The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy

Progressive Dialogue and Policy for a Better Canada

Canada at 150

By

Canada at 150

By Avvy Go

Around the world, Canada enjoys a reputation as a country that embraces diversity and respects human rights. Consistently, Canada ranks among the top 10 countries in the UN’s annual Human Development Index which measures health and life expectancy, access to education and standard of living.

With all that is happening south of the border, Canadians cannot help but be smug. We point our fingers at the rising xenophobia and racism in the United States and say to ourselves, these things will never happen here in Canada. When they do, we see them as “isolated incidents” caused by a few bad apples.

Contrary to our reputation and our self perception, Canada is a country that is divided along racial lines.

Starting with this country’s history of colonization, Canada has long adopted the myth of two founding nations, which conveniently left out the Indigenous communities who have made Canada home long before the first white settler stumbled upon North America. The historical injustice, and according to some, genocide against Indigenous peoples is by now an undeniable fact.

Canada has also written racist policies right into its law book so as to bar and restrict the entrance of Chinese, South Asian and other immigrants of colour into this country. When he introduced the 1885 Electoral Franchise Act to bar Chinese from getting the right to vote, the first Prime Minister of Canada John A. MacDonald had infamously said that the “Chinamen” should not have the right to vote because they were “foreigners” and that “the Chinese has no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations.”

When it came to people of African descent, Canadians are often told that Canada was a safe haven for slaves who escaped through the Underground Railroad from the U.S., when in reality the enslavement of people of African descent also happened right here in our own backyard.

Perhaps because of these myths about Canada, Canadians in general do not want to acknowledge the existence of racism.

Yet evidence of racial inequities abound. Indigenous peoples and peoples of African descent in Canada are over-represented in the criminal justice system. Indigenous children and children of African descent are also over-represented in the child welfare system where they are taken away from their families and placed in foster homes and other institutional care.

Racialization of poverty in Canada is pervasive and deeply entrenched, and racialized communities are disadvantaged by any measure, including income, education, housing and more. Persons of colour are two to six times more likely to live in poverty. 18.7% families of colour in Canada are living in poverty, compared to 6% of non-racialized families.

53.4% of Indigenous women 65 and older in Canada are in low-income status, compared to 30.9% non-Indigenous women in the same age category. Canada child poverty rates are 51% for Indigenous children (and 60% for Indigenous children living on reserve); 32% for children of immigrants; and 22% for children of colour, but only 13% for white non-immigrant children.

Racial discrimination is prevalent in the labour market. While people of colour have a higher labour participation rate as compared to their white counterpart, they experience a higher unemployment rate. Employers continue to discriminate on the basis of race, as evidenced by studies confirming that candidates with Asian sounding names are at least 30% less likely to be screened for job interviews.

Discrimination has also led to inequities in income earnings among different groups.
Women of colour in Canada make 53.4% as much as non-racialized men, and 84.7% as much as non-racialized women. Men of colour make 73.6% as much as non-racialized men.

Systemic racism also continues to plague our immigration system. Family class immigrants – the vast majority of whom racialized – are subject to increasingly stringent rules that make family reunification difficult for most. The number of temporary migrant workers in Canada has more than quadrupled since 2000. As of 2014, there were 567,977 temporary status workers in the country. Migrant workers in low-wage streams of temporary migration – disproportionately workers of colour from the Global South – are exceptionally susceptible to exploitation and abuse. While migrant workers contribute to social entitlement programs in Canada, their temporary status largely precludes them from accessing these programs.

In 2005, Canada adopted Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (CAPAR), as part of its commitment to the Declaration and Program of Action of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). CAPAR was allowed to lapse in 2010, leaving this critical obligation unmet and unfulfilled.

With the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report, there is hope that some thing will be done to redress the longstanding challenges facing the Indigenous Peoples. The 94 Call to Action is a call to each and every Canadian to take part in the project of reconciliation and rebuild our relationships with the First Peoples on a Nation to Nation basis.

As well, the fact that roughly 25% of Canada’s population today are people of colour may compel our political leaders to step up and start redressing racial inequality in our midst.

Looking forward to the next 25 years, it is our hope that Canada will take a serious step towards eradicating racism. Starting with the adoption of a new and revised CAPAR, Canadians and our Government should work together to eliminate all racial inequities and injustices, and build a truly equitable, inclusive and just society for all.

Avvy Go is the Clinic Director of Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic and has served in that role since 1992. Since her call to the Bar, Avvy has worked exclusively in the legal clinic system, serving the legal needs of low income immigrants with linguistic and other barriers in accessing the legal system. She was a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and is currently a part time adjudicator of the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and the Health Services Appeal and Review Board. Apart from her legal practice, Avvy spends much of her time in community organizing and advocacy work.

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