Fancy, a high school student in Toronto. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ. I felt dissatisfied as I neared the end of my Grade 10 history course earlier this year.

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This article outlines what systemic racism is, what it looks like in Canada, and a few ways to fight it.

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Systemic racism: What it looks like in Canada and how to fight it?

At UBC, our commitment to building an open environment and a diverse workforce makes us stronger. It increases the complexity of our knowledge, with which we can transform systems of oppression and support emerging leaders to better shape the university and the broader society. However, we recognize that even in a diverse institution like ours and in Canada, systemic racism still exists as a challenge for racialized communities and Indigenous peoples.

What is systematic racism?

Systemic racism, also known as institutional racism, refers to the ways that whiteness and white superiority become embedded in the policies and processes of an institution, resulting in a system that advantages white people and disadvantages BIPOC/IBPOC, notably in employment, education, justice, and social participation.

Systemic racism in Canada

In a settler colonial state like Canada, systemic racism is deeply rooted in every system of this country. This means the systems put in place were designed to benefit white colonists while disadvantaging the Indigenous populations who had lived here prior to colonialism. This power dynamic continues to be upheld and reinforced in our society, extending its impact on new racialized citizens.

According to a 2016 report from Statistics Canada, both Black women and men were less likely to obtain post-secondary education compared to women and men in the rest of the population in Vancouver, with a difference of about 10%. And the unemployment rate for the Black population was approximately one and a half times higher than that for rest of the population. In terms of socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, around one-quarter of Indigenous people living in Canadian urban areas were in poverty, compared to 13% of non-Indigenous population in these areas.

How to fight systemic racism?

Systemic racism is a ripple effect from years of racist and discriminatory practices, and as individuals it is normal to feel discouraged and powerless. But know that from being more mindful of the ways systems work to promoting social accountability, you too can take a lead in initiating change.

1. Reflect

Accepting that racism lives within our society is an important first step. Reflect on the ways systemic racism and your position has impacted you and your perspectives. The experiences of marginalized groups can also vary, so don't forget to apply an intersectional lens when you consider the ways different groups face oppression. You may feel uncomfortable, but this sets a solid foundation for you to explore the complexities of racial discrimination, challenge your notions of race and culture, and see anti-racism in new ways.

2. Educate

In order to move forward, it is essential to confront our past with racism and oppression as a country. Having knowledge and understanding in Canada's history with racism provide us with the necessary foundation to the fight against injustice.

As you learn more about Canada's history with racism, ask yourself the following questions: How have the laws changed? Is the targeted group still experiencing the effects of this event today? Were you familiar with this historical event? If not, what is the significance of you not knowing about this event?

3. Speak up

Challenge yourself and your communities by bringing conversations into your spaces. Regardless of our intersectional identities, talking about racism is no easy task, but your ability to have more meaningful and productive conversations will grow as you practice more.

We also encourage you to read our article on the four steps to navigating difficult conversations about racism for more guidance on this topic.

One step at a time

We each have an active role to play in working against oppression and towards equality, and finding ways to elevate historically and systemically marginalized groups. Education is key to effectively defeat systemic racism - here are some resources that can help:

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Systemic racism: What it looks like in Canada and how to fight it?

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At UBC, our commitment to building an open environment and a diverse workforce makes us stronger. However, we recognize that even in a diverse institution like ours and in Canada, systemic racism still exists as a challenge for racialized communities and Indigenous peoples.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2021/01/08/social-media-continues-to-amplify-white-supremacy-and-suppress-anti-racism/?sh=381f3b244170

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Often times, those who are outspoken about white supremacy and racism have found their content ... [+]
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One of the greatest inventions within the last few decades has been social media. With the ability to connect with thousands and even millions of people instantly, social media has revolutionized the way that we communicate. Social media has even been instrumental in catalyzing major revolutions and its usage has risen significantly in the last few years, especially in 2020 amidst the global pandemic. With the great power that accompanies social media, comes great problems, it seems. Twitter just announced that it would be permanently suspending President Trump's Twitter account out of fear that his tweets may be encouraging a violence. Although it is a step in right direction, social media could use more protections and safeguards for those who are outspoken about racism and white supremacy. Black social media users have experienced a great deal of censorship online. Often times, those who are outspoken about white supremacy and racism have found their content removed or taken down for violating community guidelines. The silencing of those who speak out against bigotry and hate causes more damage than harm. The dismantling of oppressive systems cannot be achieved without the hard truths. A large part of the reason why racism is such a difficult elephant to eat is because we refuse to have honest and candid conversations in person and online. But those who are courageous enough to discuss these more challenging and nuanced subjects are punished rather than praised.

Many anti-racism educators and consultants have seen a spike in business following the killing of George Floyd, however, there may also be a concerted effort to muffle these same voices online. For many activists, diversity consultants, and anti-racism educators, Instagram is one of the primary ways to gain clients, so censorship of their content may also be impacting their pockets. "[Instagram] has really provided me with an opportunity to connect with other Black folks...and it's really encouraged me to stay focused on Black liberation..." shares anti-racism educator Monique Melton. "[I've] literally had my [Instagram] posts removed with no warning, no methods for filing for appeal of any kind...your content is just taken down.

Monique Melton, anti-racism educator
Rhea Whitney Photography

You could write content that folks just don't like, and they can report it as hate speech and...it's gone. It's happened twice with absolutely no opportunity to contest it...from the shadow banning to a very huge and sharp decline in engagement...seeing my numbers drop for the past few weeks [and] it's been dropping by 0.4% each week."

Popular Instagram account No White Saviors (NWS) found themselves in a similar situation when much of the content on their Instagram page was concealed or what is known as shadow banned. Shadow banning can be thought of as the suppression or invisibility of a post on social media. The NWS Instagram account, which currently has over 800,000 followers, has seen a decline in engagement since their inception. In an email, the NWS team stated "Instagram has given our team access to a global audience that would have been hard to reach in such a short amount of time. We started our page in June 2018, so we haven't even been around for three years yet...we have dealt with many censorship issues from Instagram from the beginning. From our content taken down for 'hate speech' to shadow banning, to having Instagram threaten [to] have our entire profile deleted...Instagram seems to do better to protect white supremacists and Nazi pages than those of us working to hold anti-Blackness and white supremacy accountable."

Diversity consultant Tanya Bonner shared a similar sentiment. Bonner shared that although she hasn't experienced suppression as severe as Melton or NWS, she has seen suppression in different forms on LinkedIn. In an email, Bonner shared that "several of my responses to racist comments have been censored. I also have witnessed the content of several other Black women on LinkedIn with a large following being censored. This prompted me to address LinkedIn directly to ask for a meeting to discuss the censoring of BIPOC voices on the platform. They have not responded to my request. So, it is obviously not a priority for them."

LinkedIn was recently called out for the censorship of anti-racism posts in a New York Times article.

Dismantling oppressive systems will not be achieved until those who speak up against racism and white supremacy are safe to use their voice to educate and impact others. In thinking of solutions, social media platforms must update their policies and guidelines so it doesn't continue to negatively impact the voices that are needed, especially during these times. Melton shared her thoughts on what Instagram can do to create a better system. "They absolutely have to have some type of appeal process-some way to contest your content being removed, and it's not just an automatic thing that happens because a white person doesn't like hearing about racism...there needs to be an anti-racism policy that protects activists and Black creators who are writing on these topics. Just because I write the words 'white supremacy' should not flag my account as hate speech. They really have to update their software, their programming, their team on what actually is hate speech. [Ensure that] Black activist work is found in the search and amplified...the ways that it feels unsafe is that you can be so deeply targeted so easily." The NWS team also suggests stronger screening policies for Instagram. "Too often, we have seen white travel photographers posting photos of nude children in African countries and Instagram fails to remove them, even after the images are reported/flagged...Instagram certainly needs revisions in the way that they filter flagged/reported content...until they actually show up to better protect those of us doing this work, they will be working to actively protect those with unearned power and privilege."

When reflecting on what LinkedIn can do to rectify these issues Bonner shared "LinkedIn can start by responding to my request for a meeting between BIPOC folks on LinkedIn and LinkedIn leadership... my post requesting this meeting has more than 87,000 views, including hundreds from LinkedIn and its owner Microsoft. But LinkedIn has refused to engage. Another step LinkedIn can take is if the company ever decides to acknowledge the concerns of BIPOCs on the platform, it should pay Black women and other BIPOC who specialize in DEI-related work to collaborate with them on a plan to rectify the issues. Free labor is not an option."

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

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Social Media Continues To Amplify White Supremacy And Suppress Anti-Racism

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One of the greatest inventions within the last few decades has been social media. With the ability to connect with thousands and even millions of people instantly, social media has revolutionized the way that we communicate. Social media has even been instrumental in catalyzing major revolutions and its usage has risen significantly in the last few years, especially in 2020 amidst the global pandemic.

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An Indigenous woman died in hospital because she failed to receive the necessary treatment for her condition. She had racial slurs thrown at her as she lay dying in her hospital bed. She recorded everything on her cell phone before passing away.

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The Quebec coroner who presided over a three-week inquiry into the death of Joyce Echaquan said she believes the Atikamekw woman would still be alive today if she were white.

Echaquan, a mother of seven, died on Sept. 28, 2020, shortly after recording herself as health-care staff in a hospital north of Montreal hurled racist remarks at her.

Her death and the footage leading up to it sparked outrage and protests, as well as calls for the province to acknowledge systemic racism.

After her report into Echaquan's death was released on Friday, coroner Géhane Kamel met with reporters in Trois-Rivières, Que., to explain her findings.

She concluded that racism played a role in Echaquan's death and that her death was not from natural causes but "accidental" because she did not receive the care she was entitled to.

Asked by a reporter in French if she thought Echaquan would still be alive today if she were white, Kamel replied: "Je pense que oui," or "I think so."

Echaquan's loved ones, who held a news conference of their own on Tuesday, agree.

"Joyce died," her husband Carol Dubé said before pausing for several seconds, "because she was Indigenous."

Dubé was accompanied by his children, Echaquan's parents, the family's lawyer, and Constant Awashish, the grand chief of the Atikamekw Nation.

Dubé thanked the coroner for her work, adding that there were several lies and contradictions during some of the inquiry's testimony, making it difficult for the family.

"Our healing will come through truth," he said. "And today, a small [part] of that truth finally sees the light of day."

The family's lawyer said they will soon file a lawsuit, with the details to come over the next few days.

They also plan to file complaints with the province's college of physicians, order of nurses and the human rights commission.
WATCH | Echaquan died because she was Indigenous, husband says:

'System imprinted with prejudice'

In her report, Kamel concluded Echaquan's death could have been prevented with better care from staff at the hospital in Joliette, Que.

"Although this may be difficult to hear, it is a system imprinted with prejudice and biases that contributed to [health-care staff] not taking the situation seriously," Kamel said Tuesday.

She also said that Echaquan was "infantilized" and labelled as a manipulative drug abuser, despite there being no evidence of this.

Kamel said the inquiry was a "difficult but necessary" process, and some of the testimony "shook her on a human level."

"Through her death, Joyce left us an extremely important legacy," Kamel said while fighting back tears. "It would be extremely sad if we learned nothing from her death."

Echaquan died of pulmonary edema.

​Kamel's report notes that Echaquan's care was affected because medical staff assumed she was suffering from withdrawal, which turned out to be untrue.

Premier continues denial of systemic racism

Kamel also issued several recommendations, the top one being that the Quebec government must recognize the existence of systemic racism within its institutions.

"Systemic racism doesn't imply that each individual that is part of this system is racist. It implies that the system - either through prejudices that are tolerated, reprehensible acts or its inaction - contributes to trivializing and marginalizing Indigenous communities," Kamel said during the news conference.

"Once my observations are made and my recommendations are sent to the different [provincial] ministries and organizations, it is up to them to decide if they'll seize this opportunity for a dialogue."

On Tuesday, Premier François Legault once again denied the existence of systemic racism, reiterating a position he has held for more than a year.

Legault said the definition of systemic racism that he agrees with is different than the one used by Kamel.

The premier said as far as he's concerned, systemic racism would have to be organizational, in the form of directives coming from people in positions of authority that support racist policies.

Using the province's health-care system as an example, Legault said the behaviour of staff or people in management doesn't mean there is a system in place to discriminate against Indigenous people.

"For me, a system is coming from upstairs, coming from the top people, and I don't see this in the health-care network," he said.

Legault also said that systemic racism existed in Quebec when residential schools were in place but that he doesn't see any evidence of it now.

He once again urged Quebecers not to get bogged down with definitions and to agree that racism - systemic or not - exists in Quebec and must be dealt with.

"Yes, there is is prejudice and discrimination and racism, and we need all Quebecers to work together to fight it," the premier said.

Within the regional health board that oversees the hospital where Echaquan died, 12,000 employees have received at least three hours of cultural safety training, Legault said.

He also highlighted - as proof the province wants to improve the health care Indigenous patients receive - that some members of the Atikamekw community have been given prominent roles on the health board.

In the wake of Echaquan's death, Atikamekw leaders in Quebec drafted Joyce's Principle, a set of recommendations meant to guarantee health care for Indigenous people, free of discrimination, by having it enshrined in provincial law.

But the province has refused to draft legislation that included tenets from Joyce's Principle because they also referenced systemic racism.

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If Joyce Echaquan were white, she would still be alive, Quebec coroner says | CBC News

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The Quebec coroner who presided over a three-week inquiry into the death of Joyce Echaquan said the Atikamekw woman would still be alive if she were white. On Tuesday, she reiterated her call for the Quebec government to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism within the province.