Tuesday 21 January 2025
Canada moves to operationalize North American partnership on equity and racial justice
By Tom Malaba
The Canadian Network for Equity and Racial Justice (CNERJ) has held its first-ever roundtable discussion in Ottawa to connect communities across Canada to exchange information and share innovative strategies in anti-racism, and decoloniality to build more equitable communities.
CNERJ is the Canadian Chapter of the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice created in 2023 by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
The meeting which was held on January 21, at Ottawa Art Gallery, Alma Duncan Salon under the auspices of OCASI drew a cross-section of participants in person and online.
During the panel discussion, Ms. Charlotte-Anne Malischewski, the Interim Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission underscored her organization’s mandate of promoting human rights. “Racism runs deep especially systematic racism,” Ms. Malischewski observed while addressing the meeting via Zoom. According to her, the commission handled and resolved 70 cases through mediation.
The commission has also been involved in litigation for the public.
Ms. Natasha Bakht, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa in her research on Religious Focus and Women, observed that Muslim women continue to face discrimination, especially regarding dress.
“In 2019, Quebec enacted Law 21, which restricts people who wear a turban, or hijab from working as Judges, Lawyers, or School teachers. This law renders them unable to work in public service,” Ms. Natasha who is also a Muslim woman observed.
According to her, those who dare cannot receive service and are usually a target on the streets.
“Law 21 is cruel and discriminatory but section 33 has been in our constitution,” She observed calling for a scrapping of the same, saying it would continue to affect Muslims. According to Natasha, Section 33 of the Canadian Constitution had the potential to re-awaken the very evils for which the Canadian Government had apologized in the past like the introduction of residential schools.
Ms. Tanya Miller, a Mental Health Policy specialist, observed that suicide was the second leading cause of death among the youth in Canada. She pointed out that the wide difference between fees paid by international students (CAD 36,000) compared to CAD 7,000 for Canadian students remains an equity challenge.
Turning to the Justice system, Ms. Tanya observed that the largest number of the people in the criminal justice system were Indigenous or racialized people. “Last year a third of all people in incarceration were Indigenous people. 50 percent of all people behind bars were women.
Another panelist, Ms. Carolina Palacois, Deputy Executive Director of Oxfam Canada, observed that as people, we always use words like “Developed” or “Developing” because sometimes people feel better when there are people they want to put down.
Panelists urged the network on the need to build coalitions that work and talk to victims, especially those who are marginalized and not politicians. And the need to tell stories of who we are.
The day’s moderator, Charles Smith, the Lead CNERJ observed that the challenge of our time was how to deal with the discrimination.
“We need to listen to everyone at the bottom, we need to hear what they are saying. We need to invest in anti-racism messages,” Charles Smith said.
After the panel discussions, participants made several suggestions to achieve equity and racial justice like addressing issues related to hiring, more training with a focus on what is needed, and impact stereotypes,, plus addressing inequalities created by the criminal justice system like courts, law enforcement and prisons.
They also observed of the need to increase wealth in the hands of many.
Participants also advised CNERJ to share how organizations could use their resources wisely, bring communities together to learn from each other, and involve communities in surveys, meetings, and focus group discussions. There was also a call to pay volunteers and promote accessibility by encouraging oral applications so that people do not feel left out.
They also agreed to share what has worked well and share CNERJ findings among other things.
As part of their work, CNERJ has commissioned research papers to scan critical issues on equity, racial justice in fifteen areas among which is income and wealth creation, employment levels in federal and public service, federal and employment service (temporary foreign workers) education achievements, interaction with law enforcement, justice, hate and violence based on human rights protected grounds. Other areas of interest are disparities in health, including the social determinants of health, access to social and public service, including housing, representation in the media, representation in arts and culture, and representation in business and political participation.
The Network’s development is being led by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). Other partners are the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice (CCNC-SJ), Black Legal Action Centre, Color of Poverty/Color of Change (COP-COC), South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO), and the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) with the support of Heritage Canada.
The North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice created a trilateral network with equity and social justice experts from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
