ICYMI – Australia: Spike in racism compels national strategy

2022/07/26 Leave a comment

Of note:

Spikes in anti-Asian sentiment and discrimination against Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim groups since the COVID-19 outbreak have triggered moves for a new national framework to combat racism.

Incidents targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, amplified by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rise of far-right extremism have also highlighted a need for change.

With no current coordinated national strategy to curb racism, the proposed framework – uniting governments, NGOs, businesses, educators, human rights agencies and civil society – sets out legislative improvements, and upgrades data collection and discrimination protections.

While the UK and the US have systems to collect data on racist incidents, Australia has no official statistics, instead adopting ad hoc indicators, all of which point to spikes in racism since the start of the pandemic.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan says there is limited understanding of anti-racism and racial equality measures and their impact across Australia, increasing the need for improved data collection, evaluation and sharing.

“A National Anti-Racism Framework will provide a central reference point for actions on anti-racism to be undertaken by all sections of Australian society,” Mr Chin told AAP.

“It will identify opportunities to address racism through coordinated strategies, set measurable anti-racism targets and provide tools and resources to address racism.

“It’s not enough to simply condemn racism. We need clear goals and the means to ensure accountability to commitments if we are to make progress on tackling racism.”

Over the past year, the commission has held more than 100 consultations for the framework with about 300 organisations nationwide and received 171 submissions.

During COVID-19 restrictions right-wing extremist groups tried to further embed anti-government sentiment by portraying administrations as overreaching and “globalisation, multiculturalism and democracy as flawed and failing”, according to ASIO.

At a 2021 parliamentary inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia, the national security agency confirmed investigations into ideologically-motivated violent extremism comprised about 40 per cent of its cases, compared to 10 to 15 per cent in 2016.

Jewish communities have been documenting racist incidents since a 1989 national inquiry into racist violence, spokesman Jeremy Jones from the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council told AAP.

The inquiry was established by the then-Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

“Since then, every Jewish organisation and Jewish person in Australia who experiences or hears about an anti-Semitic incident sends it to a central database,” he said.

“So we have a long-term way of saying what sort of incidents are happening and where, is the situation getting better or worse in a particular year, and what is effective, or what isn’t.”

Racial incidents taken to court in three states under the federal Racial Hatred Act delivered positive outcomes with anti-Semitism decreasing in those geographic areas.

Mr Jones said telephone threats which led to abusers’ identities being divulged also reduced anti-Semitic incidences.

It’s difficult to compare exact numbers of verbal incidents originating overseas because many were online, but the global trend shows more people are getting away with hate crimes and harassment.

“Particularly during the COVID lockdown, there were horrific anti-Semitism conspiracy theories and propaganda than at any time during the post-war period,” Mr Jones said.

The Jewish community is also addressing the rise in incidents in various ways through the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews – which aims to foster respect and mutual understanding of other faiths – and by multicultural dialogue and Jewish-Indigenous relations.

Any national anti-racism framework must balance freedom of expression with state and federal laws that protect people from racism, Mr Jones said. It should also look at overseas experiences for examples of best practice.

“It’s far too early to say whether this will be a successful campaign or if it was one well-intentioned,” Mr Jones said.

Racist attacks against Asians and Asian Australians surged after the outbreak of COVID-19, as Wuhan in China was recognised as the source of the virus.

Since April 2020, the COVID-19 Coronavirus Racism Incident Report, partnering with several groups including the Asian Australian Alliance, collected more than 410 reports of virus-related Asian racism.

Most involved physical and verbal attacks.

Of those, 37 per cent were in NSW, followed by 32 per cent in Victoria and 13 per cent in Queensland, with most attacks occurring in the capital cities.

Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia CEO Mohammad Al-Khafaji said incidents of racism were generally under reported, “so the same goes for reporting of Islamophobia”.

Fears over anti-Muslim sentiment were exacerbated by the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack in New Zealand and reflected in an Islamophobia Register Australia report.

In collaboration with Charles Stuart University Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, the latest 2018-19 report found offline cases increased four times and online cases rose 18 times two weeks after the Christchurch killings.

The report analysed 247 verified incidents from January 2018 to December 2019 and found 138 occurred in physical circumstances, while 109 occurred online.

The research aims to raise awareness of the increase and normalisation of Islamophobia and take action to counter it.

“What is disturbing … is that Islamophobia continues to occur and that many of the victims are women, distinctively wearing hijabs,” Mr Al-Khafaji said.

“What is appalling is that Islamophobia and racism, in general, seems to still be socially acceptable to some Australians.”

A revamped Human Rights Commission advertising campaign has been designed to increase awareness of racism and equip Australians the tools to respond.

Source: Spike in racism compels national strategy

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , ,

IRCC Anti-Racism Strategy 2.0: “Energy, Conviction and Courage” [too preachy for my taste]

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Apart from the overly preachy tag line, this strategy reflects considerable work and reflection (disclosure I know some of the people involved). Like so many government reports, far too much emphasis on process and general messaging, but the strategy includes 24 specific action items under four pillars: leadership accountability, equitable workplace, policy and program design, and service delivery.

While it may be churlish to note, reading this detailed over 30 page strategy that clearly involved significant resources across the department is in sharp contrast with IRCC’s inability to deliver on its core responsibilities as seen in immigration and citizenship backlogs and the lack of oversight over Service Canada’s failures on passport.

A large department like IRCC should, of course, be able to “walk and chew gum” at the same time, but, as in so many areas, these kinds of initiatives, valid as they are, further distract or make it harder to deliver on core responsibilities.

Concrete measures highlighted in the report are highlighted below.

Starting with representation, the main gap is with respect to executives with the greatest gap being non-Black visible minorities.

In relation to the overall populations (Census 2016) – Indigenous 4.9 percent, visible minorities 22.3 percent of which Blacks represent 3.5 percent – Black representation at all three levels is the strongest. While the population of Black and non-Black visible minorities will likely be about 10 percent higher in the 2021 Census, the revised numbers are unlikely to change the overall picture significantly.

Usefully, the report provides a clear benchmark to measure success: the degree to which IRCC anti-racism initiatives moves the needle on the percentage that feel that “IRCC implements initiatives that promote anti-racism in the workplace.” Current numbers highlight the issue – only 65 percent of Blacks and 76 percent of non-Black visible minorities compared to 83 percent of not visible minorities.

But if the range of initiatives, engagement and comprehensiveness do not move the needle and reduce disparities, one will have to question their effectiveness, the reasons for lack of progress and the reasons why the perception by employees that not much has changed.

Failure to move the needle may also call into question the Clerk’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service, as in many ways IRCC was a model department in responding to the call.

And of course, service delivery failures in immigration and citizenship have a greater impact on Black and other visible minorities than than IRCC employees.

Source: Anti-Racism Strategy 2.0

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Health care researchers need to ask, ‘Who is Black?’ University of Ottawa professor says

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Why not just use Statistics Canada definitions, both visible minority and ethnic ancestry? Are the various terminologies used really that different or significant?

The real challenge lies more with respect to integrating this data with health card information, to allow this king of analysis and treatment, which of course will likely raise privacy issues.

For immigrants, I understand there is work underway to integrate immigration and health data but anonymized to allow for this kind of analysis in relation to health outcomes, information that could then hopefully be available through CIHI:

The inability to find a common term to describe Black people in Canadian health research can perpetuate inequities, a University of Ottawa professor says.

We need precise, accurate language because research informs public health policies, training for health-care workers and culturally appropriate and antiracist health-care practices, says Dr. Jude Mary Cénat, an associate professor of psychology and the director of University of Ottawa’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health, Canada’s first academic research centre dedicated to studying the biological, social and cultural determinants of health for Black communities.

In Canadian health-care research, the definition of “who is Black” can vary widely. Terms such as “African-Canadian,” “Caribbean” and “African” are inconsistent and make it difficult to compare studies, he says.

The terms may include people who do not identify as Black, such as those who are from North Africa, and people from Caribbean nations including Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, who consider themselves to be Latin American.

From a health research point of view, that can be a problem, Cénat says. One example: A 2019 review of breast and cervical cancer among “Black Canadian” women included 23 studies, but only seven had unambiguously Black participants. Some studies considered “Africa” as a single block and included participants from North Africa, who may self-identify as Arab.

“Most people from Africa are Black. But you can’t assume they are Black,” Cénat says. “You can’t say Elon Musk (who was born in South Africa) is Black.”

Meanwhile, studies rarely differentiate between Black people whose ancestors have lived in Canada for centuries and those who are recent immigrants, he says. The 2016 census found that the 10th most commonly listed country of origin for people in Canada self-identifying as Black was the United States.

Getting a more precise answer may be as simple as asking people “What is your skin colour?” says Cénat, whose commentary was published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Researchers have to ask multiple questions, but the first one is how the subject identifies themselves, he says.

Cénat suggests asking research subjects the basic question: What is your skin colour? From there, it can lead to unraveling other questions about origins and ancestry. It’s also important to give research participants the opportunity to give more than one answer so that multiracial people can self-identify.

Asking questions related to race, ethnicity and region of origin may make some people uncomfortable. “We avoid that question. We ask people about their origin, not their skin colour,” Cénat says.

But health researchers can preface their questions by explaining why the questions are being asked and saying that the answers may help to improve health care for Black people in Canada.

“Researchers don’t have to be afraid of it,” he says.

If Black health research continues to be based on data that are unclear or inaccurate, there’s a risk that policies and programs will not meet the real needs of Black communities, Cénat warns.

Asking the right questions can also tease out more nuanced answers. For example, while the prevalence of diabetes is higher in Black communities than in the general population, some Black communities in Canada may be at more or less risk than others.

Cénat points out that, in Ottawa, racial minorities represent more than 30 per cent of the population.

“We need this because our population is a diverse population. We need to know more about the risk factors and the protective factors,” says Cénat, who studies the role that cultural factors play in vulnerability, trauma and resilience.

“We need to work with racial data that is precise. We need to say 10, 20, 30 years in the future that we have done something for these communities.”

Source: Health care researchers need to ask, ‘Who is Black?’ University of Ottawa professor says

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Nepal’s Parliament endorses bill to amend Citizenship Act

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Long time coming:

Nepal’s Parliament has endorsed the bill to amend its much-awaited Citizenship Act, 2006 through a majority vote, a decisive step that will help grant citizenship to the thousands of children born to naturalised Nepalese citizens.

Various provisions regarding granting status to foreign women married to Nepali men and children born in Nepal or from a Nepali mother were discussed by lawmakers before it was endorsed. The bill was endorsed in the House through a simple majority.

It will now move to the National Assembly before the president enacts this to become a part of the citizenship law. Once it passes the National Assembly, it will pave the way for thousands of children of parents who got citizenship by birth to acquire citizenship by descent.

All eligible Nepalis born before September 20, 2015, the day when the Constitution of Nepal was promulgated, were granted naturalised citizenship, according to media reports.

However, their children haven’t got citizenship in the absence of a law as the Constitution said the provision to grant them citizenship would be guided by federal law, it said. The federal law hasn’t been prepared even seven years after the promulgation of the statute, the report added.

The proposed amendment which takes the form of law and comes into effect, those who have not been able to get their citizenship through their mother will also be given citizenship by descent if he/she is living in Nepal.

The bill has been under discussion in the House of Representatives since 2020, but it failed to be endorsed due to differences among the political parties over various provisions. In 2018, the then KP Sharma Oli government registered the bill at the Parliament Secretariat.

Source: Nepal’s Parliament endorses bill to amend Citizenship Act

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ICYMI – Khan: Every community has a responsibility to address intimate partner violence

2022/07/25 Leave a comment

Good column and reminnder:

Forty years ago, NDP MP Margaret Mitchell rose in Parliament to address the issue of domestic violence during question period, based on her experience hearing from battered women as a member of the Standing Committee on Health, Welfare and Social Affairs. But her opening remarks, in which she recounted that one in 10 husbands regularly beat their wives, were met with derisive laughter and heckling from a number of fellow MPs. “I don’t think this is very much of a laughing matter,” she was forced to respond.

Around the same time, in the early 1980s, budding journalist Anna Maria Tremonti was experiencing the very trauma recounted in the committee hearings. Like so many women, she carefully hid all signs of intimate partner violence (IPV) from the outside world, and she went on to become a high-profile reporter, hosting The Current on CBC for many years. However, the emotional scars never really healed. Now – in a tremendous act of public service – she has courageously shared details of the pain and shame that she has carried privately for decades, in the podcast Welcome to Paradise.

Canada has come a long way in recognizing the issue of IPV, but it remains damaging on many levels. According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner every six days, and children who witness violence in the home have twice the rate of psychiatric disorders as children from non-violent homes. Domestic violence also threatens a woman’s path to economic independence: roughly 40 per cent of victims found it difficult to return to work, while about 8.5 per cent said that they lost their jobs because of it.

As Nova Scotia’s inquiry into the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history examines the role of intimate partner violence, a recent U.S. studyfound that more than two-thirds of mass shootings from 2014 to 2019 stemmed from violence toward partners or family members, or are perpetrated by shooters with a history of domestic violence toward their intimates.

While Canada may not have the prevalence of mass shootings as the United States, we are certainly not immune to the type of incidents described in that study. In 2015, Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam were murdered by a mutual ex-partner in Ontario. After hearing testimony into the triple femicide last month, an inquest jury made 86 recommendations in response to the murders, including a recognition of femicide as a distinct crime and manner of death. It also called on Ontario to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

Indeed, researchers have described the potential rise of IPV incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “shadow pandemic”. Lockdowns increased the risk factors for IPV, owing to enhanced financial stressors, lack of space for women to leave the home, isolation from support systems and lack of privacy to call for help.

IPV occurs across faiths, cultures, and income groups. However, immigrant women may be more vulnerable to domestic violence owing to economic dependence on male partners, language barriers and a lack of knowledge about resources.

Within Muslim communities, there are a number of issues that exacerbate the potential for domestic violence. In some circles, there is tacit religious approval of beating one’s wife as a means of control and discipline. I still remember wandering into a bookshop on Toronto’s Gerrard Street while shopping for a wedding dress some 25 years ago, and reading a tract by an imam who counselled men to beat their wife on the wedding night. There needs to be unequivocal, repeated condemnation of all forms of domestic violence by imams when addressing their congregants.

Another issue is the concept of “sitr,” or concealment. Muslims are advised not to publicize the faults and mistakes of others. However, when the fault results in harm to another individual, there is a duty to report such behaviour to stop the harm. Unfortunately, some take “sitr” to an extreme, deeming spousal abuse as a “private matter,” without any consideration given to the harm inflicted. The limits of “sitr,” seen through the lens of harm prevention, need to be reconsidered.

In recent years, however, denial has given way to acknowledgement and efforts to remedy the problem. Sakeenah Homes, founded in 2018, has provided culturally appropriate services to women, children and families facing homelessness, violence and poverty. And since 2015, Nisa Homes has opened nine shelters across Canada, providing refuge and care to more than 1,000 women and children. These spaces can empower and give hope to the vulnerable, allowing the broken to be rebuilt.

The scourge of IPV will not disappear anytime soon. We must address it with resolve to protect the most vulnerable – and never lose sight of the inherent dignity, resilience and strength of each and every woman forced to traverse this most difficult path.

Source: Every community has a responsibility to address intimate partner violence

Filed under Honour Killings, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with ,

Mukakayumba: Le mot en n vu de l’intérieur

2022/07/21 Leave a comment

More good commentary on the Radio Canada/CRTC controversy over the use of the N word. Context matters:

Je tiens, d’abord, à joindre ma voix à toutes celles et à tous ceux qui ont protesté contre la décision du CRTC relativement à la plainte déposée par Ricardo Lamour à propos de l’utilisation du mot en n à quatre reprises dans un segment de l’émission Le 15-18 animée par Annie Desrochers sur ICI Radio-Canada Première dans le Grand Montréal, le 17 août 2020. De mon point de vue, Radio-Canada n’aurait pas dû s’excuser. C’est donc avec tristesse que j’apprends qu’elle a fini par céder. Je me réjouis naturellement de sa décision de porter la cause en appel. D’ici là, j’ose espérer qu’une tribune sera offerte aux voix dissidentes, le plaignant ne représentant, à mon avis, que lui-même.

Depuis l’éclatement de la première crise autour du mot en n, je me demande pourquoi le mot lui-même n’est pas nommé. Qu’y a-t-il de mal à utiliser le mot « nègre » ? Originaire de l’Afrique noire, plus exactement du Rwanda, je vis au Québec depuis 1974 ; cela fera donc 50 ans en 2024. Il va de soi qu’à ce titre, il m’est arrivé d’avoir été traitée de négresse. Je n’y ai rien vu de grave, sinon de la méconnaissance ou de la mauvaise foi, à l’occasion, dans le ton. Du racisme, j’en ai vécu pourtant. Reste que le mot en n, que certains jugent si blessant qu’ils veulent le faire disparaître, n’a jamais été prononcé durant le pire épisode que j’ai connu, à compter de 2005, à l’UQAC (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi). Une descente aux enfers que je raconte dans La géographie en question (Armand Colin, 2012).

J’estime, pourtant, moi, une femme noire, que Radio-Canada n’avait aucune raison de s’excuser, auprès de qui que ce soit, pour avoir cité à quatre reprises le titre du livre de Pierre Vallières Nègres blancs d’Amérique. Ce propos s’appuie sur deux points en particulier.

Premièrement, je trouve excellents les propos tenus par Simon Jodoin à cette émission. Changer le mot « nègres » du titre pour le « mot en n » aurait eu pour effet d’induire les lecteurs et les auditeurs en erreur. Deuxièmement, je souscris entièrement aux raisons invoquées par l’ensemble des protestataires pour critiquer la décision absurde du CRTC, plus spécialement à celles formulées dans la lettre signée par l’ex-ombudsman de Radio-Canada Guy Gendron et 13 autres personnes qui sont des têtes d’affiche de la SRC.

Outre « l’indépendance du diffuseur public en ce qui a trait à [une] liberté d’expression » à préserver, je soutiens l’observation énoncée ci-après : « le fait que le CRTC, par sa décision, nie l’histoire du Québec et, dans ce cas particulier, un épisode où des penseurs francophones du Canada et des Noirs américains se rapprochaient au nom d’une discrimination que l’on dirait aujourd’hui “systémique” et qu’ils estimaient partagée ».

La preuve par trois

Il est important de se rappeler qu’au-delà de l’histoire du Québec, la décision du CRTC nie des pans importants de l’histoire universelle, plus particulièrement de celle qui se rapporte aux peuples noirs. Comme en témoignent les trois cas suivants, choisis parmi tant d’autres, une partie de cette histoire a été marquée par la réappropriation du mot « nègre » et de son féminin, le mot « négresse », par les personnes identifiées aux Noirs, qui les ont utilisés dans différents combats visant leur affranchissement.

Le premier cas qui me touche, en tant que Québécoise francophone d’origine africaine, se rapporte à la publication, en 1978, du livre La parole aux négresses par la Sénégalaise Awa Thiam aux Éditions Denoël. Préfacé par Benoite Groulx et considéré comme le livre fondateur du féminisme africain francophone, ce livre n’est-il pas un exemple éloquent du rapprochement des peuples — sous le leadership d’une femme noire et d’une femme blanche — pour exprimer leur combat commun contre différentes formes de domination, celle basée sur le genre n’étant qu’une parmi d’autres ? Qu’adviendrait-il de cette partie de l’histoire du féminisme si le terme « négresse » devait être banni du langage des médias et, corrélativement, des salles de cours, ou de n’importe quel autre espace public ?

Le deuxième cas concerne le mouvement de la négritude, fondé à Paris à compter des années 1930 par des écrivains africains et antillais. Les plus connus de ces derniers, le Martiniquais Aimé Césaire, le Guyanais Léon-Gontran Damas et le Sénégalais Léopold Sédar Senghor, ont lancé un mouvement littéraire et politique d’affirmation de l’identité et de la culture des peuples noirs de leur temps. L’expansion de ce mouvement à l’ensemble des luttes des Noirs — des mondes francophones, voire des mondes anglophones (surtout aux États-Unis) — en a fait un mouvement général de lutte de libération de ces derniers contre toutes les formes de domination, y compris la colonisation et l’esclavage.

Lorsqu’on se donne la peine de bien écouter le « segment coupable » du 15-18, on ne peut que remercier Simon Jodoin pour les liens qu’il établit entre l’ensemble des peuples opprimés.

Le troisième cas, plus près de nous, est en lien avec le roman Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer publié par Dany Laferrière en 1985. Réédité et porté au cinéma en 1989, cet ouvrage est considéré comme un classique de la littérature québécoise. Quant à son auteur, élu membre de l’Académie française en 2013, il est reconnu comme un écrivain majeur de la littérature d’expression française.

Alimenter la confusion

Au regard de ces trois exemples, la question qui se pose face aux exigences de certains de nos concitoyens qui ne voudraient pas entendre parler du mot « nègre » est la suivante : qu’adviendrait-il de ces pans de l’histoire de l’humanité si les institutions comme le CRTC leur donnaient chaque fois raison ? Serions-nous prêts, collectivement, à sacrifier notre capacité d’apprendre et de comprendre les enjeux, passés et actuels, de notre société, allant du local au planétaire, parce que quelques personnes montent au créneau chaque fois que le mot en n est prononcé ?

Le plus troublant dans cette histoire est le racisme à l’envers qu’il suppose. Selon ce prisme, l’oeuvre de Vallières devrait être bannie, et du langage et de l’espace public, et ce, en dépit de sa valeur historique reconnue. Devrait-on réserver le même sort au roman de Dany Laferrière ? La question mérite d’être débattue.

En fin de compte, bien que je sois une femme noire, je ne me sens pas représentée par les quelques personnes qui cherchent à faire disparaître ce mot sans raison valable. Toute l’agitation autour de ce sujet depuis le début de 2022 ne fait que créer de la confusion et masquer les problèmes réels.

Je ne voudrais pas terminer ce texte sans dire au peuple québécois, qui m’a accueillie et m’a choyée depuis bientôt 50 ans, que je l’aime de tout mon coeur et qu’il est le meilleur au monde. Mais surtout, je tiens à l’inviter à faire attention aux racistes de tous acabits. Ce ne sont pas toujours ceux qu’on croit.

Source: Le mot en n vu de l’intérieur

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Cardozo: Ontario needs a serious multiculturalism policy and minister

2022/07/21 Leave a comment

Answer: All of them.

In terms of the specific recommendations, some are more concrete and likely to have an impact, some less so. And a number are already happening to a certain extent:

Is the role of the Minister of Multiculturalism a throw-away gig or an entry-level job? Is it primarily to help the party in power recruit ethnocultural voters for the next election?

Or is it a portfolio that can address important and complex societal issues that are becoming increasingly critical in Ontario, Canada, and elsewhere?

I am going to argue the last option. That is what Ontario needs today.

Over the last 50 years, various ministers have been responsible for multiculturalism, usually under another guise such as citizenship or anti-racism.

In 2022, here are 10 clear steps that the minister and ministry should be taking.

The minister should promote a general policy of respect for the cultural, racial and religious diversity that is the reality of Ontario, especially in its cities, big and small.

The minister should develop an anti-racism policy to help Ontarians address discrimination and inequality. (This policy existed under the previous Liberal government but was cancelled by the Ford Progressive Conservatives.) It must address rapidly increasing online hate and polarization, plus bullying, violence and overt hate groups. Anti-Semitism has reached new depths where Jews avoid wearing a kippah on the subway. Anti-Black racism is only too evident in policing and elsewhere. Islamophobia is on the rise.

Generally, the minister should work with many other ministries to ensure they all do their bit to advance equality and inclusiveness and eliminate polarization and hate.

The minister should lead a cabinet committee of key minsters to address the issues across government. Members could include the attorney general and solicitor general, plus the ministers of education, colleges and universities, health, social services and environment.

The minister should expanding the number of minorities appointed to boards and commissions.

The minister should include reconciliation with Indigenous peoples as a key part of diversity, addressing historical wrongs and ongoing discrimination.

The minister should address challenges faced by women from various minority communities.

The minister should work with TVO and TFO, the province’s educational networks in English and French, to ensure they broadcast diversity in meaningful ways

The ministry should work with cultural agencies such as the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Art Gallery, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Ontario Trillium Foundation to ensure they reflect and fund the diverse reality of Ontarians and create dialogues on diversity.

The ministry should working with the business community, labour and NGOs to advance a better understanding of diversity and a sustained campaign against racism.

Let’s have legislation that codifies what provincial ministries should be doing: an Ontario Multiculturalism Act. Make it the law.

And now we see the new minister is the rookie MPP, the Premier’s nephew, Michael Ford. Oy vey!

These are complex and sensitive issues that require listening, building, funding, explaining and encouraging. The post requires a strong seasoned leader who can engage Canadians of all backgrounds in a serious dialogue. This is not about sending the kid out to the festivals to keep the ethnics happy!

Whether he is up to the sensitive and courageous job is the second issue though. The first is whether his uncle wants to get serious about what a good multiculturalism policy has to offer Ontario.

Note to the mainstream media corps at Queens Park: Please, please, please don’t write this off as the minister for recruiting ethnic voters to the PC Party (and I’m not sure Michael Ford the needed charisma or experience for that role).

Rather, please report on the issues that are tearing our society apart as well as the many attempts to make things better.

Ironically, as a right-of-centre semi-populist white guy, Doug Ford may have the unique ability at this time in our history to address these issues and convince everyday folks that diversity can be beneficial to all, that getting along may be better than the culture wars of fear and excluding the other. He managed to avoid the anti-vaxxers’ rancor. Maybe he can do it here too.

Andrew Cardozo is president of the Pearson Centre and co-editor of The Battle over Multiculturalism.

Source: Cardozo: Ontario needs a serious multiculturalism policy and minister

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Immigrant population rises in France, but so does discrimination

2022/07/20 Leave a comment

Interesting studies:

Two studies have released data highlighting the persistent discrimination immigrants face in France. The data reveals that although a large swath of France’s population has immigrant ancestry, discrimination in French society is still high.

Two landmark new studies in France are bursting myths about immigration at a time when xenophobic far-right discourse has gained ground. They show that the children of immigrants are increasingly melting into French society but some with African and Asian backgrounds face persistent discrimination.

Karima Simmou, French-Moroccan student at the prestigious Paris university Sciences Po, embodies the phenomenon.

She comes from a working-class family of eight children, with a mother who raised the family and a father who worked as a miner in western France. She was pushed by her family to go to the elite school.

The children and grandchildren of immigrants from Africa and Asia are well integrated in the French educational system compared with their elders, according to another report. Data show they have increasingly higher education levels than their parents, though many struggle to attain comparable educational levels to French people without immigrant heritage.

And getting jobs is harder, too: 60% of those with non-European roots hold intermediate or high-level jobs, compared with 70% of French people without direct immigrant kinship.

Ined researcher Mathieu Ichou noted two possible explanations for the hiring discrepancy.

“Several surveys, data and audit studies backed up that hiring is not favorable to minorities, and they experience discrimination. France is pretty bad regarding this issue, compared to other European countries,” he said.

Also, Mr. Ichou said, “minorities tend to be underrepresented in the French elite schools.”

Source: Immigrant population rises in France, but so does discrimination

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Dwivedi: The politics of rage and disinformation — we ignore it at our peril

2022/07/19 Leave a comment

A warning against complacency:

From 2016 to 2020, I hosted a morning show on a Toronto talk radio station.

Very soon into the gig, a rather discernable and then predictable pattern emerged: other hosts on the station would promote baseless conspiracy theories or blatant misinformation, such as Justin Trudeau being a George Soros-controlled globalist or that a non-binding motion to condemn Islamophobia would criminalize all criticism of Islam. Then, when the morning show didn’t abide by the same rhetoric, I would see a huge uptick in the volume and vitriol in my email inbox.

One of the more graphic rape threats I received during that time made a reference to burning off my clitoris once I had been gang raped. That morning, I had corrected a false notion circulating in conservative circles, and being bolstered by colleagues at the station, that Canada signing onto the UN Global Compact for Migration would mean Canada would no longer have jurisdiction over its borders or have sovereignty in determining its immigration targets.

It has now been documented that there was a co-ordinated campaign to poison the discourse around the compact by pushing misinformation specifically on the issues of immigration and borders. And it worked. Conservatives in Canada repeated the campaign’s unsubstantiated talking points and worldwide, debate over the compact reached such a pitch, the coalition government in Belgium effectively collapsed.

Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories don’t exist in a vacuum, nor do they only live online. They spill out into the real world and impact very real people. And when misinformation, disinformation or conspiracy theories target groups of people already on the receiving end of hate, unsurprisingly, the hate experienced by those groups tends to increase.

In the aftermath of the last federal election, one thing that became abundantly clear was that much of our legacy political media seemed either unwilling or unable to report on the very real threat posed by politicians who use misinformation and conspiracy theories as part of their political shtick to appeal to voters.

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) garnered just over 800 000 votes in the 2021 election, more than double its vote share in the 2019 election. Certainly, not every single PPC voter is an avowed white supremacist, but there were clear ties between the PPC and extremist groups that went largely ignored by legacy media. For example, columns and news coverage alike failed to acknowledge the PPC riding president charged for throwing gravel at the prime minister on the 2021 campaign trail had well-established, explicit ties to the white nationalist movement.

Instead of engaging in substantive discourse on the information ecosystem and political environment that allowed Maxime Bernier, a Harper-era cabinet minister and near-leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, to descend into a conspiracy theory-pushing zealot, our political chattering classes chose instead to focus on righteous indignation, decrying the import of American-style politics into our Canadian sphere.

Then came the “freedom convoy.” Suddenly, white journalists were regularly on the receiving end of deranged diatribes and threats of violence for reporting basic facts, akin to what their Jewish, Muslim, and BIPOC colleagues had experienced for years. There was a glimmer of hope that we’d collectively start to take these issues more seriously.

That was, however, short-lived as the bulk of legacy political media reverted to their natural resting state of being wilfully blind to the conspiracy theory-laden rage in this country and the politicians who encourage it, all under the guise of objectivity coupled with a healthy dose of normalcy bias.

Bernier has been unable to secure a single seat for his party in the last two federal elections, and so it’s easy to write him and the PPC off as having been wholly rejected by the Canadian electorate.

It will become much harder to do that once Pierre Poilievre officially leads the Conservative Party of Canada in September. Poilievre is an enthusiastic and unapologetic peddler of conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum. As both NDP MP Charlie Angus and CPC MP Michelle Rempel Garner have noted, there is a very real danger in mainstreaming conspiracy theories about a secret elite cabal controlling the country.

There are plenty of fundamentally good and decent Conservatives out there, both inside and outside the official party apparatus, who are uncomfortable with the direction their party is taking. However, there is no indication that a CPC with Poilievre at the helm will feel the need to temper its rhetoric. The party will effectively become a better funded, more organized, more mainstream version of Bernier’s PPC.

It’s easy and even tempting to scoff at that notion. But that is being purposefully ignorant to what has happened to conservatism in a lot of places, including right here. When Conservatives point out Poilievre is the best-placed person to lead the party, they’re not wrong. He very much embodies the modern-day CPC core base: angry, aggrieved, and willing to say anything so long as it dunks on Libs in the process.

The revelations from the Jan. 6 committee hearings in the U.S. should serve as a stark warning to Canadians as to what happens when conspiracy theories and disinformation become mainstreamed by the political establishment. Downplaying or even placating this type of rhetoric poses a fundamental danger to democracy itself. The sooner Canada realizes this, the better off we’ll be.

In the meantime, I look forward to Canadian columnists telling us that we should consider ourselves lucky that we’re not in the same boat as the Americans. After all, our conservatives only actively cheered on and supported the people who were trying to subvert Canadian democracy, they didn’t actually try to subvert it themselves.

Supriya Dwivedi is the director of policy and engagement at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University and is senior counsel for Enterprise Canada.

Source: The politics of rage and disinformation — we ignore it at our peril

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

StatsCan Study: The religiosity of Canadians and the COVID-19 pandemic

2022/07/19 Leave a comment

Of interest, both the overall trend and the differences between different religious groups. Can’t wait for the October release and opportunities for deeper analysis:

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on many aspects of Canadian life, including religion. In particular, the risks associated with the virus, as well as physical distancing measures, have limited access to places of worship. Many religious organizations have offered the option to attend religious services online. Although the pandemic has made group worship difficult, some surveys conducted by private firms have suggested that it has led to an increase in prayer or a strengthening of faith.

Using data from several cycles of the General Social Survey, a new study released today examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the religiosity of Canadians. Specifically, it analyzes changes in rates of religious affiliation, frequency of participation in religious activities on a group or individual basis, and involvement with religious organizations from 2015 to 2020.

The study found a decrease in group religious participation from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (start of the pandemic). In the general population, the percentage of people who participated in a religious group activity in the previous year fell from 47% in 2019 to 40% in 2020.

The study also found that the impact of the pandemic on participation in religious group activities was greater for some religious groups. For example, the proportion of people who had participated in a religious group activity in the previous year fell more sharply than average among Buddhists (from 74% in 2019 to 50% in 2020) and Muslims (from 71% to 57%). This proportion fell from 60% to 53% among Christian-affiliated groups, from 75% to 67% among Jewish people, and from 78% to 70% among Hindus.

Finally, the data revealed that, overall, the pandemic had no measurable effect on the frequency of individual religious or spiritual activities (e.g., prayer, meditation, etc.). Similarly, it did not appear to have affected self-reported religious affiliation.

On October 26, new data from the 2021 Census will provide a more detailed picture of the diversity of religious affiliation groups in Canada and of the people that form them.

Source: Study: The religiosity of Canadians and the COVID-19 pandemic

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

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