Deepening Understanding, Developing Ideas: A Cross-Country Conversation on Anti-Racism

• Vision
• Context
• What we know
• Key terms
• What has been done by others
• What has been done before and what we’re doing now
• What kinds of things we can do
• Anti-racism engagement
• Goals & objectives
• Principles
• Themes
• How to participate

Vision

The Government of Canada’s vision seeks to foster and promote an inclusive society where everyone is able to fully participate in the economic, cultural, social and political spheres.

Context

Achieving this vision is not just a way to build a better country, it also addresses the human cost of racism and discrimination. As the Prime Minister noted on March 21, 2017 on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, “racism devalues individuals, divides communities, and breeds fear and animosity throughout society.”^{Footnote 1}

Building a society that is free of racism requires ongoing commitment. Our priorities and activities need to be regularly updated to make sure that the most pressing needs and promising opportunities are being addressed. Over the years, the Government of Canada has put in place a number of laws, policies and programs that focus on overcoming racism and discrimination, including the Charter of Rights & Freedoms, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act and Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (CAPAR).

Earlier this year, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage released a report entitled “Taking Action Against Systemic Racism And Religious Discrimination Including Islamophobia”. This report made 30 recommendations, including a call to reinstate and update CAPAR (which sunset in 2010) through engagement with civil society, grassroots organizations, and interfaith groups. Shortly after the release of this report, Budget 2018 announced funding for a cross-country engagement on a new national anti-racism strategy.

What we know

Racism and discrimination can exist in all parts of our lives, from the unconscious biases that may influence how we relate to one another, to the under/overrepresentation of racialized communities and Indigenous Peoples in institutions such as prison, child welfare, etc. Acknowledging that racism and discrimination are a part of our lived reality is a critical first step to action.

It is clear that racialized communities’ experiences with racism and discrimination vary. Further, applying an intersectional lens reveals a complex picture of the way that different groups and individuals are excluded and harmed. Consider the following:

• Foreign-born visible minorities earn, on average, 78 cents for every dollar earned by foreign-born non-racialized people.^{Footnote 2}
• Black men face a larger earnings gap in the private sector than Whites, while Black women face this gap in both public and private sectors.^{Footnote 3} The earnings gaps they face, as reported in the 1996, 2001 and 2006 census, have not lessened over time.^{Footnote 4}
• In 2017, Indigenous People represented 4.9% of the Canadian population but accounted for 23.1% of the 2016-17 total federal offender population. Further, Indigenous women in custody represented 36.6% of all in-custody women while Indigenous men in custody represented 26.3% of all men in custody.^{Footnote 5}
• There were 1,409 police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2016 – a 3% increase over the previous year due to more incidents targeting South Asians, West Asians, Jewish people, and people based on their sexual orientation.^{Footnote 6}
• Hate crimes targeting Jewish and Muslim populations were the most common type of hate crime related to religion, comprising 48% and 30% of crimes against a religion, respectively.^{Footnote 7}
• 11% of individuals with a non-Christian religion indicated that they faced discrimination based on their religion in the previous five years compared to 1% of Christians.^{Footnote 8}
• In 2011, approximately 6.3 million people in Canada reported belonging to a visible minority group. Approximately, 3.2 million, or just over half, were women and girls. According to Statistics Canada’s population projections, over 3 in 10 females in Canada could belong to a visible minority group by 2031.^{Footnote 9}

Key terms

In the context of this engagement, we will be using the following working definitions developed by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Ontario Human Rights Commission:

Race: Race is a “social construct.” This means that society forms ideas of race based on geographic, historical, political, economic, social and cultural factors, as well as physical traits, even though none of these can legitimately be used to classify groups of people.^{Footnote 10}

Racialization: The process through which groups come to be socially constructed as races, based on characteristics such as ethnicity, language, economics, religion, culture, politics.^{Footnote 11}

Intersectionality: The idea that, in individuals, multiple identities (for example, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability) intersect to create a whole that is different from the component identities.^{Footnote 12}

Equity: Fairness, impartiality, even-handedness. A distinct process of recognizing differences within groups of individuals, and using this understanding to achieve substantive equality in all aspects of a person’s life.^{Footnote 13}

Discrimination: Treating someone unfairly by either imposing a burden on them, or denying them a privilege, benefit or opportunity enjoyed by others, because of their race, citizenship, family status, disability, sex or other personal characteristics.^{Footnote 14}

Systemic or institutional discrimination: Consists of patterns of behaviour, policies or practices that are part of the social or administrative structures of an organization, and which create or perpetuate a position of relative disadvantage for racialized persons. These appear neutral on the surface but, nevertheless, have an exclusionary impact on racialized persons.^{Footnote 15}

Social participation: Involvement in meaningful activities (social, cultural, physical, educational, recreational, etc.) that increase one’s sense of belonging and well-being.

What has been done by others

In recent years, other levels of government have undertaken work to better understand the prevalence and experiences of racism and discrimination in Canadian communities and develop strategies to counter them. Examples include:

• Government of Alberta, Taking Action Against Racism
• Government of Nova Scotia, The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry
• Government of Ontario, A Better Way Forward and Anti-Black Racism Strategy
• Ontario Human Rights Commission, Under suspicion: Research and consultation report on racial profiling in Ontario
• Gouvernement du Québec, Valorisation de la diversité et lutte contre la discrimination (available in French only)
• Government of British Columbia, Chinese Historical Wrongs Consultation Final Report & Recommendations
• City of Winnipeg, ONE: The Mayor’s National Summit on Racial Inclusion
• City of Toronto, Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism
• City of Hamilton, Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre

What has been done before and what we’re doing now

The Government of Canada has taken several steps intended to combat racism and discrimination, including:

Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program Funding: annual $8.5 million investment through the Department of Canadian Heritage in projects and events that:

• build bridges to promote intercultural understanding;
• promote equal opportunity for individuals of all origins, and
• foster citizenship, civic engagement and a healthy democracy.

Budget 2018: in addition to the $2 million intended to support the anti-racism engagement:

• $21 million was added to strengthen the Multiculturalism program’s resources for anti-racism and discrimination community support. This included additional funding for events and projects that address racism and discrimination with a priority on Indigenous Peoples as well as women and girls.
• $19 million was allocated to enhance local community supports for Black Canadian youth and to develop research in support of more culturally focused mental health programs for Black Canadians.

Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (2005 – 2010): CAPAR was launched in 2005 following the 2001 World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa. CAPAR was a five-year horizontal plan led by the Department of Canadian Heritage with the goal of ensuring that all Canadians were included in society and the economy through the elimination of barriers to full and active participation and opportunity.

CAPAR included more than 40 initiatives and strategies that were part of existing budgets and programs in more than 20 departments and agencies. In addition, $53.6 million in funding was allocated to nine new initiatives within four departments (Department of Canadian Heritage, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and the Department of Justice).^{Footnote 16}

While CAPAR’s evaluation confirmed that there was a need to combat racism and discrimination and that this was an appropriate role for the Government to undertake, the evaluation also revealed challenges in measuring CAPAR’s performance and the performance of the initiatives it supported, as well as challenges in managing its horizontal governance. For more information on CAPAR, review the Evaluation of Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism.

There are other federal initiatives currently underway that focus on issues tied to racism and discrimination and/or a focus on Indigenous Peoples and racialized communities, including:

• Truth And Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls To Action
• National Housing Strategy
• Poverty Reduction Strategy
• Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence
• The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence
• National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls
• Engagement on Recommendations made to Canada under its third Universal Periodic Review

What kinds of things we can do

There are many ways in which the Government of Canada can address racism and many tools it can use to do so. These include:

• policy changes;
• providing funding to non-federal entities (for example, nongovernmental organizations) to support their efforts in addressing racism;
• convening and collaborating with other levels of government, nongovernmental organizations and international institutions; and
• sharing knowledge, information and tools with the public.

Anti-racism engagement

Budget 2018 announced funding for a cross-country engagement on the development of a new federal anti-racism strategy.

Goals & objectives

Building off what has been done before (for example, CAPAR), the purpose of this engagement is to inform the development of a new federal anti-racism strategy with recommendations from Canadians, especially those with lived experiences of racism and discrimination.

The engagement will pursue this goal through the following objectives:

• identifying and validating issues and experiences related to racism, as well as the factors that contribute to them;
• generating ideas and suggestions on how the Government of Canada can best address racism;
• increasing public understanding of the nature of racism in Canada and the Government of Canada’s role in overcoming it;
• demonstrating the Government’s interest and involvement in combatting racism.

Principles

To guide this work, the following principles have been applied to the engagement’s design:

• paying attention to issues that are impacting communities and which the Government of Canada can address;
• engaging people in meaningful conversations, where the purpose is clear;
• focusing on the voices of those impacted by racism and seeking intersectional representation; and
• emphasizing solutions and action.

Themes

In order to focus the engagement on those issues where racism most directly intersects with people’s lives, as well as those policy areas that most closely overlap with the Government of Canada’s jurisdiction, the following themes will be the main priority for the engagement:

Employment & Income Supports

For example:

• Workplace discrimination
• Representation by job category (for example, number of Chief Executive Officers from racialized communities)
• Earnings and wage gaps
• Employment rate and labour force participation

Social Participation

For example:

• Individuals’ sense of belonging to their community, province/territory and/or country
• Mental health
• Access and inclusion in arts, sports, leisure (for example, hobbies, clubs)

Justice

For example:

• Over/under policing
• Access to justice, including over/under representation in the criminal justice system
• Hate Crimes
• Disaggregation of statistics related to arrests and incarceration

How to participate

Click on this link for the online poll and survey to submit your feedback.