School Board; Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, Professor Faculty of Education
University of Ottawa, and Serisha Iyar, Executive Director of
Leading in Color
Tuesday 18 February 2025
Urban Alliance on Race Relations hosts Eastern Ontario Anti-Racism Education Regional Summit
By Tom Malaba
The Urban Alliance on Race Relations has held it’s first of the four summit meetings in Ontario with a call on parents to form advocacy groups and for schools to hire more staff from racialized communities to work in the education sector as part of ways to stem racial equity in education.
Over 50 parents, educators and organizations working with racialized communities met under the auspices of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations met at Kiwanis Hall, Richelieu-Vanier Community Centre, on February 18, to share experiences and map out ways to uproot systematic racism in schools.
Members present that though racism is outlawed majorly on paper but is still being practiced in schools.
“New racialized children are usually dropped a class creating an atmosphere that they are less. A child coming from an English-speaking country can be subjected to a psychologist examination in French, when they have never learned French. This is not a question of ability but a language barrier,” Mr. Mapole Abemba who works with Vanier Community Centre Services said.
Some parents from countries where the teacher’s work is respected were reported to swallow teacher’s directives on their children without question.
Participants pointed fingers at the biased education statistics that seem to suggest that children from a particular background never make it beyond the second level to university.
While in some schools racialized children in elementary school are told to their face they will never make it to university.
Other children are being looked at coming from camps and some school administrators look at them as a problem. They also questioned some content being taught to some children like being asked to name countries where there is war in Africa or told to show how children are being exploited in Africa.
“It’s not what children are saying to the children but what the administrators are telling the children,” a parent said.
Letitia Taylor, a Vice Chairperson called on parents to familiarize themselves with the way the education system works. “We must not relent but first secure your child, ground them to the values, so that they can focus on getting good grades,” Ms. Taylor a parent who had to fight for her child’s rights noted.
She urged members of the racialized communities present to insist on public reporting and not to be afraid to make some noise when need be. She also called for the implementation of resolutions around racism in schools.
Mayelle Joachim Hivert, the Vice Principal at the Ottawa-Carleton School Board reported that she too still has to prove she is worth the teaching job. “I still have to face surprises from visitors who do not think, I should be there,” Ms. Mayelle reported to the meeting. “One time I met a pupil on the school compound and she screamed ‘at last someone who looks like me.’
The meeting was told that in some instances, racialized children may get suspended but when they come up to raise issues of racism with school administrators, they are dismissed as too young.
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, a Full Professor of Curriculum Studies at Ottawa University, a product of a Chinese Father said that though there is a story where racialized communities come from, they ought to realize there is a story where they have come to.
While addressing participants during the one day summit, Councilor Rawlson King for the Rideau – Rockcliffe was who doubles as the Council Liason for the City’s Anti-Racism and Ethno-cultural relations urged them to take matters of representation seriously.
“We may never see elimination of racism completely but keep going at it. Continue to surround those tables even when change is slow,” Councilor King said urging participants to continue attending similar meetings.
Before closing for the day, participants called upon the Urban Alliance on Race Relations to push for tangible results in fighting systematic racism, increasing funding to fight systematic racism in schools ensure parents of radicalized children have the right information to guide their children. They also agreed to support radicalized youth and put in place strategies to bring on board radicalized immigrant students and also to double check what goes on in class.
Funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Racial Equity in Education project, which is led by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) in partnership with CASSA, Ontario Alliance of Black Education (ONABSE), Chinese Canada National Council of Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) NTO and Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action (TCA).
There three other meetings to be held in London (Western Ontario) on April 8, Sudbury (Northern Ontario) on April 24 and Toronto (Central Ontario) on May 29, 2025.
