ICYMI: Berlin Passes Sweeping Anti-Discrimination Law

2020/06/08 Leave a comment

Of note:

Berlin has become the first German state to pass its own anti-discrimination law. The law bars public authorities — including police — from discriminating against anyone based on background, skin color, gender, religion, disabilities, worldview, age, class, education and sexual identity.

The legislation passed Thursday has been in the works for weeks, but it has taken on a new meaning in the wake of protests against systemic racism that have erupted in the U.S. and spread to cities around the world, including Berlin.

Under the new law, victims are entitled to damages and compensation, and public authorities have an opportunity to dispute claims of discrimination. Previously, the onus for anti-discrimination suits in Berlin was on the victims to prove they had been discriminated against before a lawsuit could go forward. Now if discrimination is considered “predominantly likely,” the relevant public authority must then either accept or refute the accusation against it.

Berlin’s governing coalition believes that Germany’s General Act on Equal Treatment, a federal anti-discrimination law passed in 2006, does not go far enough in protecting civil rights, and that this new state law will enhance legal protections for a wide range of groups.

“This is an important step in the fight against discrimination and racism,” regional politician Werner Graf told news organization Euractiv. “For the first time, it is possible to take action against discrimination on the part of state actors and to punish this in a simplified way.”

Before it was passed, Berlin’s measure was criticized by leaders of Germany’s police unions who argued that it puts undue pressure on police officers, placing them under suspicion. Berlin politician Dirk Behrendt of the Green Party told German public broadcaster RBB that the new law aims to address systemic racism rather than hamper the day-to-day work of the police.

“It’s about, for example, the practice of racial profiling where the police don’t look and observe how someone is behaving regardless of their skin color or their gender,” Behrendt told RBB. “For them, the new law doesn’t change anything.”

Source: Berlin Passes Sweeping Anti-Discrimination Law

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Discrimination may contribute to decline of ‘birthweight advantage’ in black immigrants

2020/06/06 Leave a comment

Striking and disturbing findings from Florida. Contrast between Blacks and Latinos also striking:

Black women have the highest prevalence of low birthweight babies compared to other racial and ethnic groups, but black immigrants typically have much better outcomes than their U.S.-born counterparts. Yet, little has been known about whether this “healthy immigrant” effect persists across generations.

According to a new study published by Princeton University researchers, the substantial “birthweight advantage” experienced by the foreign-born black population is lost within a single generation. In contrast, a modest advantage among foreign-born Hispanics persists across generations.

The authors suspect discrimination and inequality in the U.S. may be a contributing factor to this decline. Experiences of interpersonal discrimination, both before and during pregnancy, are likely to trigger physiological stress responses that negatively affect birth outcomes, they said.

The study, published in Epidemiology, has important public health implications given that low birthweight is a significant predictor of a broad range of health and socioeconomic outcomes throughout one’s life. The findings also underscore the potential role of discrimination in producing racial and intergenerational disparities in birth outcomes.

The research was conducted by Noreen Goldman, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of Demography and Public Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and first author Theresa Andrasfay, who received her Ph.D. from Princeton’s Program in Population Studies.

Motivated by an earlier study of a small number of black immigrants in Illinois in the 1950-1970s, the researchers felt that conclusions regarding intergenerational changes in birthweight warranted a larger sample based on recent data in a popular immigrant destination state.

The authors analyzed administrative records from 1971 to 2015 in Florida, which receives a large number of black immigrants from the Caribbean. They linked several hundred thousand birth records of daughters to those of their mothers. This allowed them to compare birthweights of daughters born to foreign-born and U.S.-born mothers with the birthweights of their granddaughters. The study provides estimates of these intergenerational changes in birthweight for white, Hispanic, and black women.

The results point to what the researchers call a large foreign-born advantage among blacks: 7.8% of daughters born to foreign-born black women are low birthweight (under 2,500 grams or 5.5 pounds) compared to 11.8% among U.S.-born black women. But, whereas foreign-born Hispanic women maintain a birthweight advantage in the next generation, black women see this advantage essentially eliminated with the birth of their granddaughters. These granddaughters are more than 50% more likely than their mothers to be low birthweight. In contrast, the increase in low birthweight prevalence between daughters and granddaughters of U.S.-born black women is only about 10%, which is more in line with national increases in low birthweight over the same time period.

Andrasfay and Goldman were surprised by the rapidity with which the foreign-born advantage among black women was lost. After only one generation spent in the U.S., the prevalence of low birthweight is almost as high among the granddaughters of foreign-born black women as among the granddaughters of U.S.-born black women (12.2% vs. 13.1%) and is considerably higher for both groups of black infants than for white and Hispanic babies.

The authors identified an equally striking finding with regard to differences in low birthweight by level of schooling. Contrary to the pattern found among all other racial and ethnic groups, foreign-born black women are about as likely to have a low birthweight daughter if they have low or high levels of schooling. However, in the next generation, the prevalence of low birthweight declines as maternal education increases. This likely reflects a difference in the context in which mothers received their education.

In the U.S., mothers with less than high school education are disadvantaged in multiple ways, but women who obtained this same level of schooling before immigrating to the U.S. were likely relatively advantaged in their origin countries.”

Theresa Andrasfay, First Author

The authors controlled for socioeconomic and health-related risk factors, including characteristics of women’s neighborhoods that varied among racial, ethnic, and nativity groups, but these factors did not account for their findings. They concluded that the high frequency of low birthweight babies among blacks, and the increase from daughters to granddaughters among black immigrants, were likely both due to exposure to discrimination and inequality. “Unfortunately,” said Goldman, “high quality measures of discrimination are notoriously difficult to obtain.”

The researchers note several limitations of the study. The study is based on birth records from only one state, Florida, and in order to observe multiple generations within the same family, the study was restricted to families in which both daughters and granddaughters were born in Florida. Though the main analysis used only female births, there is evidence that the findings extend to male births. Nevertheless, their study has important implications.

“Though black immigrants currently make up a small share of the population, their numbers are growing,” said Andrasfay. “This growth emphasizes the importance of understanding how their health evolves with time in the U.S. to better understand future disparities.”

“Foreign-born blacks may experience less prejudice than their U.S.-born peers because they have spent part of their lives in majority black countries where discrimination may be less severe than in the U.S.,” said Goldman. “In contrast, their children spend their entire lives in a more racialized social environment than found in the Caribbean, which could explain the worsening of birth outcomes between generations.”

“This study also underscores the need for more research,” said Goldman, “both to develop better measures of interpersonal discrimination and to identify epigenetic mechanisms that link social stressors to birth outcomes among black women.”

The paper, “Intergenerational change in birthweight: effects of foreign-born status and race/ethnicity,” was published online in Epidemiology on June 1 and will be featured in the September print edition.

Source: Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

Source: Discrimination may contribute to decline of ‘birthweight advantage’ in black immigrants

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Race, Ethnicity Data To Be Required With Coronavirus Tests In U.S.

2020/06/06 Leave a comment

Canada should follow suit (Canada should have led):

All laboratories will now be required to include detailed demographic data when they report the results of coronavirus tests to the federal government, including the age, sex, race and ethnicity of the person tested, the Trump administration announced Thursday.

The new requirement, which will go into effect Aug. 1, is designed to help provide long-sought, crucial information needed to monitor and fight the pandemic nationally.

“The requirement to include demographic data like race, ethnicity, age, and sex will enable us to ensure that all groups have equitable access to testing, and allow us to accurately determine the burden of infection on vulnerable groups,” said Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. government has faced intense criticism for failing to gather such data on a timely basis. Many public health experts consider this information necessary to blunt the impact of virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 107,000 Americans.

During a congressional hearing Thursday, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, apologized for the agency’s slowness in gathering better data.

“I personally want to apologize for the inadequacy of our response,” Redfield said. “We didn’t have the data that we needed.”

Public health experts say what’s been needed are detailed breakdowns on how the virus is affecting African American and other minority communities. These groups appear to have been hit especially hard, suffering higher rates of infection, serious illness and death.

“One problem that epidemiologists in particular have seen with all of this new lab testing sites data (pharmacies, drive-throughs, non-traditional lab settings) is incomplete data,” Scott Becker of the Association of Public Health Laboratories wrote in an email to NPR. “The data guidance issued today will aid state and local public health officials to better do their job.”

Better testing data should help identify groups that are being hit hard by the virus and who require priority access to better testing and treatment. In addition, improved data will help health departments more quickly track down people who might have been exposed to the virus, to try to prevent new outbreaks.

“I am particularly encouraged that they plan to included demographic data, which will be important for helping us to better understand observed racial/ethnic and other disparities in case numbers,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told NPR via email.

Some state and local health officials, as well as some hospital and commercial labs, have complained that the federal government has issued confusing, contradictory and counter-productive guidance and requirements for testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also been criticized for combining the results of different kinds of testing in its tallies of testing, providing an inaccurate picture of the pandemic.

The new requirement comes as civil unrest has erupted in many places around the U.S. in response to police brutality and the killings of black people.

In announcing the new guidelines, Giroir singled out hospital laboratories and commercial labs for failing to routinely provide detailed demographic information with testing results.

Julie Khani, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association, which represents commercial laboratories, defended the group’s members.

“Our members have faced obstacles tracking down missing information that is not collected or reported by the provider when the specimen is collected,” Khani wrote in an email to NPR, “and that’s why we’ve been engaged with providers, the CDC, public health agencies and others since the beginning of this public health emergency to ensure we’re doing all we can to collect this information.”

Source: Race, Ethnicity Data To Be Required With Coronavirus Tests In U.S.

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If Black lives matter, it’s time for true policy action and accountability

2020/06/06 Leave a comment

From former Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a mix of the practical (better data, more support to community organizations) to more challenging (more funding despite recent increases and more pressing COVID-19 pressures, immigration or visitor visa changes – not clear which one she advocates, more Black GiC appointments – better data would be a starting point, more Black DM and ADM appointments).

To that list, I would add more thorough evaluations of existing and future programs to improve the evidence-basis for what works and what is more effective.

All are good points for discussion, debate and consideration.

Over the past several days, in the midst of the protests related to the killing of George Floyd and death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, many people have asked me (and other Black people) this question: what does the government do now? What are the solutions to racism in Canada, Celina?

As much as it frustrates me, and likely other members of the Black community, to be recipients of racism and still be asked to come up with solutions, I will acquiesce to this request, and provide some insights for government colleagues.

First, acknowledge and understand that racism exists. And not just the capital “R” racism that is consuming all the oxygen in our media, but the daily “death by a thousand cuts” microaggressions that Black, Indigenous and people of colour face every day. This is the truth. And there is no reconciliation without truth.

Next, provide adequate, intentional and sustained funding to community programs and organizations that empower and uplift communities. Don’t make announcements about combatting “guns and gangs” in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto while handing over money to law enforcement for the further over-surveillance of an already stigmatized community.

While the area has its fair share of problems, the community has also had a tremendous amount of success – notably highlighted in the film Mr. Jane and Finch (about community advocate Winston LaRose), which recently won a 2020 Canadian Screen Award for best social/political documentary program.

There are organizations like Zero Gun Violence run by Louis March, Trust 15 run by Marcia Brown, and Generation Chosen run by Dwyane Brown and Joseph Smith. Each of these organizations has been working tirelessly to help uplift and empower our youth. Itah Sadu, owner of A Different Book List bookstore, has been raising funds for a cultural centre for the community. All of these individuals are tired of jumping through hoops to get funding. They have demonstrated their ability to effect change and have sustained their businesses with proven results. Our governments could find ways to help them scale up and grow (in the same way they are helping Canadian commercial entities and projects to scale up). This should extend to the government’s procurement processes, as Black-owned businesses are often left out of the conversation, off the list and fail to receive invitations to trade missions.

Additionally, if governments are going to make announcements about investments in Black communities, they should do the math first. Budget 2018 dedicated $19 million to addressing challenges faced by Black Canadians. Such efforts include $10 million over five years to provide more culturally focused mental health programs to the Black Canadian community and $9 million over five years to enhance community supports for Black youth. Additionally, $23 million was allocated to increase multiculturalism funding. Part of the funds were to be used to conduct cross-country consultations on a new anti-racism approach, which will find new ways to collaborate and combat discrimination.

But when you do the math on these numbers, they don’t make sense, and they certainly do not speak to Black lives mattering. Let’s use the example of $10 million over five years for mental health programs (or $2 million per year). There are 1.2 million Black people in Canada. For ease of this analysis, let’s make this number an even million. If we use the current statistics of mental health challenges impacting one out of five people, we can hypothesize that approximately 200,000 Black Canadians are impacted by mental health issues. This budget is essentially allotting $10 per year per person affected by mental health ($2,000,000 divided by 200,000). How TF is that supposed to do anything? How is that going to have impact? Was this investment intentional or some sort of window dressing? Have we been took? Hoodwinked? Bamboozled? Led astray? Run amok?

However, doing the math is only useful if you are putting forward good policy. And please do not let “how well a particular issue will poll” get in the way of good policy. If you are considering how good policy will impact your ability to get re-elected, find a new line of work, because you do not deserve to represent the people who need you the most.

So, here are some policy changes that can be made. They are suggestions, and not in any particular order of priority. They all should have been done a long time ago. (Most are listed on my Top 43 things to do in the 43rd Parliament tweet thread dated December 4, 2019).

Let’s start with the expungements of criminal records for those folks, predominantly Black and Indigenous, who have been charged with marijuana possession. The government has introduced pardons; however, the over-surveillance of Black and Indigenous communities, which is a violation of our human rights, has led to a disproportionate over-representation of these groups in the prison system. It is time to right the wrong. And while you are at it, get rid of mandatory minimums, too.

Immigration patterns for the approvals of visas from Black and Brown countries into Canada is abysmal. This was a topic of countless conversations during the 42nd Parliament; however, very little was done to improve the situation. The government should investigate immigration practices that discriminate against people from these countries and review visa lifts. In the interim, they should increase the number of mobile biometric units, which track information necessary for a visa application, available in Caribbean and African countries.

Domestically, if representation matters, increase the number of Black people in Cabinet and Black people in Governor in Council appointments. Name an experienced Black person to head the new Anti-Racism Secretariat within the department of Canadian Heritage and increase the number of Black political staffers in prominent positions. Honour the spirit of my private member’s Bill C-468, and remove the barriers that exist for Black federal employees to be promoted within the federal system, especially in deputy minister and assistant deputy minister positions.

Lastly, as a former entrepreneur in the area of research, I was heartened that budget 2018 dedicated $6.7 million to create a new Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics at Statistics Canada. This centre will work to improve our understanding of the social, economic, financial, and environmental issues facing groups, including Black Canadians. This new information will help organizations and leaders better understand the barriers faced by the community and will inform future evidence-based policy. So, start collecting and analyzing race-based data, especially around COVID-19, to properly use our limited resources strategically.

Now, I know what you are going to say. “You were there, Celina. If this was a problem with government policy and spending, why didn’t you do something about it instead of complaining now?” And with this statement, you would be partially correct. I was there during the time the announcements were made in 2018 around anti-racism program and funding. But I was not a part of the conversations or decisions involved in the outcome. In fact, meeting attendees were told not to tell anyone about the meetings’ logistics or discussions. They were especially kept secret from me. Additionally, after the announcement was made and I made my frustrations known, I was told that I needed to “get on board” because it looked bad that I was “bad mouthing” the government and the related stakeholder group that had been consulted.

Herein lies what is the biggest impediment to collective progress. Exclusion. The exclusion of voices of dissent and unusual suspects around the table. The ones who will speak truth to power, call out your bullshit and hold you accountable. The exclusion of ideas that are considered “too extreme” because you are too lazy to see the other side of the coin.

Talking about defunding police is apparently an absolute non-starter, though it has been skillfully addressed by women like Sandy Hudson and Robyn Maynard for quite some time. Their core idea is that if you reduce funding for policing, you can increase funding that uplifts communities and you can invest in mental health supports. Are those also non-starters? I hope not.

Lastly, and most hurtful, the deliberate and intentional exclusion of marginalized groups, and in particular, Black female voices from conversations. Everyone thinks they want the Black woman in the room to fill the diversity quota (Black person – check; female – check), but do they really want her opinion? Do they really want her to tell the truth? Or, dare I say, tell them where they are wrong?

If diversity is truly going to be our strength and #BlackLivesMatter is going to be a reality beyond the hashtag, our governments need to be serious and intentional about policy that is inclusive and funding that is sustainable. We are beyond the point of community consultations and rhetoric. It is time for accountability and action. And both need to start now.

Source: If Black lives matter, it’s time for true policy action and accountability

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Yes Canada, we too have an anti-Black racism problem

2020/06/06 Leave a comment

Good reminder of the insights from the Black Experience Project:

The anguish and confrontations spreading across the United States in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer have captured the attention of news audiences in that country and around the world. We are transfixed by images of shocking police brutality and the widespread community resistance they have inspired.

But Canadians should challenge themselves to look past the deeply disturbing American news clips and reflect on the situation here at home, including the recent death in Toronto of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29 year-old Black woman. If we do, we will learn there is no room for complacency in this country.

When we look in the mirror, we see a society in which Black people are regularly treated unfairly because of their race. The Black Experience Project, which focused on the Greater Toronto Area, found that two-thirds of the region’s Black residents report being treated unfairly on a continuing basis. The forms that this treatment takes are specific, varied and tragic.

Three in five young Black men say they are frequently or occasionally accused of something or treated suspiciously because of their race, and a similar proportion report being observed or followed while in public places. Three in four say that others frequently or occasionally are afraid of them or intimidated because of their race.

In the case of young Black women, more than 60 per cent say that others frequently or occasionally expect their work to be inferior because of their race, and that they are treated rudely or disrespectfully because of the colour of their skin.

When it comes to dealings with police – the focal point for the current wave of protests – things only get worse. One in two Black Torontonians and a staggering 80 per cent of Black men between the ages of 25 and 44 report that they have been stopped in a public place by the police. Two in five Black Torontonians and two in three Black men between 25 and 44 say they have been harassed or treated rudely by police.

In short, this unique survey research shows that Black youth in Canada’s largest city are growing up being observed, questioned, dismissed and belittled by their fellow citizens because of their race, and are routinely harassed by the very public institution that we should turn to for protection.

Yes Canada – we, too, have an anti-Black racism problem.

Racism doesn’t stop there. The recent Race Relations in Canada Survey found that Indigenous peoples in Canada are just as likely as Black people to experience unfair treatment because of their race. South Asian and Chinese Canadians also experience racism; fewer than one in five say this never happens to them.

If there is any good news to hold onto in these bleak times, it is that, on the whole, Canadians are not in denial about this reality. Three-quarters of white Canadians recognize that Black people in this country are either frequently or occasionally the subject of discrimination in Canadian society. Just a handful (3 per cent) said this never happens.

Yet this general recognition of the problem carries us only so far. Three in 10 non-Indigenous Canadians disagree with the statement that it is easy to understand the anger of Indigenous peoples, as do 39 per cent of non-Black people in the case of the anger of Black Canadians. Somehow, a significant number of Canadians seem to expect that people who experience racism should not get too upset about it.

That ship has sailed.

Will things change for the better? The survey research provides some grounds for optimism. Canadians from all racial groups are more likely to say that race relations in this country are getting better as opposed to getting worse. And, crucially, personal connections among racial groups in Canada are growing.

The majority of Canadians not only have regular contact with people from other races, but contact that is overwhelming described as friendly. These friendships can only deepen our understanding of each other’s experiences.

Most strikingly, six in 10 Canadians are optimistic there will be racial equality in Canada in their lifetime; just one in four are pessimistic. Pessimism, at 30 per cent, is higher for Black Canadians, but is not the majority view. When we ask non-white Canadians whether the next generation will experience more racism than today or less, they are much more likely to anticipate that racism will diminish.

These results were collected before George Floyd was killed. The optimism that shone a few months ago may well have diminished in recent days. It will not be rekindled by congratulating ourselves for doing better than our American cousins. The determination to do better needs to be reborn and sustained by our own actions to confront and eliminate racism in Canada, not just by institutions and authorities such as the police, but by each and every one of us.

Source: Yes Canada, we too have an anti-Black racism problem: Michael Adams and Marva Wisdom

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Horgan calls for national anti-racism program; will pitch idea to PM, premiers

2020/06/06 Leave a comment

The challenge lies in the specifics, and better information in terms of what works, is more effective and is scaleable.

My experience when running the multiculturalism program, rather dated now, was that small projects, while worthwhile in many ways, had little long lasting impact and that previous strategies have had little impact on the communities most affected:

Saying Canada’s diversity and multiculturalism mean we need a national strategy to combat racism, Premier John Horgan will make his case to the Premiers and federal government today.

Each Thursday Horgan attends a weekly conference call with other provincial and territorial leaders and the Prime Minister. Today he says he will push for a “coast-to-coast-to-coast” strategy to tackle racism.

“I think that lifts up all Canadians and we can identify and recognize that it’s a diverse, multicultural country; better to have a national approach to these issues and having provinces fully supporting those.”

He also took a moment to express his horror at the death of George Floyd in the U.S., and understands the need to protest and have your voice heard right now, despite the pandemic.

“Be responsible to yourself and more importantly, to the people around you,” he asked of British Columbian’s planning to attend protests.

Horgan acknowledged a series of well-known historically racist events and policies, including the Chinese Head Tax, the Komagata Maru incident, aimed at South Asian migrants and ongoing racism towards Indigenous people.

The premier also spoke out recently against alleged racially-motivated attacks against Chinese-Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Horgan calls for national anti-racism program; will pitch idea to PM, premiers

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Virtual citizenship ceremonies coming for new Canadians whose dreams were crushed by COVID-19

2020/06/05 Leave a comment

Needed albeit imperfect compared to in-person ceremonies:

Citizenship tests and ceremonies have been cancelled for more than two months because of the global pandemic — but newcomers could soon be taking their oaths online through virtual citizenship events.

On March 14, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it would cancel the ceremonies “until further notice.”

Dhiti Nanavati has been working hard for years to reach her “life goal” of becoming a Canadian citizen. The Toronto-based software company marketing manager said she was deeply disappointed when her scheduled March 27 ceremony was called off.

“I was really looking forward to becoming a Canadian citizen and not knowing when the oath ceremony will take place is naturally very distressing,” she said.”A lot of personal sacrifices have gone into making this a reality and the uncertainty about the ceremony is unsettling. It’s like you’re almost at the finish line of a race, only to be told you have stop because the race is cancelled.”

She said she would welcome an online option. She may soon get one.

In a statement to CBC, the department said the citizenship ceremony represents “the culmination of years of hard work for new Canadians and their families.” It said it will begin scheduling virtual ceremonies, starting with those who already had ceremonies scheduled and have a pressing need for Canadian citizenship.

“IRCC will then work to implement virtual citizenship ceremonies for other cases as quickly as possible,” it said.

Since the pandemic hit, IRCC has considered granting citizenship only in exceptional cases, to people who need it for employment or essential travel.

Last month, University of Manitoba researcher Adolf Ng, who is working on a study related to supply chain management issues during the pandemic, became the first person to be awarded Canadian citizenship through a virtual ceremony.The government says it’s working out a way to administer the ceremonies that protects the integrity of the legal process and also reflects the significance of the occasion. No firm timeframe has been established.

Andrew Griffith — author, fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a former senior immigration official — said that in a pandemic climate, virtual ceremonies are probably the most efficient and practical way to avoid a growing backlog of citizenship cases. No one who has paid the fees and passed the tests should be forced to wait, he said.

But Griffith said something will be lost in the translation from an in-person ceremony to an online one.

“I think there’s something particularly special about when the group of 30 or 40, or however many there are, actually sit down together, look around the room and see the diversity of the people who are applying for Canadian citizenship and take the oath as a group,” he said.

Typically, a person takes the solemn oath before a citizenship judge or official, usually in a group setting. Taking the oath of citizenship is the final legal requirement that applicants older than 14 years old must meet to become Canadian citizens.

A sense of security

“It gives you that security,” Griffith said, adding that a sense of security “is pretty valuable, given the state of the world right now.”

Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Zool Suleman said those who have “gone through all the hoops” to become a Canadian should be granted citizenship, even during a pandemic.

Despite global travel restrictions, some people may still need to obtain passports quickly for essential work or other types of travel, he said. Others, he said, might have other reasons for not wanting to wait to obtain their citizenship — tax reasons, for example, or a wish to relinquish citizenship in another country.

“There could be financial reasons, or purely political or social reasons,” he said.

Suleman agrees that the communal experience of becoming a Canadian is precious, but he predicts people will find their own ways to mark the special day.

“Legally, it will all be the same,” he said.

Once people get to the point of taking the oath at a citizenship ceremony, they’ve already checked off a number of other requirements regarding residency and language. They’ve also passed a test on Canadian history and values and paid fees of $630 each.

Stuck in limbo

Citizenship comes with the right to vote and apply for a Canadian passport. Some jobs, including employment with the Canadian Armed Forces, require citizenship.

Last year, nearly 250,000 people became Canadian citizens.

Yasir Naqvi, chief executive officer of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, said that final step of taking the oath provides a profound sense of belonging. It’s also a way for people to express affection for their adopted home, he said.

“They understand why the process is halted at the moment, but at the moment the delay is a source of anxiety because they want to become Canadian citizens and move on with the next chapter of their life as a Canadian,” Naqvi said.

Soran Kareem of Hamilton, Ont. arrived as a refugee from the Kurdistan region of Iraq five years ago.

He said 2020 was shaping up to be a joyous year: his college studies were wrapping up, his son was learning to walk and he and his wife were on their way to becoming Canadian citizens.They filed their applications in October 2019 but are now in limbo due to delays caused by the pandemic.

“We have been living in stress and uncertainty because we do not know when we can do the test and the ceremony,” he said.

“My wife and I have a lot of stress and worry about this situation because we have many plans (for) when we get the citizenship, especially for studying and moving to another city. We cannot do anything because we do not want to change our address. That could make the citizenship process longer.”

Kareem said allowing people go through the citizenship process online could put to rest many of those concerns.

Parvinder Singh of Toronto took his test on March 10 and hasn’t heard anything since. He said he understands the unprecedented situation officials are dealing with but hopes the government will act fast to help those waiting for citizenship.

“It’s a long process and just coming on to the last point and finding yourself stuck is frustrating,” he said.

Source: Virtual citizenship ceremonies coming for new Canadians whose dreams were crushed by COVID-19

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Liberal election promise to strengthen anti-racism strategy, double funding still unmet

2020/06/05 Leave a comment

Given only six months into the mandate and the ongoing focus on COVID-19, somewhat unfair to criticize the government at this stage.

And as noted in the related post (Heather Scoffield: Justin Trudeau says he wants to tackle racism. Ahmed Hussen has a plan), the effectiveness of some of these and previous initiatives is yet to be demonstrated:

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls for action against anti-Black racism in Canada following new mass protests over police violence, a promise by his party to double funding and strengthen Ottawa’s national anti-racism strategy remains unmet.

The $45-million strategy, unveiled a year ago and called “Building a Foundation for Change,” provides a framework for a government-wide approach toward tackling racism in the public service and in federal policies and pratices, establishing a $4.6-million anti-racism secretariat in October to oversee such efforts.

The three-year strategy also includes $6.2 million to improve race-based data collection, $3.3 million for public education, as well as $30 million for two programs providing grassroots organizations funding for community-based projects and events.

In the 2019 election, the Liberal Party promised to “strengthen” and double funding for the strategy. While the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed many promises from the election, the party proposed $341 million in new spending over four years to support diversity, anti-racism and multiculturalism initiatives, including $50 million for the current fiscal year.

Brittany Andrew-Amofah, senior policy and research analyst at the Broadbent Institute, said now is a good time to meet its commitment. She said the Trudeau government has yet to offer new action on addressing racism since the election.

“We haven’t seen any legislation or actual policy commitments that they can point to,” she said. “I think the main thing is moving some words to action.”

In recent days, as anti-racism demonstrations have taken place in American and Canadian cities in response to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, Trudeau and other federal Liberals have cited the anti-racism strategy as one of the measures his government has taken to address systemic racism in the country.

Andrew-Amofah said while the strategy provides a necessary framework to inform federal decision-making and help to improve policy outcomes for racialized Canadians, at the very least, legislation is still needed to establish permanent guidelines and funding.

She added that any anti-racism strategy should also endorse a shift in policing and justice and consider a directorate that deals specifically with anti-Black racism. Currently, there is no federal anti-Black racism strategy.

“We need to understand that racism does disproportionately impact Black and Indigenous peoples more than it does other races,” she said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Diversity, Inclusion and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger did not say whether the Liberal government would soon move on its election promise to improve funding for the anti-racism strategy.

“What’s been made clear over the past few weeks is that there is much more work to be done to combat racism,” said director of communications Danielle Keenan. “Our government remains committed to doing that work.”

Keenan added that “while COVID-19 has resulted in a change of programming for many organizations, we remain available to support however we can.”

Recent departmental figures suggest community program funds at Canadian Heritage are well tapped into, with spending nearing or exceeding annual authorities provided. The strategy includes two program funds, the Anti-Racism Action Program and the Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program. The latter program includes a stream offering funds for projects to support Black youth.

While federal dollars support the work of many grassroots organizations, Andrew-Amofah said more transparency is needed in order to determine whether program funds is truly meeting the government’s priorities in combating racism.

She said program funding should also not divert attention away from whether broader federal policies are actually improving the livelihoods of Black Canadians and eliminating injustices they face. That includes examining poverty, food insecurity, housing and precarious employment.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has called on Trudeau to introduce legislation to end racial profiling at the RCMP, CSIS and Canada Border Services Agency and move to end over-incarceration of Black and Indigenous people in federal prisons.

Singh also said Ottawa can do more to improve access to affordable housing and education for Black and Indigenous people in Canada.

“Those are just some of the things that the government can do immediately that would go beyond the pretty words of a prime minister that says he cares,” he said in a news conference Wednesday,

While Trudeau has spoken about the need for all Canadians, including himself, to acknowledge and combat anti-Black racism in Canada, his government has yet to signal whether it will introduce new policies to support such an effort.

Andrew-Amofah added that since many issues such as housing, education and labour fall largely to the provinces, Ottawa should also consider adding conditions on federal transfers that can compel greater anti-racism action from premiers.

In the election, the Liberals also promised to slap significant fines on social media companies that are too slow to remove hateful content, as well as to increase funding for “community-led initiatives to promote inclusion and combat racism.”

Source: Liberal election promise to strengthen anti-racism strategy, double funding still unmet

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with ,

Parliamentary association chair defends Canada-China group as critics call for its suspension

2020/06/05 Leave a comment

Engage for what purpose when the two Michaels are still detained under awful conditions, repression of religious minorities such as the Uighurs continue, and China proceeds to end Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Wilful naiveté at best. Arguments mirror those used by the International Metropolis Secretariat to justify the holding of Metropolis in Beijing that our petition successfully cancelled.

These kinds of contacts should be suspended until the Michaels are released at a minimum:

As Beijing’s behaviour grows increasingly strong-willed and the Canada-China relationship continues to flounder, some are calling for the suspension of a parliamentary association between the two countries, while one of the co-chairs says the group facilitates dialogue.

The 50-member Canadian-side of the Canada-China Legislative Association, which was founded in 1998, is composed of MPs and Senators who work to “promote better understanding” in the bilateral relationship on both common interests and differences.

“There’s so much to be gained from maintaining that discussion,” Independent Senator Paul Massicotte (De Lanaudière, Que.) told The Hill Times. “We have an immense interest in this relationship—[from a] human rights point of view, economically, future growth, climate change. There’s so much to gain from our relationship, in spite of the fact that we have serious disagreements about some key issues.”

Sen. Massicotte is one of two co-chairs of the Canada-China Legislative Association. Liberal MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.), the group’s other co-chair, didn’t respond to an interview request.

“Its [purpose is] to be frank and chat with each other and maintain as good relations as we can, in spite of possible differences—in this case, serious differences between our approach as a country and our value system and their thought pattern,” Sen. Massicotte said about the association. “But just because you disagree with somebody doesn’t mean you put an end to it.”

He said if the association is suspended, the dialogue between the two countries would be damaged.

Macdonald-Laurier Institute fellow Shuvaloy Majumdar called for the association’s suspension in a National Post op-ed last week, citing China’s National Party Congress’ imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong which threatens the “one country, two systems” foundation of the region.

“Canadian Parliament has no business legitimizing the masquerade of Beijing’s National Party Congress as it institutionally represses Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and constitutional rights,” wrote Mr. Majumdar, a former policy director to multiple foreign affairs ministers in the government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper.

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne (Saint-Maurice-Champlain, Que.) released a joint statement last week with his counterparts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, calling the imposition of the national security law “a deep concern” and “in direct conflict with its international obligations under the principles of the legally-binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration.”

Mr. Majumdar told The Hill Times that the parliamentary association gives the Chinese Communist Party “unrivalled access to lobby Canadian Parliamentarians.”

“If you were interested in the spirit of dialogue with the Chinese people, then why not also pursue similar arrangements with Hong Kong’s Legislative Council or with Taiwan’s Parliament in conjunction with the National Party Congress?” he noted. “That’s not happened. So this is not about dialogue.”

Mr. Majumdar added that China’s National Congress has “broken faith” with the sprit of “honest dialogue” with the imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong and that they are “subverting and distorting” an understanding of China in Canada that is coming at the cost of Canadian interests.

“It ought not to be tolerated.”

Sen. Massicotte, who met with Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu alongside Mr. Dong on Feb. 26, said he raises the issues of disagreement in all the meetings the association has with Chinese officials.

“You can do it politely,” he said. “You can raise up issues that you don’t agree on, but you don’t have to be disagreeable.”

“Usually we’ll say we agree to disagree because we don’t have the same starting point or same culture. We don’t brush over our differences,” said Sen. Massicotte, calling discussions with the Chinese ambassador “very cordial.”

Conservative MP Michael Cooper (St. Albert-Edmonton, Alta.), vice-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association, said there should be a consideration to the association’s role going forward.

“I think we do need to review the activities of the legislative association,” he said. “Does that mean suspending the association? Perhaps. But we need to have those discussions in light of what needs to be and what will be a different relationship between Canada and China, at least in the short and intermediate term, as a result of the fallout of COVID-19 and the unlawful actions the Chinese Communist regime has taken against Hong Kong.”

Mr. Cooper said that there needs to be an overall evaluation of Canada’s bilateral relationship with China stemming from how Beijing handled the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials who were involved in “silencing and jailing whistleblowers” in the early days of the virus’ outbreak and officials “involved in the cover-up” of the pandemic.

He said the parliamentary association has not met as an executive since the start of the year.

“So at this point, the association, speaking as an executive, has been inactive,” Mr. Cooper said.

Debate over parliamentary group comes at tipping point for Canada-China relations

It was feared that a B.C. court judge ruling against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou last week on a “double criminality” principle, which continued her extradition trial, would further inflame tensions between Canada and China.

The Chinese Communist Party-supported Global Times stated that the decision would bring about the “worst-ever” period in the bilateral relationship. So far, retaliation has been muted, as reported by The Globe and Mail, with a Chinese government spokesperson commenting on the 50thanniversary of Canada-China relations

Ms. Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the behest of the United States. The arrest of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China soon followed in apparent retaliation. The two Canadians have been detained by Chinese authorities ever since.

The parliamentary association took a trip to China in January 2019 shortly after the arrests of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor, during which then-co-chair and now-retired senator Joseph Day said the detained Canadians were not on the agenda. Mr. Cooper, who was also on the trip, brought the cases up and said raising the issues didn’t help “in the sense that they are still in China,” but added at the same time that discussing the issue “did not hurt.”

Former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques, who served in the post from 2012 to 2016, said the Canada-China Legislative Association “can be useful.”

He added that it takes “a bit of guts” for Canadian Parliamentarians to raise contentious issues with Chinese authorities, noting that he has experienced foreign affairs ministers that were reticent to raise contentious issues with China.

“If it’s properly managed, we should proceed,” he said. “But, on the other hand, if something dramatic were to occur in Hong Kong, I think we will have to think about sanctions against China and then maybe the suspension of those [association] visits would be required.”

“The key is preparation,” said Mr. Saint-Jacques of when Canadian Parliamentarians in the association travel to China.

He said that when he was ambassador he would “regularly” meet with the members of the association when he returned to Ottawa to give briefings on important issues and prepare them for upcoming trips.

When the group arrived in China, the visit would start with a breakfast at the embassy to give the MPs and Senators the latest information that Canadian diplomats in China have collected before they met with Chinese officials, he said.

With Parliamentarians from many different parties and political ideologies, Mr. Saint-Jacques said it gives the Chinese officials an insight into the Canadian system where politicians don’t speak with one voice, unlike in the Chinese system.

While he said that the association can serve to legitimize the National Congress, it is better than the alternative of no contact.

“If you have no contacts, then you leave them to think that things work the same way here than over there,” he said.

Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, said he has long been calling for the suspension of the association.

“I feel that we are being played by the Communist Party in this association,” said Prof. Burton, a Macdonald-Laurier Institute fellow.

He said the parliamentary association serves as a way for the Chinese government to establish “moral equivalency” between Canada’s Parliament and China’s non-democratic National Congress.

“The Members of Parliament who go have a very pleasant time in China with delicious banquets and interesting tourism … but I don’t see it as furthering the interest of Canada in any way,” he said.

Prof. Burton said Parliamentarians can engage with Chinese diplomats in Canada through other forums such as the Special House Committee on Canada-China Relations.

“Typically, Parliamentarians don’t have the expertise to represent Canada’s position effectively and tend to be put into photo-ops and make joint statements that support the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda in Canada,” he said.

Since the creation of the association, there has been no adoption of democratic reform in the National Congress, Prof. Burton said, adding that the group hasn’t had “any positive impact” on fostering the development of parliamentary democracy in China.

Source: Parliamentary association chair defends Canada-China group as critics call for its suspension

Filed under foreign policy Tagged with , , , ,

Heather Scoffield: Justin Trudeau says he wants to tackle racism. Ahmed Hussen has a plan

2020/06/05 Leave a comment

Of note, comments by Minister Hussen. As to all the calls for more, worth recalling that the government did increase programming and funding in its first mandate, not only restoring the previous Conservative government cuts but increasing funding significantly (Budget 2018 invests millions in multiculturalism).

And previous government’s have also invested in various plans to reduce racism with mixed results (the Canada Action Plan Against Racism, which I was familiar with, along with some parts of multiculturalism programming, had limited impact. The best part of CAPAR, fortunately preserved, was the collection of police-reported hate crimes).

Better data and more desegregated data in a whole wide areas of sectors would be beneficial as we are seeing with the absence of systemic health-related data for Coronavirus:

Ahmed Hussen, a Somali immigrant and the only Black member of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, remains deeply disturbed by developments in the United States. He can’t bring himself to talk to his 10-year-old son about the George Floyd video quite yet, although he knows that day will come.

“The reason is simple — it’s because I’m still processing it,” Hussen said Wednesday in an interview with the Star. “It’s such a hard footage to watch — someone who is dying in slow motion right in front of our eyes at the hands of a police officer.

“I haven’t had the strength to have the conversation.”

He chafes at suggestions that systemic discrimination is an American phenomenon that doesn’t happen here in Canada — partly because he has lived it himself. “It’s as Canadian as anything else.”

In the wake of Trudeau’s strong condemnation of racism and discrimination, the question is, now what?

As the minister for families, children and social development, Hussen is in a unique position to do something, and he has a plan.

The first step, he says, is to declare and define the problem.

“Systemic racism is real in Canada, It’s real for millions of Canadian individuals. It’s real for Indigenous and Black Canadians,” he said. “And the sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we amplify the voices of those who feel that sting of discrimination of racism as part of their lived reality, the sooner we’ll be able to tackle it and to eradicate it.

“Those in positions of leadership have a particular responsibility to call it out.”

The second step is to empower community groups and people working on the front lines of the problem, he says, and make sure they have the resources to deal with the day-to-day issues that differ from community to community.

At a federal level, he says, having data disaggregated by race is key. That way, for example, when he goes to implement housing policy or homelessness policy, he can know whether to pay special attention to a specific challenge. Statistics Canada is ramping up its ability to analyze data by race, he says, and he wants the provinces to join in the effort.

“It starts with recognition and then it goes into being open to the solutions. The best people to offer those solutions are those who live with this every single day,” he said.

Hussen’s plan could be a lifeline for a government that condemned racism and discrimination but this week offered no actions to combat it.

Public condemnations of racism and discrimination are a critical step but community advocates, academics and politicians say words alone won’t resolve these systemic issues.

“Our government officials continue to speak about the existence of racism and discrimination in our country but they do nothing to celebrate, highlight and champion Black communities. What we get is lip service,” said Cheryl Thompson, an assistant professor at Ryerson University’s School of Creative Industries.

“There are many Black people in our government today, and yet, I do not see any outreach, collaboration, or even asking them to lead on any kind of initiative that addresses anti-Black racism head on. Instead, there are ceremonial statements and websites but no action,” she said in an email.

Thompson said one of the best solutions to combating racism is education.

“It’s time to put one’s support where one’s rhetoric is to create a culture where Black people are seen and heard — not only in times of Black death and crisis, but all the time.,” Thompson said.

Grace-Edward Galabuzi, an associate professor in the department of politics and public administration at Ryerson University, said there needs to be a better focus on employment equity with improved job opportunities for racialized, Indigenous, immigrant, women, disabled and youth populations.

“Equitable access to employment should be standardized and become the norm in recruitment, hiring, retention and mobility within organizations and businesses,” Galabuzi said in an email.

And now, as the government looks to nurture job creation in the wake of the COVID-19 shock, Galabuzi said the focus should be on sectors where racialized populations and women are disproportionately represented, such as social services, retail and hospitality.

Ask Kathy Hogarth, an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, about the solution and she talks passionately not about targeted measures but rather a sweeping effort to change discriminatory attitudes that have taken root over centuries.

“All of our structures in society need to be addressed. This cannot be a singular focus on a singular system,” Hogarth said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“Canada is based on this framework of racism. Once we’ve made that acknowledgment, then we must rightly ask the question about how we undo that,” said Hogarth, who has done research on issues of immigration, ethnicity and diversity.

That effort extends to elements like the education system and curriculum to teach students about racism, to the justice system and the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous men, and a health system that “treats racialized bodies so much differently.

Hogarth said the belief that Canada is somehow different than the U.S. only undermines the imperative for change.

“Our national identify is really based on Canada the good and that works against us in the fight for justice,” she said. “We have a huge task before us.”

Source: Heather Scoffield: Justin Trudeau says he wants to tackle racism. Ahmed Hussen has a plan

Filed under Multiculturalism

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