Ryerson School of Journalism leaders step down amid calls to address racism

2021/03/10 Leave a comment

The “woke brigade” at work. Lasting change takes time:

The heads of a prestigious journalism program at a Toronto university have stepped down amid calls for sweeping changes at the school to address systemic racism and discrimination.

Janice Neil, the chair of the Ryerson School of Journalism, and Lisa Taylor, associate chair and the school’s undergraduate program director, resigned on Sunday.

Both noted in their resignation letters that they had worked to address issues of systemic racism and discrimination at the school during their years as leaders.

On Monday morning, Ryerson journalism students issued a public letter accusing the school of failing to represent and support Black, Indigenous, people of colour and LGBTQ students in the program.

The letter said the school has contributed to an unsafe learning environment rife with discrimination that has left students traumatized.

In an email to The Canadian Press on Monday evening, Neil said that under her leadership, the school had increased diversity of the teaching faculty, introduced new courses about reporting on race, Indigenous issues and the LGBTQ community, and offered mental health supports for students.

But Neil also acknowledged that many students think change has not come fast enough or is broad enough to make an impact,.

“One of the things I’ve learned as a leader is to recognize when It’s time for a major reset and that time is now,” she wrote. “To get to the next level will require different leadership.”

In her resignation letter, Lisa Taylor explained her reason for stepping down.

“Some students don’t believe that I’m in their corner, which means they may not turn to me if they’re in need, and having an undergraduate program director who is a trusted resource for only some students is truly inequitable,” she wrote.

A spokeswoman for Ryerson said the school “continues to acknowledge the work that needs to be done to address systemic racism” and will continue to take concrete steps to address the students’ concerns.

Source: Ryerson School of Journalism leaders step down amid calls to address racism

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with

Are We Ready for a Novel Narrated by a Terrorist? – The Daily Beast

2021/03/10 Leave a comment

Similar but different to The Reluctant Fundamentalist:

Would you read a book in which the protagonist is a radicalized terrorist?

This is the premise of Khalil, a novel by Algerian-born, France-based author Yasmina Khadra. When it was first published in France in 2018, there was a certain reticence towards the book. “Frankly, what interest is there in finding yourself in the mind of one of the perpetrators of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris?” a cultural critic in French newspaper Libération bluntly queried. “Khadra’s new novel provokes an impulse to retreat: don’t want to read it, don’t want to check it out.”

And yet, the reviewer concluded just as firmly: “Such prejudices show that the author was right to write his book.”

The desire to dismiss rather than deconstruct dangerous figures is, in a way, its own danger. Their unfathomable and unconscionable actions shape our anarchic society; avoidance doesn’t eradicate their presence or power. Nor does an engagement with their narrative validate what they do. Confronting our malaise around these figures helps identify how the past has metastasized into the present moment.

Khadra wrote the first part of the novel less than a month after the November 2015 attacks in Paris; he then took more than a year to resume the narrative. He was already well acquainted with the phenomenon of extremism: “I fought fundamentalist terrorism for eight years. In Algeria, the horror was daily,” Khadra recounted, via email, of his military role during the Algerian civil war. (Yasmina Khadra is a pen name he began using in 1990 to avoid military censorship; his given name is Mohammed Moulessehoul.) “I thought I had seen it all, that I was immune to the atrocity, yet each attack that occurs anywhere on earth brings me back to the barbarism that almost took over my country.”

Khalil is narrated by a 23-year-old first-generation Belgian from a Moroccan family. The reader first encounters him in a car full of men driving from Belgium to Paris, intending to blow up the Stade de France while a soccer match is in progress. Khalil—accompanied by Driss, his childhood friend and also-radicalized compatriot—is dispatched to set off a bomb on the RER, the train connecting central Paris to the banlieue. It is Khalil’s first time setting foot in the French capital.

“Khalil is not the ‘hero.’ He is the main character,” the author said. “It’s not the same thing. The use of the first person is a pedagogical choice. I wanted the terrorist to confide fully in the reader, without an intermediary. The immediate proximity makes it more explicit. It is a total immersion in the absurd world of murderous ideologies.”

When his explosive vest does not go off, Khalil flees the chaos that ensues. He is not relieved to be alive—he is furious he didn’t get to carry out his radicalized apotheosis. Unsure of what to do next, he slinks back to Brussels, avoiding people he knows in Molenbeek, the disenfranchised neighborhood he grew up in and which qualifies as a “mass of misfortune and submission.” He skulks around kebab shops, in public parks, imposing himself at his older sister’s apartment, lying his way into a childhood friend’s place, while he frantically seeks an explanation about his failed equipment.

The shock of the attacks in Paris reverberates back to Belgium and changes security measures immediately: bags searched, identity papers checked, ethnic profiling at an all-time high. Yet Khalil is less worried about the authorities than that the members of the Fraternal Solidarity might think he chickened out.

When it turns out his Paris-based cousin died in the attack on Le Bataclan—the concert venue targeted the same night as the Stade de France, an unthinkable massacre—it shakes not one iota of empathy loose. Khalil espouses nihilistically: “When you’ve chosen to sacrifice yourself for a cause, everything that has to do with life loses its importance.” He shrugs: “Whether you die for your convictions or because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time changes nothing… Such are the whims of destiny.”

Khalil encounters people from his past—his older sister, his twin sister, his childhood friend—yet one of the most telling moments in the novel is a conversation Khalil passively overhears between a group of young North Africans, heatedly discussing the Paris attacks and the effects seeping into Brussels. (Their dialogue is, unfortunately, awkwardly translated… the word choices are distractingly out of step with the slang actual young people would use.) They parse the omnipresent cops, the heightened suspicions, the collective feeling of hchouma, or shame, but also the resistance to feeling this, given that there is no link between Muslims and those twisting the religion into fanatical perversions. One man finds it only natural for ethnicities to be singled out; another retorts that extremist ideology should have no bearing on peaceful Muslims, let alone non-practicing ones. Someone pipes up that the violence is a natural progression of cultural exclusion: that Belgians—born and raised—with immigrant roots are unceasingly treated like unwelcome outsiders.

Khalil falls back in with members of the Fraternal Solidarity and is given a new mission. He is enthusiastic to deliver it, until a brush with grief rattles his convictions. Khadra concludes Khalil with—for this incredulous reader—an inauthentic attempt at redemption. Ultimately, where the author succeeds most is in addressing the statelessness many first generations feel, in which neither conformity nor diversity is rewarded. The systemic contempt of these communities erodes any possibility of hope, and this is a form of violence too.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Radicalization Tagged with , ,

More than 520 plaintiffs now part of Black public servants’ $900-million class-action lawsuit against government, as feds enlist Bay Street law firm

2021/03/09 Leave a comment

The disaggregated data that we have for the past three years (employment equity reports including hiring and promotion data, public service employee survey) along with PSC analysis of staffing process stages on employment equity results is not supportive of the proposed suit.

The large number of claimants, on the other hand, provides large-scale anecdotal evidence. (For my overall analysis, see Public Service Disaggregated Data for Visible Minorities and Indigenous peoples, Citizenship status):

More than 520 current and former Black federal public servants are now part of a $900-million class-action lawsuit that is alleging decades-long government discrimination, lack of advancement opportunities, and harassment. Three months ago, there were 12 representative plaintiffs.

After three months of waiting to hear from Ottawa, the suit’s leading lawyer says the government has decided to enlist a Bay Street law firm to fight the action despite the fact that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) has publicly admitted that racism and discrimination exists across public-sector institutions.

Courtney Betty, the lawyer leading the class action, has called his experience over the last three months and the steady influx of new plaintiffs “an incredible journey and nothing that I had expected.”

“I think that every day, we’re having new plaintiffs register and new individuals calling in asking how they can become class members,” said Mr. Betty, a former Crown attorney at the Department of Justice.

The class action started receiving a “flood” of call from elderly individuals who have retired from government departments and agencies, something which Mr. Betty called a “game-changer.”

“When we started getting people that were 74, 78 years old, it was like an atomic explosion, because it really brought to the forefront so many things that we had not been aware of,” said Mr. Betty. “It’s like unearthing this tremendous pool of pain and trauma.”

Filed on Dec. 2, 2020, the class proceeding includes plaintiffs from a wide range of government departments and agencies, including the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada, Corrections Canada, the Department of National Defence, and the RCMP.

Many of the experiences of members delineated in the class action centre on their lack of promotions within the federal public service after many years on the job, with the suit alleging that the Employment Equity Act has “failed in its goals and mandate to Black employees,” as it “fails to break down the category of visible minorities and thus ignores the unique, invisible and systemic racism faced by Black employees relative to other disadvantaged groups that are covered by the categories established by the Act.”

The class proceeding has now been filed, is before the court, and the government has been served, according to Mr. Betty.

“We wanted the government to have 90 days to come to the table, accept our offer, to meet with Black employee representatives, to meet with the union representatives, and figure out if there is a way of taking this to mediation and arbitration,” said Mr. Betty. “It just seemed like the natural thing to do.”

At the eleventh hour, the government informed the legal team that it had retained a Bay Street law firm, sending a signal they were intending to fight the litigation, said Mr. Betty.

“We’re now getting geared up on the premise that the government is prepared to have these individuals relive their horror, and tell their stories,” said Mr. Betty. “It’s a game changer for us in terms of how we approach it, and so we’re definitely now in a a position where we’re going to aggressively put forward our case.”

Mr. Betty said he’s “the guy who has spent my entire life waving the Canadian flag, I’m the guy who loves this country more than most Canadians do.”

“And now I’m in a situation where I recognize the government has been committing behaviour, that in many ways, [with] the pain and suffering that these individuals are feeling, is a form of atrocity that’s been committed against them,” said Mr. Betty. “And I know that’s a strong word.”

In a Dec. 4, 2020 press release, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Canada’s largest federal public service union, indicated its support for the legal action, with union president Chris Aylward telling The Hill Times that “Canada’s public service presents itself as a ‘merit-based, representative and non-partisan organization that serves all Canadians.’”

“While laudable as a principle, many Canadians, particularly Black Canadians, have experienced a different reality. The government must do what is necessary to right these wrongs and ensure that these injustices do not continue,” wrote Mr. Aylward.

According to a joint response from the Department of Justice and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the proposed class-action brought on behalf of Black employees in the Public Service of Canada was issued by the Federal Court on Dec. 2, 2020. The statement of claim was received by Canada and the proposed class-action is not certified.

“As part of the class-action process, the parties may proceed to schedule a motion for the court to determine whether to certify the action,” according to the statement. “No motion has yet been scheduled. “

Counsel for the Attorney General of Canada was in communication with counsel for the proposed class and advised Mr. Betty that outside counsel would be appointed, according to the statement.

“Counsel from Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP reached out to plaintiffs’ counsel in February to indicate that they will be representing the government’s interests in the two class proceedings and to discuss next steps,” according to the statement. “No schedule has been set for the government to set out its position on the lawsuit.”

According to the government, counsel for Canada has not received a request from counsel for the proposed class to enter into mediation with respect to this class action.

“Any future request would be given consideration,” according to the government. “As this complex proposed class action is in its early stages, it is otherwise premature to comment on the litigation at this point.”

The joint statement added that “systemic racism and discrimination is a painful lived reality for Black Canadians, racialized Canadians and Indigenous people,” that the government has taken steps to address anti-Black racism, systemic discrimination and injustice across the country, and that $12-million over three years has been committed towards a dedicated Centre on Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service.

“In September, the Speech from the Throne announced an action plan to increase representation and leadership development within the public service,” according to the statement. “Early in its mandate, the government also reflected its commitment in mandate letters, in the establishment of an Anti-Racism Strategy and Secretariat, in the appointment of a Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, and in the creation of the Office for Public Service Accessibility.”

“As this matter is currently before the courts, the Treasury Board Secretariat cannot comment on this suit at this time.”

NDP MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, Ont.) told The Hill Times that he believes the government has retained a law firm in an attempt to “use the infinite resources of the government to ensure Black workers in the public sector never have a fair day in court.”

“They’re going to lawyer up, they’re going to drag it out, and they’re going to try to bleed the class action support dry,” said Mr. Green last week.

Mr. Green said he believes this government does an actuarial risk assessment “both politically and financially.”

“I think on one side, you have a scenario in which they know they’re wrong, that many in the processes they claim to put in place around equity, diversity and inclusion under the guise of [Gender Based Analysis Plus], the language that the government uses, actually does not have the outcomes in which they purport to have.”

“We’ve now had decades of anti-Black racism, which will be in the most contemporary terms, validated in these toxic workplace cultures that have essentially left out a sub-segment of their workers in ways that they can point to as being quantifiable,” said Mr. Green.

Any worker, more especially marginalized workers, deserve to have basic workplace fairness, said Mr. Green.

“You could imagine working somewhere for 20 or 30 years and only ever being promoted one or two pay grades above your entry level while seeing your co-workers go on to become senior management and fully pensioned,” said Mr. Green. “The opportunity cost lost for these Black workers is immense, so on one hand you have a government that knows that and recognizes the burden of their financial obligation, while simultaneously doing the risk analysis politically on whether or not stifling these workers is going to result in votes lost for their future political gains.”

Mr. Green said that when this government felt it most politically expedient to take up the cause of the Black Lives Matter movement, it politicized it for their own partisan gain and for the branding exercise of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) to take a knee in that moment, alluding to the June 5 “No Peace Until Justice” march on Parliament Hill to protest racism, police brutality, and systemic discrimination in Canada and around the world.

“[To] not stand for the thousands of Black workers who are past and present impacted by anti-Black racism within the public sector says everything you need to know about this government,” said Mr. Green. “They’re all about identity politics, without any commitment to justice, and that is a very cynical way to treat people.”

“I won’t mince words—it’s performative, and when push comes to shove, Justin Trudeau and this Liberal government are nowhere to be found in tackling things that are well within their power,” said Mr. Green.

“We’re not asking them to solve racism in Canada, we’re telling them they have a responsibility to Black workers within the public service that they are ignoring and in fact, in this case, continuing to uphold in perpetuity, that they are upholding anti-Blackness by not mediating with this group in good faith,” said Mr. Green.

‘37 years stuck at one level’

Caroline Layne, one of hundreds of plaintiffs now part of the class-action lawsuit, said she started as a temporary employee as a telecommunications clerk with the RCMP in 1982, and spent 37 years with the RCMP before retiring in 2009. Ms. Layne said she spent 37 years stuck at one level and was never promoted.

“People say to me, ‘You worked with the government, you must have a good pension,’” said Ms. Layne in an interview with The Hill Times.

“But I don’t, because I was never able to move up the ladder,” said Ms. Layne. “The thing is, for an honest day’s work, you should get an honest day’s pay.”

Outlining some of her experiences during her many years with the RCMP, including acts of both indirect and overt racism from co-workers, members of the public and sometimes from superiors, Ms. Layne said there was never anyone to turn to or to relate her story.

“Everybody turned a deaf ear,” said Ms. Layne.

“People would come to the front desk and almost want to throw me out, and I would just have to take it on the chin,” said Ms. Layne. “I had to take it and just smile.”

When a police officer takes on a post, they should take it on “because of who they are, because they are there for society, and there to help each individual, Black, brown or white,” said Ms. Layne. “When I went to the RCMP, I took an oath as a public servant.”

Another plaintiff in the class action, Carol Sip, spent 26 years in the federal public service, starting in the Department of National Defence in 1974 before retiring in 2000.

“There was not much room for promotion, so I decided to apply elsewhere,” said Ms. Sip at the beginning of an emotional interview with The Hill Times.

Looking for a permanent position, Ms. Sip applied to the now defunct Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (known today as the Canada Border Services Agency), as well as to Gateway postal services, alluding to the Canada Post facility in Mississauga.

“I chose Customs, thinking I’ll have a better chance of promotion there,” said Ms. Sip. “But I was wrong.”

The former federal public servant, who would end up spending the vast majority of her career with the agency, said she joined the class-action lawsuit because the lack of opportunities for promotion throughout her career affected her mental health and well-being, and found herself looking for part-time work to subsidize her income, ending up working very difficult hours.

“Now, instead of the government taking responsibility, protecting me, and addressing the matter, they hire a Bay Street law firm to inflict more pain and suffering,” said Ms. Sip. “The victims always suffer.”

Ms. Sip said she initially didn’t want to come forward with her story.

“But then I think about the younger generation and if this would make a difference,” said Ms. Sip.

Erica Ifill, a policy analyst at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED) who has been with the department since Feb. 2019 and is currently on sick leave, recently penned a piece for The Hill Times in her regular column called “An open letter to federal Black employees,” where she outlined her experience being “harassed, bullied and surveilled for most of my time at the department” where she was “denied development opportunities and promotions.”

Ms. Ifill also wrote that when she tried to seek redress through the internal processes, “again I was refused any meaningful action.”

When asked if she believed the emergence of this lawsuit and the continued growth of the number of plaintiffs involved will send a strong message to the federal public service in a follow-up interview with The Hill Times last week, Ms. Ifill was not optimistic.

“[The public service] exists on a plane that is divorced from reality,” said Ms. Ifill. “Their ability to assess risk is very skewed—they get to where they are by badly assessing risk.”

“I don’t have any faith in them, I think they’re going to have to be forced to do the right thing,” said Ms. Ifill, who is also a member of the Federal Black Employee Caucus.

Although not yet a part of the class-action suit, Ms. Ifill said she’s considering it and that she’s currently in talks with representatives.

Riyadh Nazerally, a spokesperson with ISED, said “the public service has long made diversity and inclusion in its workforce a core value, and there has been steady progress over the past decade, but many gaps remain,” in an emailed statement to The Hill Times. “In particular, the lack of diversity in leadership roles across the public service has been persistent and must be addressed.”

“At ISED, we have started a dialogue and we are listening. We are learning from lived experience through ongoing employee consultation and safe space discussions,” added Mr. Nazerally, who also pointed to the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce focused on identifying and implementing specific diversity and inclusion measures.

“We are actively consulting with employees on a plan to identify meaningful actions in order to build a more diversified workforce. One of our objectives is to remove biases and systemic barriers. We are committed to addressing and dismantling structural and systemic racism and discrimination, while also ensuring that our workplace is free of harassment.”

“For privacy reasons, we cannot comment or discuss specific employee matters,” wrote Mr. Nazerally.

‘Persistent threat to our national security’

Huda Mukbil, a former senior intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and a national security expert, is not a plaintiff in the Black class-action lawsuit, but she told The Hill Times that she is helping the team and hoping to become more involved in the future.

“The reason I feel passionate about this, is because I feel that it is a persistent threat to our national security,” said Ms. Mukbil, who began her career at CSIS in 2001 and was the first Arab woman and one of very few black women at the agency.

“I was well received for a very long time, about three years, and then what can I say—I encountered systemic issues,” said Ms. Mukbil, who went on to outline discrimination she would face throughout her career.

“The biggest problem is that it’s left up to individuals to fight the discrimination and the harassment and the microaggressions and the lack of career progression—the whole thing is left up to an individual,” said Ms. Mukbil. “There’s a risk obviously—you’re looking at one individual trying to take on a system.”

What’s coming out as a function of this lawsuit is “really the tip of the iceberg,” said Ms. Mukbil.

“There is so much going on, there’s so much damage that’s happening to so many people’s lives, and what we’re seeing now is just horrible,” said Ms. Mukbil.

‘This lawsuit will force the public service to look deeply inside its structure’

Although former senator Don Oliver was unavailable for an interview last week, he has spent decades fighting against systemic racism within the public service, and told The Hill Times in December 2020 that he was supportive of the lawsuit and the effect it would have on structures within the bureaucracy.

“The lawsuit will force the public service to look deeply inside its structure and systems to find ways to eradicate white privilege in performance evaluations and all other known forms of systemic black racism,” wrote the retired Senator in a message to The Hill Times shortly after the lawsuit was first launched. “It must start with some profound personal soul searching that will require all white managers to learn to accept some uncomfortable truths.”

And as the establishment of any new government department is ultimately directed by the PMO, according to the former Senator, the clerk of the Privy Council and all deputy ministers in the public service would have to fall in line.

In a piece that ran in The Globe and Mail on March 1 following Black History Month, Sen. Oliver wrote that deputy ministers in government “can speed up the internal cleansing and make meaningful change” by, among other practices, ensuring that no barriers exist to prevent Black employees from advancing, implementing or expanding unconscious bias and anti-racism education, sharing best—and unsuccessful—practices, working with members of the Black community, and creating the conditions for success.

“The defining test of systemic racism in Canada is when I no longer have to somehow prove that I, as a Black Canadian, am worthy to participate in and enjoy all the fruits, benefits and perks of daily living that have been bestowed on the white majority by virtue of their privilege,” wrote the former Senator, who served in the Red Chamber from 1990 to 2003.

When asked for comment, the Prime Minister’s Office referred The Hill Times back to the Treasury Board.

Source: More than 520 plaintiffs now part of Black public servants’ $900-million class-action lawsuit against government, as feds enlist Bay Street law firm

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York school board releases its strategy to combat anti-Black racism and end a culture of low expectations and ‘throwaway kids’

2021/03/09 Leave a comment

Will be interesting to assess the impact on student outcomes in a number of years and what measures were particularly effective:

It’s the stories. It’s the stories that sit within, and heave out come time to seek justice, that make a difference. 

Stories that have been discounted for centuries, but have become unignorable since decades of data — statistical, academic and visual — have rapidly piled up. Today only the most wilfully ignorant would deny the existence of deeply rooted anti-Black racism — itself a term coined by Ryerson social work professor Akua Benjamin.

It’s those stories, the experiences of Black families in the school system, that sit at the root of a report by the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) being released Monday.

The two-part Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy is a five-year strategic plan built in collaboration with staff, parents, trustees, community organization and students. In all, about 800 people contributed to the creation of the strategy, which the YRDSB calls the first of its kind by a Canadian school board.

While many boards have equity plans and activities on anti-Black racism,“the power of this (strategy) is making sure there’s some coherence to those activities,” said Tana Turner, an adjunct professor in the faculty of education at York University, who authored it. It builds on the board’s existing equity plans and spells out priorities, action items and an accountability framework.

That last point is urgent. It is also where community skepticism resides. It’s easy for leaders to sign on to anti-racist ideas. The racist barriers are usually erected when it comes to carrying them out. No surprise, then, that everyone who was involved in the creation of this report cited bold leadership as the No. 1 step to accountability. 

“The leadership has to be truly on board, understand what’s at stake and has to lead by example,” said Claudette Rutherford, a parent and teacher at the board. “Are you championing for racial justice when nobody is looking?” 

Two years ago, Rutherford put out an email to parents of Black children, saying, “If you’re worried about your kids in this system, let’s talk.” It was an emotional meeting. They had their own stories, they heard others’.

A desire to take the discussions beyond venting led to her co-founding Parents of Black Children (PoBC) with Charline Grant and Kearie Daniel, both known firebrands. They found strong, talented teachers — Black and non-Black — who said they were too afraid to put their names as board members, that they worried about the repercussions for their careers. 

“I understand it, no judgment,” Rutherford said. But it made the co-founders wonder: “Who is going to put themselves on the line for our children? Nobody but the mothers, right? It sits deep within me.” 

Turner said this lack of safety for anti-racist teachers is true across school boards. In her decades of doing equity and census audits in Ontario school boards and public sector organizations, she found, “In a lot of these boards, it’s safer to be racist than to be anti-racist. You can lose your job for sticking up for Black children.”

In school, teachers are the most important contributors to student achievement. But what to do if they themselves are biased or racially illiterate? When studies show they are more likely to read Black faces as angry even when they’re not, Black boys’ misbehaviours as more hostile than those of white boys, Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers? 

Parents echoed what has been said in other boards. “Teachers look through Black students,” is one quote in the report. They said their children were seen as “throwaway kids” not worthy of being taught. 

When one of Rutherford’s children had applied for an academic course, she received an email from staff at the new school (who had never met him) saying they were worried he couldn’t manage. “I had to get his white principal to write a note on my behalf.”

Consultants heard Black children were called the N-word as early as in Grade 1, or slaves by classmates because their teachers had singularly focused on slavery during Black History Month while ignoring contributions of Black Canadians. 

Equally troublesome was that teachers and principals often treated these situations as interpersonal conflicts, holding both children culpable if the Black child responded verbally or physically. 

This is why one of the action plans is for the board to increase the racial literacy of all staff and students, create a protocol to help them identify racist and other inappropriate acts, and guide them with steps that students, parents and staff can take to have them addressed. “We need to equip teachers and make a difference in those classrooms,” Turner said. 

The Parents of Black Children group is separately collecting these experiences from staff, which Rutherford says will be analyzed by a volunteer researcher. 

At the board, a major part of the accountability process is bringing community eyes on the process, with plans to give the steering committee regular updates on how the strategy is being implemented. Strategies are to be adjusted based on their feedback and response to data being collected.

“What was excellent about this whole process is you had various Black community members and organizations working together, speaking about the problems and wanting to be part of the solution, to be part of the change,” said Elizabeth Turner, York school board trustee and one of the 22 working-group members who helped develop the strategy.

“This framework is designed to hold the YRDSB accountable not only for implementing the actions … but also for creating better outcomes for Black students,” the report says.

These include better academic outcomes and greater well-being of Black students in learning environments that not only protect them from the trauma of anti-Black racism but also affirm their identities. 

“The issue of Black underachievement is the most pervasive and unacknowledged in the education system,” said Cecil Roach, a superintendent of equity at the board. “You can’t have 50 years of Black kids not graduating at the same level as everyone else.”

The trouble is how to convince the naysayers? Naysayers are often not people who say anti-Black racism doesn’t exist. They’re ones who look at the disparities of student outcomes and blame Black students and their families for it. Up to a point, this can be blamed on racial illiteracy. Beyond that it’s about racist attitudes towards Black people. 

“If you don’t understand the system, you’re blaming the marginalized people for their marginalization,” Turner said. “These teachers haven’t been taught. They don’t know.”

Roach, too, insists on optimism on that score. “Teachers want to do well by kids as long as we give the proper intervention.”

Not that he has a choice. Other than hoping interventions move people to see the light, what hope of change can anyone have? 

Consultations with the York school community showed that even cheerful events can deepen Black students’ isolation. On Crazy Hair Day, for instance, “It’s white kids putting their hair in braids, using baubles Black kids put in their hair … and you’re calling them crazy?” Turner said. Or the only Black kid in class gets left out on Twin Day.

In addition there is the well-known fact of criminalization of children, the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. “For many students, school discipline can lead to their first contact with the criminal justice system,” the report reads. Kids who drop out are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than a youth who has graduated from high school. 

Rutherford remembers once receiving sensitive information about a Black family going through a transition after the father lost his job. Another educator heard the same story and called in Children’s Aid. Why?

Rutherford sees other supports that could have been put in place. Maybe the school could have called the father and offered to get housing. “What is it about Black families that makes you want to penalize rather than support?” she asked. 

If he had to choose just one outcome, Roach would want to see Black graduation rates shoot up. “I want to see Black kids at age 16 have 16 credits.” But that’s not a goal that can operate in isolation, he said. 

“We already know what to do. The question is do we want to do it? It’s one thing to accept the disparity is there. It’s another thing to care about it.”

It’s a given that supporting the most marginalized students supports all students. 

“Ultimately we want an education where our kids flourish,” Rutherford said. “We want our children to feel nurtured and welcome and deserving of safe educational spaces. We don’t want more than what other parents want. Our children deserve that.”

Source: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2021/03/08/york-school-board-releases-its-strategy-to-combat-anti-black-racism-and-end-a-culture-of-low-expectations-and-throwaway-kids.html

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , ,

Ukraine Foreign Minister Kuleba: We plan to allow dual citizenship with EU countries | KyivPost – Ukraine’s Global Voice

2021/03/09 Leave a comment

Canada most likely will be included among the “friendly” countries included:

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced plans to allow dual citizenship in Ukraine with the EU countries.

“What did you see in the NSDC decision? You saw the outlines of the state’s position, which should be reflected in the future in the legislation regarding the participation of persons with dual or multiple citizenships in the state life of Ukraine. The policy that we will implement consists of two elements. We plan to allow dual citizenship with the EU and friendly countries, which do not pose any threat to us, and the list of these countries will be calibrated, it will depend on some criteria,” Kuleba said at an online briefing on March 5.

According to him, this will be an opportunity to keep the halo of the Ukrainian presence in the world as a whole, and a citizen of Ukraine who has left for permanent residence, for example, to an EU country, in the future will be able to become a citizen of this country and remain at the same time the part of Ukraine, preserve the Ukrainian passport.

“We need to keep together millions of Ukrainians scattered around the world, we must not interfere with their integration into the society in which they decided to continue their lives, but we must, as a state, make every effort to keep them Ukrainians, so that they stay connected with their homeland, so that they will be Ukraine’s lawyers in a new society,” Kuleba said.

At the same time, he indicated that a number of restrictions on dual citizenship for parliament members and ministers would be established. Also, dual citizenship with the Russian Federation will not be allowed.

“I am a consistent supporter of this idea, we are working with the MPs on the appropriate legislative amendments. There is one exception – this is an aggressor state, there can be no talk of any dual citizenship with it,” the minister said.

Kuleba added that this is a policy that still needs to find its legislative formulation, its implementation.

Source: Kuleba: We plan to allow dual citizenship with EU countries | KyivPost – Ukraine’s Global Voice

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Yalnizyan: Our temporary residents provide a resource we can’t ignore

2021/03/09 1 Comment

Armine’s piece coming out of Ryerson’s CERC panel a few months ago.

I remain sceptical regarding maintaining current target levels during a recession and lowering the CRS minimum points to 75 (essentially, anyone 25-34 with one years Canadian work experience) as a good immigration strategy in terms of economic and social outcomes.

And, as StatsCan helpfully remained us, not all temporary workers will necessarily want to transition to permanent status:

Over the last decade or two, about one third of temporary foreign workers and one quarter of international students became landed immigrants within 15 years after their first arrival. TFWs who had low earnings tended to have low earnings after becoming landed immigrants.— feng hou (@fenghou9) March 7, 2021

Worried about immigration during the pandemic? You may be shocked to learn that for every new permanent resident admitted to Canada in 2019, almost three temporary residents were admitted to work or study. Immigration refers only to permanent residents, so any conversation about immigration is only talking about 28 per cent of all the people entering Canada.

This little-known statistic directly informs a recent conversationabout Canada’s Immigration Plan at Ryerson University, the core theme of which is that we could miss a remarkable opportunity if we don’t see the whole chessboard.

In particular, the surest path to an equitable post-COVID-19 recovery involves increasing the number of immigrants Canada accepts by expanding the paths to permanent residency for people already studying and working here, Canada’s temporary residents. That single reform could bolster Canada’s future in both the short and long run. Here’s why:

It comes as no surprise that Canada’s immigration intake was almost cut in half as a result of COVID-19, bringing us back to levels last seen in the late 1990s. Those levels are not good enough for the post-pandemic future, which will be marked by population aging and a shrinking working-age cohort.

The pandemic accelerated a process already in play, with more people over 55 exiting the workforce than entrants aged 25 and younger. This dynamic hastens that moment when Canada’s net labour-force growth goes negative if not for the addition of workers born outside Canada. A shrinking Canadian labour force, with little or no productivity growth since 2015, is a recipe for economic decline. That’s not a future anyone wants.

Nonetheless, some experts are worried about Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino’s pledge to make up for the shortfall in the 2020 target of 341,000 new immigrants by increasing targets over the next three years: 401,000 new immigrants in 2021, rising to 421,000 by 2023.

For critics, it’s too soon for such ambitious plans. COVID-19-related job losses and foregone hours of paid work mean the current labour underutilization rate is over 18 per cent. Given that the pandemic hit low-income workers the hardest, and that low-income workers are disproportionately women, youth, racialized minorities and recent immigrants, it could seem counterproductive to add more people to the mix as the nation’s hardest-hit citizens struggle to find their feet again in the post-pandemic world. Indeed, the Conservative immigration critic, Raquel Dancho, describes the goal of accepting 1.2 million new immigrants by 2023 as “pure fantasy.”

Higher targets do raise legitimate concerns about the well-known challenges of integration, given the current inadequacy of settlement services. But is the Liberals’ plan really so unattainable and undesirable?

Consider the numbers: Canada accepted more than 1.2 million newcomers in just one year, 2019, (see Chart 1) through permits for both permanent and temporary residency — a number that has increased steadily over the years, particularly among for those brought into Canada for economic reasons.

In 2019 (see Chart 2), about 30 per cent of those who entered Canada as permanent residents had made the transition from temporary-resident status. We can easily accommodate 1.2 million new immigrants over the next three years if we draw from the ranks of temporary residents who already work or study here. They have adjusted to life in Canada to some degree. Providing them with better settlement services like subsidized housing, English/French as a second language instruction and learning supports is a low-cost, high-yield return on public spending that also creates new jobs for Canadians.

Ironically, admitting more immigrants may be the surest path to a more equitable recovery, if one looks at the entire system of the intake of newcomers, including temporary residents. We don’t know for sure how many want to stay, but there’s plenty of demand for pathways to permanence among the more than 530,000 international students, 459,000 migrant workers (via the International Mobility Programs) and 77,000 temporary foreign workers who were in Canada as of December 31, 2020, and that’s in the middle of a pandemic. It is hard to believe that this deep well of human aspiration could not satisfy most, if not all, of the minister’s goal of adding 50,000 more immigrants this year. More generally, failing to integrate those who are already here studying and working and who want to stay is like leaving money on the table.

Though hard to imagine right now, we will soon be looking at widespread labour shortages. While population aging creates an unprecedented opportunity to increase skills and employment opportunities for whole groups of systemically underemployed Canadian residents, like the ones hardest hit by the pandemic, we’ll nonetheless need more newcomers to address temporary and permanent labour and skills shortages.

Historically, we have admitted more permanent residents than temporary ones to address labour shortages. But in 2006 the lines crossed. Ever since, we’ve admitted more migrant workers than economic immigrants. Take a hard look at the trajectory in Chart 2 and ask yourself: can you imagine living in a society where the vast majority of economic newcomers are migrants? Is this the future you envision for Canada?

The shift described in Chart 2 erodes workers’ rights in industries like accommodation, food service, personal services, elder care and child care, long-term care, and some types of manufacturing. These sectors, which have long relied on low-wage immigrants, reduce costs even further by turning to migrant workers with even less ability to exercise statutory labour protections. Exhibit A: seasonal agricultural workers, the essential workers who make sure we are fed, but may not be able to protect their own health and safety. Most come back, year after year; but this year some couldn’t even get tests or take time off when they fell ill with COVID-19. We can do better, for them and for us.

This process has begun. Small steps to create more pathways to permanence started in 2019, with a new pilot for personal care workers, joined by two others in 2020 for seasonal agricultural workers and live-in caregivers, and one for health-care workersin 2021. To these measures was added the recent federal invitation to basically everyone in Canada to put in an application to become a permanent resident. Last month the federal government drew 27,800 people from these applications. 

Canadian immigration is based on a point system, and the lowest score of applicants was 75. A normal draw features applicants with 400 points, sometimes more. Does this downgrade the “quality” of immigrants and hence their ability to integrate? No. They were already here, studying and working, but at risk of losing their status and deported during the pandemic. This was effectively a regularization program. (Note: Canada hasn’t had a major regularization program for residents without status since the 1970s, under Trudeau père. If not during a pandemic, when should such measures be taken? Never?)

We should celebrate, not be afraid of these measures. Permitting more migrant workers to transition to permanent status increases their ability to access labour protections and basic human rights. If we reduce exploitation of these workers, we improve working conditions for everyone in the workplaces where they are employed.

The de facto “two-step immigration process” that has emerged in recent years has been primarily driven by business demands for faster intake of newcomers, but could lead to better integration and lives for “low” and “high” skilled workers alike. If temporary foreign workers are good enough to work for us, they are good enough to live among us, permanently, if that is what they wish.

Let’s not look at the immigration story with our eyes wide shut. How we live with others will define the labour market, society, and future of Canada.

Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2021/03/06/our-temporary-residents-provide-a-resource-we-cant-ignore.html

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Gender Results Framework: Data table on gender representation in federal leadership roles

2021/03/09 Leave a comment

Text – Selected

Underwhelming. Overly general, no intersectionality data but will save some time for those like me who track this stuff. More interesting would be broader examination of federal leadership roles beyond MPs:

Statistics Canada’s Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics has released a new data table on gender representation in federal government leadership roles. This information will be used by the Gender Results Framework, a whole-of-government tool designed to track gender equality in Canada.

Using open data from the House of Commons of Canada, the Centre has produced a table that shows the gender distribution of members of Parliament and of ministers appointed to the federal Cabinet. This information could be used to track, over time, gender representation in elected office and appointments to ministerial positions in the federal government.

Open data refer to structured data that are machine-readable and freely shared, used and built on without restrictions. The data included in this table are sourced from the House of Commons of Canada and are licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.

These new data will soon be housed on the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics Hub.

Personally, find employment equity public service, governor-in-council, judicial and senate appointments more interesting and relevant than this general dataset.

Hopefully StatsCan’s new hub will become more relevant over time and broaden its reach in cooperation with other agencies such as TBS, PSC and PCO.

Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210308/dq210308f-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan

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COVID-19 pandemic prompts recent newcomers to leave Canada for their home countries

2021/03/08 Leave a comment

Data on departures less accurate than arrivals. But a decline in permanent residents of 41,000 in 2020 compared to 2019 using labour force data is much smaller than the drop in new permanent residents, which fell by 156,000, so I think the significance is over-stated:

The economic and life disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted some recent immigrants to leave Canada and return to their countries of origin, where they have more social and family connections.

The number of permanent residents who have been in Canada for less than five years declined by four per cent to 1,019,000 by the end of 2020 from 1,060,000 the year before, according to an analysis of Statistics Canada’s labour force survey that measures the number of workers between 15 and 65 years old by their immigration status.

The number had grown three per cent a year, on average, in the previous 10 years.

The data show that the number of permanent residents who have been in Canada for five to 10 years also dropped from 1,170,000 in 2019 to 1,146,000 in 2020.

“It’s actually not uncommon to have immigrants go back to their home country during the recessionary periods,” said Robert Falconer, a researcher at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

“If they’ve lost their job, they can go and live with their family and not pay rent. They can maybe find some social connections and work back home.”

He said the number of new immigrants fell by about three per cent between 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis and the recession that followed.

He said many of those who have left in the past year might not come back if the economy doesn’t recover quickly.

“The longer they stay at home in their home countries, the less likely they are to come back to Canada.”

A study by Statistics Canada released in August showed that in the early months of the pandemic, recent immigrants to Canada were more likely than Canadian-born workers to lose their jobs, mainly because they had held them for less time and, as a whole, are overrepresented in lower-wage employment. That includes in service-sector jobs.

Julien Bérard-Chagnon, an analyst with Statistics Canada, said the agency doesn’t keep a monthly count of immigrants who leave the country but a group of its analysts are now working on a paper to examine the issue during COVID-19 pandemic.

“The literature signals that immigrants, especially recent immigrants, are more likely to emigrate than the Canadian-born population,” he said.

While the pandemic has also driven down immigration to Canada by about 40 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, the Liberal government announced in October that Canada is seeking to admit upwards of 1.2 million new permanent residents in the next three years, including 401,000 this year.

But this number seems optimistic as travel restrictions and the sharp economic downtown remain.

“I doubt they will hit their target this year,” Falconer said.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the government is very confident it will meet it immigration targets in the next three years.

“In January 2021, we welcomed more new permanent residents than in January 2020, when there was no pandemic,” Alexander Cohen said in a statement.

“We’re already ahead of schedule, welcoming new permanent residents at a rate 37 per cent higher than our projections.”

Falconer said the government is focusing on transitioning temporary residents in Canada to permanent status.

“It’s the best thing to do for people who are living here,” he said. “But in terms of this population growth, it’s a wash, meaning that we’re not actually increasing our population.”

He said this policy is necessary but not sufficient to help the government meet its high immigration target this year.

“Not every temporary resident wants to become a Canadian permanent resident or Canadian citizen. Some of them are here to work, to study and they are perfectly happy to go back home.”

He said the incentive for the government is still to try to increase immigration numbers, especially in jobs related to health care and technology because having fewer immigrants will harm these two sectors more than others.

Andrew Griffith, a former director of citizenship and multiculturalism at the Immigration Department, says immigrants who arrive during an economic downturns tend to suffer economically, at least in the short term, more than those who arrive when the economy is growing.

He said maintaining high levels of immigration at a time when the economy is weak and sectors such as hospitality, retail and tourism are devastated has an element of irresponsibility.

Griffith said immigrants leaving Canada can reflect a failure of Canadian integration policies.

He said the government needs to put more focus on immigrants who are already here as we face structural change in sectors including hospitality, travel and service industries that will affect mostly women, visible minorities and recent immigrants.

“We may be in a fairly structural shift that will eliminate some jobs or dramatically reduce some jobs, and then what kind of retraining programs or other programs we need to support people as they transition.”

Cohen said the government has invested in settlement services during the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing funding to help boost wages by 15 per cent. It has helped buy personal protective equipment to keep staff safe, as well as cellphones and laptops to ensure services, including language training and job-search help, can be offered remotely.

Falconer said the government should address problems with licensing and professional development that many newcomers face in Canada.

“We make it very, very difficult for somebody who worked in a profession in their home country to come here and work in the same profession.”

“Immigrants come here with aspirations or hopes of being able to work and earn a much better living here in Canada than they did in their home country and they discover that they’re actually going to be working in an unpaid, underemployed job.”

Source: COVID-19 pandemic prompts recent newcomers to leave Canada for their home countries

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Diversity is on a collision course with bilingualism at Canada’s top court

2021/03/08 1 Comment

Tend to agree:

Should all Supreme Court of Canada judges — or at least the next one — be bilingual? Should the next vacancy go to a Black, brown or Indigenous jurist, whether they are bilingual or not, to reflect Canada’s population in all its diversity?

It’s a legal dilemma wrapped up in a language debate, tinged with electoral politics, and an existential question about what kind of country Canada is.

The Trudeau government has kicked off both.

On the same day it announced the launch of a search for an Ontario jurist to take the seat of soon-to-retire Justice Rosalie Abella, the Liberal government said it plans to put into law Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s practice of appointing only “functionally bilingual” judges to the top court.

It was a campaign commitment, and with a whiff of a possible election in the air, Trudeau is ticking off political boxes.

But the “how?” he proposes to do it is less clear. And advocates of greater diversity say mandatory bilingualism will block many qualified candidates from being elevated to the Supreme Court.

Six months ago the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers wrote an open letter to the Trudeau government urging swifter action to address systemic anti-Black racism throughout the justice system and noting “only three Black judges have been appointed under the Trudeau-led government.”

Raphael Tachie, senior counsel for TD Financial Group and president of the association, in an interview said the top court should be a bilingual institution but the requirement “that each individual justice be bilingual disqualifies a lot of really qualified Black and racialized jurists that we think would be great appointments to the court.”

Many practising outside Quebec have not been exposed to French language or training, or “come to the language later on in life and might not always be as proficient as they ought to be. That’s the challenge,” he said, adding “I think the court can compensate for that,” using translators and interpretation. He urges Trudeau to look beyond the Ontario Court of Appeal to lower courts and the bar: “You need to elevate your talent,” he said.

Brad Regehr, the first Indigenous lawyer to lead the Canadian Bar Association, says the same is true for Indigenous candidates who “already face systemic barriers in terms of achieving that proficiency in official languages.” Regehr says it’s time for Trudeau to name someone who is Black, Indigenous or a person of colour to the Supreme Court.

A member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan who lives and practices law in Winnipeg, Regehr argues that Canada is “not just a bijuridical state where there’s English common law and French civil law; Indigenous legal traditions form part of the law of Canada and that seems to be forgotten or ignored and the only way you’re going to get any perspective on that is by having an Indigenous judge.”

Both want Trudeau to walk his progressive talk, and do something concrete to promote reconciliation and diversity.

Right now, the Supreme Court of Canada is the only federally-appointed court that is exempt from the Official Languages Act which says all Canadians must be able to access services in federal courts in either English or French. In other words, it puts the onus on federal courts to provide bilingual services, not on prime ministers to appoint only bilingual judges. The Liberals propose to drop the exception.

Trudeau does not intend to change the Supreme Court Act which sets out the eligibility criteria for judicial appointments to the top court.

Rachel Rappaport, a spokesperson for Justice Minister David Lametti, says the bilingual services exemption for the Supreme Court “was never intended to be permanent.”

In 1988 Conservative justice minister Ray Hnatyshyn said during debates on the Official Languages Act that, “It is probably in the national interest at this time that we not put any constraints on the court in the way in which it does its business.” He said that “until we reach a more developed stage of bilingualism across the country,” governments should be able pick from among “the best people who are unilingual, in both languages.”

There have been at least 10 bills introduced over the past 10 years to require top judges be bilingual, according to Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin, a doctoral candidate at University of Toronto’s faculty of law. None has passed.

But unilingualism has had an impact, says Bédard-Rubin, who with a colleague has done the first empirical study of the impact of unilingualism on the Supreme Court’s operations. They analyzed cases from 1969 to 2013. In an interview, he said, “There tends to be a linguistic separation of labour at the Supreme Court.”

Despite access to interpreters and translation, anglophone judges “will sit more and write more in cases argued in English and francophone judges will sit more and write more on cases argued in French. And this is regardless of their areas of expertise,” he said. Unilingual judges are less assertive on cases argued in another language and litigants “might lose that expertise” where unilingual judges stand down or just “go with the flow.”

“The general picture that emerges is that language proficiency superimposes itself as another kind of legal specialization in the inner-working of the court,” he wrote.

There’s another twist. Some legal scholars suspect that the Liberals are trying to do through a back door (via the Official Languages Act) what they may not be able to do through the front door (via the Supreme Court Act): that is, rewrite the eligibility rules for judges. That’s because in 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Parliament “cannot unilaterally modify the composition or other essential features of the court,” saying it requires a constitutional amendment.

Gerard Kennedy, assistant professor in the faculty of law at the University of Manitoba, said it’s debatable whether making bilingualism mandatory is the kind of “essential” characteristic that is protected by the Constitution. And if the Liberals took that route, he said it would quickly become very divisive. “By amending the Official Languages Act, it draws less attention to it.”

But the government seems to have allowed itself some wiggle room — at least for the next appointment. There is one Ontario vacancy coming open on July 1, and another one within two years when Michael Moldaver will turn 75.

The languages law reform document states in drafting the change, the government is weighing the appointment of Indigenous judges to the Supreme Court of Canada along with case law on the court’s “composition and eligibility criteria.”

Meanwhile, the Liberals are using their plan it as a “political chip” as Bédard-Rubin calls it, part of a political strategy to paint the Conservatives as soft on bilingualism.

Trudeau challenged Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole outright in the Commons two weeks ago to commit to naming only bilingual judges on the top court, claiming Conservatives do “not support bilingualism in Canada.”

Conservative justice critic Rob Moore declined an interview request but in an email said, “Conservatives expect appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada are based on competency and legal excellence. Bilingualism or a commitment to learn or improve one’s French will also be a key principle in appointments to the Supreme Court for a future Conservative government.”

The NDP and the Bloc Québécois have long called for bilingual Supreme Court judges.

It’s not clear if the latest proposal will come to pass before a federal election, whenever it comes.

Source: ANALYSIS Diversity is on a collision course with bilingualism at Canada’s top court

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COVID-19: Ethnic Media Lessons from 2020 for an Inclusive Recovery

2021/03/08 Leave a comment

Useful and informative summary and report:

Multilingual International Research and Ethnic Media Services presents its year long research into ethnic media coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in the form of five articles. These articles were published or excerpted by New Canadian Media as a result of support from Canadian Heritage through its Digital Citizen Contribution Program. We would like to thank New Canadian Media for giving us the opportunity to write these pieces.

The white paper provides an overview of the lessons learned in 2020 from engaging with diverse communities in the fight against the COVID-19, which may useful in 2021 as the pandemic continues. In order to capture coverage needed to produce this white paper, we spent a year regularly monitoring over 800 ethnic media outlets across Canada in 30+ language groups.

The 30+ language groups/communities whose ethnic media we tracked include Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Caribbean, Chinese (incl. Cantonese & Mandarin), Farsi, Filipino, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, Muslim, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Somali, South Asian, Spanish, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

The ethnic media outlets we tracked spanned the four mediums of print, web, radio and TV and were mostly based in the metropolitan areas of Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. These urban centres attract the most immigrants each year, thus resulting in a concentration of ethnic media outlets in Canada’s most populated cities.

The actionable intelligence gained as a result of our ethnic media research provides insight into the impact of COVID-19 on newcomers and racialized communities, who have been some of the most affected by the pandemic. Out of the 1,130 translated ethnic media story summaries we produced in 2020 for this report, 169 were focused on mental health, 193 on the economic impact of COVID-19, 350 on immigration and 118 on the culture vs. economy debate as a cause of the prevalence of COVID-19.

 Our white paper is divided into five pieces, four written by MIREMS Editor-in-Chief Silke Reichrath and one by MIREMS President Andres Machalski. The following are brief abstracts:

 1) Media Representation of Newcomer Communities with High COVID-19 Rates

This channel is extremely influential in the fight against social media disinformation among newcomers. It shows these outlets fulfill a very real need to translate government and expert messaging into culturally and linguistically relevant formats and in adding information from the grassroots. This channel is extremely influential in the fight against social media disinformation among newcomers 

2) Mental Health and Domestic Violence in the Ethnic Media

Stigma around mental health challenges is still widespread in newcomer communities and many newcomers are not aware of available supports through community organizations and settlement service providers, especially now that programs have moved online. In this context, ethnic media have a significant role to play in raising awareness around mental health issues, the impacts of the pandemic on different segments of the population, and the services available to them.

3) Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Immigration Communities

The ethnic media have fulfilled a valuable role during the pandemic in keeping their audiences informed about the latest public health guidelines regarding business openings and closures, and about benefits and aid programs available from the three levels of government. These outlets have raised awareness in general about how the pandemic is affecting the national and local economy, have featured charitable initiatives by the community, and have encouraged community members to support local businesses by buying local, particularly from smaller businesses. Recovery is only a matter of time, and ethnic media can be expected to do their share in reflecting community concerns and advocating for equity in the rebuilding process.

 Ethnic media have been instrumental in highlighting community initiatives to counteract the pandemic spread and in giving voice to grassroots opinions. It shows these outlets fulfill a very real need to translate government and expert messaging into culturally and linguistically relevant formats and in adding information from the grassroots.

  4) COVID-19 Impact on Immigration – Analysis

Over the pandemic year of 2020, the ethnic media has been instrumental in reporting on and clarifying government policy, processes and programs. Ethnic media coverage focused on the impact of COVID on immigration levels, border closures and travel restrictions, visa extensions for temporary residents stranded in Canada, work permit regulations, farm worker rights and COVID safety protocols, COVID-related accommodations for international students, modifications to the Express Entry draws, and the guardian angel program for front-line care providers. The ethnic media also documented the unique challenges different migrant constituencies face, reflecting the lived experiences of the various newcomer communities.

5) The Role of Ethnic Media in the War Against Pandemic, Pandemonium, Poverty and Panic

The ethnic media undeniably exists and is part of the communications fabric of our society, but it is one that is often ignored, despite its key positioning as a conduit to and from diverse communities. These outlets are essential to the central position diverse communications will play in restoring the social cohesion needed to overcome not only the COVID-19 virus, but its fall out. Canadian corporate and government leaders need to recognize the ethnic media as a key asset in the fight against COVID-19, which is at the same time a fight against social disruption, poverty, and mental anguish.

Source: http://www.mirems.com/uploads/8/1/4/2/8142628/covid-19_-ethnic_media_lessons_from_2020-_white_paper.pdf

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