Of note (McWhorter continues his contrarian views to mainstream discussion):
…That’s as it should be. Acting as though Black people can’t hold their own in a challenging discussion — as though they can’t speak up for themselves and therefore need others to speak up for them — isn’t antiracist, it’s demeaning. Blackness is not weakness. We need to stop coddling sane, self-sufficient Black people — like Coates — and move on.
While Donald Trump made baseless, dangerous claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets in front of millions of viewers at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Johnson Salomon, a Haitian man who moved to Springfield in 2020, was watching cartoons with his kids before putting them to bed.
He got a text from a friend telling him to turn on the debate. When he saw the headlines about what the former president and Republican nominee in November’s election had said, he was in total shock.
“This was a false claim. I couldn’t believe that such a high official could make such a claim,” Salomon said.
Trump’s running mate JD Vance, Elon Musk and prominent Ohio Republicans had already spread the false rumors, lying about how Haitian immigrants had been killing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, a blue-collar town of 60,000 people in western Ohio. But the rumors, leaving Salomon and other Haitians in fear of being targeted for violence and discrimination, didn’t start with them.
They were initially spread online in August on social platforms used by far-right extremists and by Blood Tribe, a neo-Nazi hate group.
Springfield officials and police say they have received no credible reports of pets being harmed by members of the immigrant community, instead suggesting the story may have originated in Canton, Ohio, where an American woman with no known connection to Haiti was arrested in August for allegedly stomping a cat to death and eating the animal.
Haitians and immigrants from Central American countries have been in high demand at Springfield’s Dole Fresh Vegetables – where they’ve been hired to clean and package produce – and at automotive machining plants whose owners were desperate for workers due to a labor shortage in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New Caribbean restaurants and food trucks have opened across south Springfield where once abandoned neighborhoods are now bustling with residents. A popular Haitian radio station has been broadcasting for several years. And every May, thousands turn out for Haitian Flag Day that’s celebrated at a local park.
But the glut of new arrivals has also stretched hospitals and schools in the area, angering many locals who resented their presence. The outrage reached a crescendo last August, when an 11-year-old boy was thrown from a school bus and killed after its driver swerved to avoid an oncoming car driven by a Haitian immigrant who didn’t have an Ohio driver’s license.
The child’s death fueled anger and racism on Facebook and at Springfield city commission meetings, where public comments about immigration have often run for more than an hour. Locals upset by the growing immigrant community wondered if they were being taken over – if Springfield had become ground zero for the baseless “great replacement theory”.
Soon, rightwing extremists seized on Springfield’s unrest.
Armed neo-Nazi members of Blood Tribe – a hardcore white supremacist group, according to the Anti-Defamation League – flew flags bearing swastikas and marched through a prominent downtown street while a jazz and blues festival was taking place nearby in August.
One witness to the march, who declined to be interviewed by the Guardian due to fearing for their family’s safety after being doxed by rightwing extremists online, reported that members of the group pointed guns at cars and told people to “go the fuck back to Africa”.
A Springfield police representative, however, appeared to downplay the scene, telling local media that the hate group’s march was “just a little peaceful protest”.
Several days later, a leading member of Blood Tribe who identified himself as Nathaniel Higgers, but whose real name is Drake Berentz, spoke at a Springfield city commission meeting.
“I’ve come to bring a word of warning. Stop what you’re doing before it’s too late,” Berentz told Springfield’s mayor, Rob Rue. “Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in.”
Berentz was promptly kicked out for espousing threatening language. Nonetheless, on Thursday morning, a bomb threat prompted Springfield’s city hall, a school and other government offices to be evacuated.…
As always, the challenge is in the determining what is feasible and has an evidence-base regarding effectiveness, and ultimately in the doing and implementing. Writing a report and making recommendations is relatively easy and consultations have to include diverse views:
…Despite these strengths, the report has notable weaknesses that need to be addressed for effective and meaningful reform.
One problem is the lack of concrete action plans and timelines. Without specific implementation strategies and deadlines, the recommendations risk remaining mere aspirations. To drive real change, the government must outline clear, actionable steps and hold relevant agencies accountable for meeting these targets. Many such reports, including the 445-page Report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System (1995), which I also wrote about, have gone into the dustbins of history without significant action. The evidence is in the numerous subsequent reports since then that also accumulated dust.
Another weakness is that while the report calls for major overhauls like pouring more resources into jobs, housing, health, and education, and eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, it does not provide robust strategies to address these underlying factors. Comprehensive socio-economic policies ensuring access to quality education, health care, housing, and employment opportunities are essential for a holistic approach to justice reform. Furthermore, the report’s recommendations for training and education of justice system professionals are not adequately detailed. Cultural competency and anti-racism training must be rigorous, ongoing, and integrated into all aspects of professional development. The report should specify the content, frequency, and evaluation methods for such training to ensure it effectively transforms attitudes and behaviours within the justice system.
While the report emphasizes the importance of community engagement, it falls short in outlining mechanisms for meaningful and sustained community involvement in the reform process.
True transformative justice requires continuous dialogue and partnership with affected communities. Establishing advisory councils, conducting regular town hall meetings, and creating platforms for community feedback are ways to ensure reforms are responsive to the needs and experiences of those most impacted by systemic racism.
It is well past the time to start dismantling systemic racism and build a criminal justice system that truly serves all members of our diverse nation.
Faisal Kutty is a lawyer and law professor. @themuslimlawyer
Pandemic issue for the SPVM, remember well from some of the files I dealt with more than 10 years ago:
La lutte pour mettre fin au racisme policier à Montréal se trouve dans une impasse. Nous n’avons jamais eu autant de preuves de l’existence de racisme au sein des forces policières à Montréal ni une meilleure compréhension des mesures à prendre pour le combattre. Pourtant, le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) et l’administration de Projet Montréal s’entêtent à rejeter les recommandations formulées par des groupes communautaires et des chercheurs et ressuscitent plutôt des réformes éculées et inefficaces.
De nombreuses preuves empiriques sur le racisme policier ont été accumulées depuis les premières enquêtes gouvernementales, réalisées dans les années 1970. En 2019, par exemple, une équipe de chercheurs indépendants a publié une étude recensant les interpellations policières effectuées entre 2014 et 2017, qui montre que les personnes noires et autochtones sont interpellées par la police de Montréal quatre fois plus souvent que les personnes blanches.
L’an dernier, l’équipe de chercheurs a publié une étude de suivi portant sur la période de 2018 à 2022, et a constaté que les iniquités raciales, loin de s’atténuer, étaient en fait encore plus marquées.
Le SPVM a écarté chacune de ces recommandations. Ainsi, lorsque les auteurs du rapport de 2023 ont demandé un moratoire sur les interpellations, le chef du SPVM, Fady Dagher, a rejeté cette demande, affirmant qu’un « virage culturel » au sein de l’institution suffirait à résoudre le problème. L’administration de Projet Montréal a donné son soutien au plan de Fady Dagher et n’a fait aucune autre déclaration sur le sujet.
Le 23 juillet dernier, une enquête du Journal de Montréal a révélé que le SPVM s’était ingéré dans une étude « indépendante » sur les interpellations afin d’en réduire la portée. Parmi les tactiques employées, le SPVM a tenté d’obtenir la transcription d’entrevues confidentielles de ses policiers qui dénonçaient les pratiques racistes du service et a fait pression sur les chercheurs afin qu’ils s’abstiennent de recommander un moratoire sur les interpellations.
Il est facile de comprendre pourquoi le chef Dagher et Projet Montréal balaient du revers de la main les demandes des groupes communautaires et des chercheurs et font plutôt la promotion d’un « virage culturel ». Le SPVM a déjà amorcé ce virage il y a des dizaines d’années, en adoptant une politique sur les relations communautaires en 1985 et en mettant en oeuvre un ensemble de politiques visant à mieux former les policiers pour éliminer les préjugés, à embaucher plus de policiers racisés et à établir des liens avec les communautés noires, autochtones et racisées.
Depuis les années 1980, ces mêmes politiques sont ressuscitées chaque fois qu’une crise survient — ce qui est stratégique. Présenter des politiques qui ont échoué comme de « nouvelles » solutions permet au SPVM et à l’administration municipale de donner l’impression qu’ils prennent le problème à bras-le-corps. Pendant ce temps, les disparités raciales dans le maintien de l’ordre demeurent aussi marquées, sinon plus, qu’en 1985.
De vraies solutions au racisme policier
Il existe de nombreux moyens efficaces d’éliminer le racisme policier, mais ils se fondent sur une conception très différente de la sécurité publique. Nous appuyons trois de ces mesures.
Premièrement, comme l’exigent depuis longtemps les groupes communautaires et les chercheurs, les interpellations et les interceptions routières doivent être abolies, et des excuses doivent être présentées aux communautés auxquelles cette pratique de longue date a porté préjudice.
Par nature, les interpellations et les interceptions n’exigent aucune preuve préalable que la personne visée a contrevenu à la loi — il suffit que la policière ou le policier « soupçonne » que ladite personne a commis une infraction ou est susceptible de le faire. Les interpellations arbitraires n’ont aucun fondement juridique, nuisent à la sécurité publique plutôt que de l’améliorer et laissent à la police un pouvoir discrétionnaire qui donne lieu à des comportements abusifs et à une discrimination raciale à grande échelle.
Deuxièmement, les règlements municipaux sur les « incivilités » doivent être abrogés. Ces règlements prévoient des pénalités en cas de comportements non menaçants comme s’allonger au sol, uriner sur la voie publique ou « flâner ».
Lorsque le SPVM a commencé à sévir contre ce qu’il appelle des « incivilités », en 2003, nous avons assisté à une augmentation considérable des cas de harcèlement envers les personnes marginalisées, notamment les personnes noires, autochtones et itinérantes de toutes origines, de même qu’à un accroissement du nombre de contraventions remises à ces populations. Projet Montréal a reconnu ce problème en 2018 et a mis sur pied un comité constitué de groupes communautaires chargé d’examiner et de supprimer les règlements les plus discriminatoires. Ces règlements abusifs sont toujours en vigueur six ans plus tard.
Troisièmement, les fonds publics investis dans les forces policières doivent être redirigés vers des programmes qui améliorent de façon tangible le bien-être et la sécurité des populations marginalisées et racisées. Depuis des décennies, la police est vue comme la solution à tous les problèmes sociaux qui retiennent l’attention du public, qu’il s’agisse de violence armée ou d’itinérance. Il en résulte un cercle vicieux où l’échec prévisible des forces policières à résoudre des problèmes systémiques se traduit par des appels renouvelés à une plus grande présence policière.
Ce sont ces mesures — et non un autre « virage culturel » vers le statu quo — que le SPVM et Projet Montréal doivent mettre en oeuvre s’ils veulent lutter contre le racisme et la violence des forces de l’ordre.
Second article critical of the strategy in a week in the Post:
….According to the steering group, the federal government should also “establish a committee of Black justice professionals, academics and community leaders to study options for reparations to Black people for enslavement, segregation and racially biased laws,” work to give lower interest rates and debt forgiveness to Black articling students and early-career lawyers, increase resources “for the development and improvement of Black businesses,” categorize Black people as a “priority group” in federal employment and housing programs and so on.
The steering group’s Black justice strategy focuses on dividing society by race and delivering governmental favours to the Black population. But this is a failing strategy, as seen most evidently in the United States and documented by, in addition to Thomas Sowell, prolific Black scholars such Walter Williams and Jason Riley. As their work has shown, Blacks and other communities make the most progress when focused on building human capital through education and economic advancement instead of trying to achieve political clout. Black Americans made much greater progress before the explosion of Black elected officials, welfare programs and affirmative action in the 1960s than after it.
It is no different in Canada. Among Canadian-born men and women, those of Japanese, Chinese and Korean ancestry have significantly higher average earnings than the white population. These groups are also underrepresented among criminal offenders. Their relative success in Canadian society has nothing to do with federal programs giving them preferential treatment or with the Department of Justice having a Japanese justice strategy, Chinese justice strategy or Korean justice strategy — that much is clear. Such government favours and strategies will not help Canada’s Black population, either.
Good indicator of how a future conservative government will reverse some of the more ideological language and positions in multiculturalism and diversity policies and programs. Given Jivani’s profile in the party, likely he will play a role in formulating policies:
The report starts by stating that Canada’s criminal justice system was never meant to serve black Canadians but to harm them. When that’s the starting point, you know the report you are about to read is coming with a heavy political bias.
Jamil Jivani, Conservative MP for Durham, a lawyer and a Black man, is quite vocal in opposing the recommendations of this strategy.
“The main problem with this Black justice strategy is that it’s only exacerbating the bad policies that the Liberal government has already brought in, and at a time where crime is going up, and Black Canadians are suffering from that increase in crime,” Jivani said in an interview on Tuesday.
Jivani calls the policies in the publication radical and is calling on the Liberal government to reject the proposals. If you read it for yourself, it will be clear that this is a highly political document pushing a radical agenda.
On page 39 the report calls for the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to be amended, “to remove all criminal penalties for possession offences of up to a 30-day supply of a controlled substance.” On the same page, the report calls for dropping whether a firearm was used or the severity of the crime at hand as a reason in determining whether bail should be granted.
Time and again, this report calls for bail to be made easier to obtain even though under the Trudeau Liberals it is the default option in all but the most extreme exceptions. That they want bail made easier to get is due to the philosophy the authors approach the criminal justice system with, it isn’t about race.
“The reality is as a Black Canadian, as a Black man, it is especially frustrating that these very radical, harmful policies are being recommended as if they’re good for Black Canadians,” Jivani said.
“When over one out of 10, over 13% of homicide victims in Canada are Black men and Black women and the idea that you would make crime worse and say that it’s good for Black people is insane.”
On the issue of sentencing, the report calls for the elimination of all mandatory minimum sentences and making conditional sentences available for all offences — that would include murder. The ultimate goal of the report is to bring about changes that make sure as few people as possible go to jail in Canada and that those already in jail are let out.
“Canada must aim to reduce the overall current rate of persons incarcerated relative to the population by 30% by 2034, and given levels of overrepresentation, incarceration rates for Black and Indigenous people must be reduced by 50% of the current rate, relative to their proportion of the population, in this time,” the report states.
Jivani points out that the push for reducing the prison population fails to consider the severity of the crimes committed or whether those involved are repeat offenders.
The authors of this report are all accomplished people with impressive resumes, yet they are clearly and heavily political all at the same time.
Taking far-left political theory and repackaging it as racial justice doesn’t mean that it’s still not far-left political theory. The authors, though, have made clear they don’t accept any criticisms.
Zilla Jones, a lawyer and one of the lead authors of the report, replied to Jivani’s criticism on X by saying her goal with this report was to change discussions about crime away from the conservative point of view.
“This is one goal of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy — to transform the conversation around the justice system from being held hostage to small-c conservative talking points people repeat without thinking, such as those below, to one that actually responds to public safety needs,” Jones said.
It’s a nice summary of her view of the current judicial system, held hostage to conservative viewpoints which are held by people who don’t think. Read her statement and tell me that this report isn’t primarily about politics.
That’s why we can expect the Liberal government to not only accept this report but embrace it and implement the policies. They are all about the politics, even if that means bad policies.
Being London-born of Barbadian and Indian parentage, racial difference was part of my upbringing. However, my first experiences of racism would be transmitted subliminally. I was a child of the 1970s, and programming such as The Fosters, Desmond’s and Empire Road, which portrayed the Black experience in Britain, couldn’t counteract the effects of the dominant media messaging coming from The Black and White Minstrel Show, nor overcome the persistent characterisation of Africa as the “dark continent”, and as “backward” and “savage”.
This racism came back into view with the Windrush scandal in 2018. The assertion that the affair was the unintended consequence of the hostile environment immigration policy was best countered by former Guardian columnist Gary Younge who argued that this persecution was “no accident” but rather “cruelty by design”. For Younge, a chronicler of the Black experience in Britain, the Caribbean and US, “this is not a glitch in the system. It is the system … A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.”
Too often, racism is perceived as bad acts perpetrated by the warped mindsets of unsavoury individuals. However, this oversimplification neglects to recognise the embedded racialised policies, procedures, practices and power relations that undermine the equity of systems and the fairness of institutions. The Home Office is one such institution where racism was embedded in its culture.
The Windrush victims found genuine sympathy among large swathes of British society. But also some resistance. There is undoubtedly a reticence among some Britons to really listen to arguments for racial justice. The reasons are many: an English tradition of avoiding uncomfortable conversations; the highly contested and polarised debates dominated by a small, vociferous group for whom colonialism was an act of benevolence; a zero-sum mindset perceiving benefits to some coming at the expense of others; and a selective memory when it comes to our colonial history – and wilful misunderstanding, too.
These rationalisations serve to place the burden of responsibility for tackling racism on to victims rather than the perpetrators – and have made it difficult for the Windrush victims to receive the justice they deserve.
Black and other minority ethnic groups are held to a different standard compared to the victims of other miscarriages of justice. Windrush victims have been required to prove their case “beyond reasonable doubt” rather than “on the balance of probabilities” in order to access compensation, with some suffering the ignominious request to undergo DNA testing to prove they are related to their immediate family. The government has also rolled back three key recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review. But I am ecstatic, as I am sure are the wider Windrush generation, that this decision was found to be unlawful in a high court ruling this month.
In 2022, I was appointed the Church of England’s director of racial justice to implement From Lament to Action, the Church’s commitment to overcoming its institutional racism. The report of the Archbishops’ Antiracism Taskforce affirmed the “urgency of now” noting: “A failure to act now will be seen as another indication, potentially a last straw for many, that the Church is not serious about racial sin.”
A journey of healing and repair has already begun. In 2020, the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, issued an apology for the racismdirected at the Windrush generation, whether through direct hostility by some congregations or the absence of welcome by others, since their arrival in the 1940s and 1950s. While 69% of West Indians attended a historic denominational church in the Caribbean (Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational or Baptist), only 4% of those arriving in Britain continued to worship in the same tradition.
This apology was accompanied by a statement from the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, accepting that the church was “still deeply institutionally racist”. Since then, research has concluded into the historic linkages between the church and African chattel enslavement and a £100m Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice established, with aims to increase it to £1bn. Racial justice is not yet embedded in the church’s mission, but I can attest to the fact that we as an institution choose to stand against the evil and pernicious sin of racism. There is much work to do, but I hope we can be a model for genuine reflection on the injustices experienced by Black and ethnic minority communities in the UK – and for how true justice can be achieved.
James Baldwin, once, briefly, a neighbour of my parents in London, wrote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” At the heart of all racial progress in Britain must lie an acceptance that there are inequities to be challenged – the Windrush scandalproved that to be true. So let us use this day to honour those West Indians whose landing at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948 symbolised the birth of modern, multicultural Britain. For they, for I – for we all – belong here.
Guy Hewitt is the inaugural director of racial justice in the Church of England, a priest and former high commissioner to the UK. He was born in London and raised in Barbados
Council members with the Road to Economic Prosperity(opens in a new tab) says the data collected reflects the experience of African Nova Scotians, including historical challenges like anti-Black racism.
Housing statistics
According to the report, compared to the overall Nova Scotian population, the Black Nova Scotian community has higher shares of households living in unaffordable housing, inadequate housing that doesn’t fit the number of people living in them, and unsuitable housing, meaning homes that require “major repairs.”
While 7.3 per cent of Nova Scotian households live in core housing need, the share almost doubles to 13.2 per cent for Black Nova Scotians.
The report found that less than half of Black households in Nova Scotia — 45.8 per cent — owned their own homes.
Wage gap statistics
On average, the index report found a Black Nova Scotian will earn only 85 cents in income for every dollar earned by a non-visible minority in the province.
The average Black Nova Scotian with a bachelor’s degree or higher made only 79.2 per cent of the income of the average Nova Scotian with the same education levels in 2020, according to the report’s findings.
Employment statistics
The age-adjusted unemployment rate for Black Nova Scotians remains above the figure for the overall population: 4.7 per cent higher in 2016, and 1.3 per cent higher in 2021, according to the report.
Nova Scotia’s Black population
Census data included in the index also shows that between 2016 and 2021, the Black population in Nova Scotia grew more quickly than Nova Scotia’s population overall, a trend that was led by international migration, primarily from Nigeria.
In all, 28,220 Nova Scotians self-identified as Black, representing three per cent of the provincial population. The fastest-growing groups were Black men and women between the ages of 20 and 44.
The report makes a 14 recommendations, including that the province’s Black community expand its data sources by co-operating with universities, community groups and governments.
Another recommendation calls on all orders of government to recognize descendants of Nova Scotia’s historic 52 Black communities as a “distinct people.”
Although the information gathered in the report may not come as a surprise to members of the Black community, the council says it’s important to share the findings with other community political leaders to help push for change.
“When you review the data, the circumstances for Black Nova Scotians is not ideal. Education, we are showing improvements around education but we are still very much over-represented in core housing needs and over-represented in those needing adequate housing. I would just say it doesn’t paint a pretty picture but it does show the reality,” said Shaekara Grant, co-chair of Road to Economic Prosperity youth council.
The group hopes to continue their research and present data every three years.
“The index is a measuring tool. You know the old adages, ‘What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get changed.’ So, this is a tool that we are hoping advocacy groups and community groups can use in those areas, which they are working to bring about some positive change,” said Irvine Carvery, co-chair of Road to Economic Prosperity advisory council.
The council says they are working with Statistics Canada to come up with better ways to gather data that reflect the African Nova Scotian experience in their census work.
The Road to Economic Prosperity Plan is a five-year economic development strategy developed and owned by the African Nova Scotian community to address systemic issues and improve economic and quality of life outcomes for African Nova Scotians.
The plan is led by leaders from African Nova Scotian communities and implemented in collaboration with public, private, post-secondary and community partners.
Latest GSS. Interestingly overall observation “Between racialized groups, there were no significant differences in experiences of discrimination.”
But “For instance, nearly half of Black people experienced discrimination or unfair treatment in a workplace setting (48%). This was significantly more than other racialized groups (39%) or non-racialized people (41%). Black people were also more than twice as likely to report discrimination when seeking housing (13%) compared with other racialized groups (6%) or non-racialized people (6%).:
Over one in three people (36%) aged 15 years and older living in Canada have experienced some form of discrimination or unfair treatment in the five years prior to the latest wave of the Canadian Social Survey. These experiences occurred in a variety of settings—while attending school, applying for jobs, working, shopping, and seeking healthcare, among others. The results, based on new data from the survey collected from January to March 2024, suggest that while the proportion of self-reported incidents of discrimination has remained relatively stable since 2021, discrimination and unfair treatment continue to disproportionally affect racialized groups, Indigenous people, women, 2SLGBTQ+ populations, people living with disabilities, and young adults.
Discrimination and unfair treatment is a headline indicator in Canada’s Quality of Life framework. This framework enables the federal government to identify future policy priorities, to build on previous actions to strengthen evidence-based decision-making and budgeting, and to improve the well-being of Canadians.
Racialized people, especially Canadian-born Black people, are more likely to face discrimination
Using pooled data from six waves of the Canadian Social Survey, it is possible to examine the intersection of various characteristics of people who have experienced discrimination. From 2021 to 2024, just over half (51%) of racialized people aged 15 years and older reported experiencing discrimination or unfair treatment within the five years prior to the survey. This was nearly double the proportion (27%) recorded for non-racialized people. Between racialized groups, there were no significant differences in experiences of discrimination.
Reflecting the diversity of intersectional identities in Canada, experiences of discrimination varied across intersecting identities of racialized people and immigrants. Consistent with previous findings, reports of discrimination were more common among the Canadian-born racialized population (57%) than among racialized people who recently immigrated to Canada (48%) or who immigrated more than 10 years ago (49%). This difference was most pronounced among Black Canadians, with Canadian-born Black people being significantly more likely to report having experienced discrimination (71%) than either recent (51%) or established (59%) Black immigrants.
The higher prevalence of experiences of discrimination among racialized groups was perceived to be largely motivated by race or ethnicity. Specifically, discrimination based on race or skin colour was the leading perceived reason for discrimination against racialized people (66%). This was followed by discrimination due to ethnicity or culture (49%), accent (28%), and language (27%).
Discrimination is also more common among other historically marginalized groups such as 2SLGBTQ+populations, Indigenous people, and people with a disability
Chart 1 Discrimination in the five years prior to the survey, perceived reason for discrimination, by sex and total population, Canada, 2021 to 2024
Reasons behind discriminatory treatment varied among groups, as did the actual prevalence of discrimination. For instance, the leading perceived reasons behind discrimination and unfair treatment against 2SLGBTQ+ populations were sexual orientation, physical appearance, and sex. This population was also nearly twice as likely as the non-2SLGBTQ+ population to face some form of discrimination or unfair treatment in the five years prior to the survey (61% versus 32%).
Among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis, and Inuit, 46% reported experiences of discrimination, compared with 33% of non-Indigenous people. The reasons for these experiences were largely perceived to be due to Indigenous identity and physical appearance. Indigenous people (23%) were also nearly twice as likely to be discriminated against due to a physical or mental disability compared with the non-Indigenous population (12%).
Elevated levels of discrimination were also recorded for people living with a disability. In all, 44% of people with a disability reported experiences of discrimination, compared with 32% of people without a disability. The most frequently-cited perceived reasons for discrimination against people with a disability were due to physical or mental disability, physical appearance, and age.
Age and sex also played a role in both prevalence of and perceived reason for discrimination. Experiences of discrimination consistently decreased with age, from a high of 45% among those aged 15 to 34 to a low of 17% among people aged 65 years and older. This may be explained by the fact that the racialized population and people who are 2SLGBTQ+tend to be younger.
Perceived reasons for discrimination varied by people in different age groups, with race or skin colour (38%) and physical appearance (38%) being the most common reasons among those aged 15 to 34, and age (50%) being the most common reason for people aged 65 years and older. There were also sex differences in prevalence of discrimination: 37% of women reported experiences of discrimination, compared with 30% of men. Women were more often discriminated against because of their sex or age, while for men, discrimination was more often on the basis of their race or skin colour, ethnicity or culture, language, accent, or religion.
The work environment is the most common context where discrimination is reported
Chart 2 Discrimination in the five years prior to the survey, situation in which discrimination was experienced, by sex, Canada, 2021 to 2024
There were differences in the context in which discrimination was experienced across groups, though the workplace (41%) was the most common location of discrimination or unfair treatment, whether it was while working, applying for a job, or seeking a promotion. This was followed by discrimination experienced in a store, bank, or restaurant (33%) and while using public areas (29%).
While differences in the prevalence of discrimination did not significantly differ between racialized groups, the contexts in which they occurred did. For instance, nearly half of Black people experienced discrimination or unfair treatment in a workplace setting (48%). This was significantly more than other racialized groups (39%) or non-racialized people (41%). Black people were also more than twice as likely to report discrimination when seeking housing (13%) compared with other racialized groups (6%) or non-racialized people (6%).
Conversely, Chinese people were less likely than other racialized groups to report experiencing discrimination while attending school (17% versus 23%), in the workplace (26% versus 44%), when crossing the border into Canada (5% versus 8%), and when seeking housing (3% versus 8%). Similarly, reports of discrimination towards Chinese people were lower than reports of discrimination against non-racialized people in the workplace (41%) and against non-racialized people when seeking housing (6%).
People who experience discrimination also report lower measures of quality of life
Chart 3 Discrimination in the five years prior to the survey, confidence in selected types of institutions, Canada, 2021 to 2024
Experiences of discrimination and unfair treatment may influence overall perceptions of health and wellbeing. People who experienced discrimination in the five years prior to the survey compared with those who did not were more than twice as likely to report fair or poor mental health (31% versus 14%), were less likely to report high life satisfaction (37% versus 57%) and were less likely to report high levels of meaning and purpose (46% versus 63%). And while two-thirds of people who experienced discrimination (66%) reported that they always or often had someone they could depend on, this was lower than those who had not experienced discrimination (79%).
People who experienced discrimination were also less likely to report a strong sense of belonging to their local community compared with people who did not experience discrimination (39% versus 51%). Furthermore, they were less likely to report confidence in various institutions, including the police, school, courts, Canadian Parliament, and media. These results were consistent with a previous study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic using crowdsourced data.
The question remains whether there is adequate time for the current government to present and pass legislation prior to the election. Unlikely that a likely Conservative government would be so inclined:
Nicholas Marcus Thompson, chief executive officer of the Black Class Action Secretariat, said he was “very pleased” with the federal government’s commitment to “modernize” the Employment Equity Act, including by expanding designated equity groups, as outlined in Budget 2024.
The government first announced it would be updating the act to create new groups for Black and 2SLGBTQI+ people in December, alongside the release of the Employment Equity Act Review Task Force’s final report, which included that recommendation. The four current groups include women, people with disabilities, Indigenous people and members of visible minorities.
In April, the government reiterated its plans, announcing in the budget its “intention to propose legislative amendments” to the act.
“It will certainly go a long way in terms of addressing specifically anti-Black racism and discrimination,” said Thompson, who noted it “would have been nice” to see more measures around delayed mental health supports for Black employees, first announced in Budget 2022, as well as funding for the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent included in the budget. “Black folks will not be excluded, hidden in the visible minorities category as it stands.”
In an interview, Anand said there was no funding for Black public servants included in the latest budget as funds remained from previous years.
“It’s not the case that we are forgetting that we want programming to support them, not at all,” said Anand, who in February announced the first initiatives of the government’s “action plan” for Black public servants.
BCAS filed a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Employment Equity Act in 2020, arguing that it violated the Charter of Rights by discriminating against and excluding Black employees.
Multicultural Meanderings 