Human Rights
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
“The reality is that racism has been a part of Canada's past and it is a part of our present. And it remains a problem - one that is largely invisible, hugely underestimated and wholly pervasive. Many Canadians deny that fact. They are wrong.”
- Senator Donald Oliver in The Hill Times, March 15, 2010
Every year on March 21, PSAC marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. With an increase in labour migration and a growing Aboriginal and racially visible population in Canada, we are seeing the further marginalization of recent immigrants and Aboriginal peoples. Once again, PSAC again calls for national and international solidarity against racism.
Racial discrimination still exists
There are international and national laws intended to counter racial discrimination such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Human Rights Act. Despite these protections, racialization of poverty and racism persists. In And since 9/11, Islamophobia has become part of the public discourse on national security, religion and immigration.
Most of the time, racism is subtle, systemic and insidious. Yet at times, like a recent cross burning in Nova Scotia or the assaults on Asian-Canadian anglers in Ontario, it is overt and deliberate. In Quebec, a young girl was prevented from playing soccer because she wore a head scarf. All over Canada, Aboriginal Peoples and their children are denied adequate access to water, education, housing, health care or other basis human rights that most people in Canada take for granted.
The Human Rights Council's Report of the Independent Expert on Minority Issues: Addendum Mission to Canada, supports the assertion that racism continues to exist in Canada. It outlines the on-going racism that still exists today: high dropout rates from schools; higher unemployment rates and under-representation in employment; lower incomes; lack of access to services; lack of recognition of highly qualified and skilled workers' qualifications; disproportionate levels of poverty; systemic practice of racial profiling of communities and the excessive use of force and the under-representation in political structures and all levels of government.
The report makes a number of conclusions and recommendations, including the better and robust enforcement of employment equity legislation, and the implementation of the recommendations made by the Perinbam Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service, established by the federal government in 2000.
PSAC remains committed to preserving and promoting the fundamental human rights of Aboriginal Peoples and racialized people. This is even more urgent in the current political context where the federal Conservative government used its budgets to pursue its reactionary ideological initiatives such as cuts to public services, the closure of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the closure of Canadian Human Rights Commission offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax.
The Conservatives are also not afraid to cut funding or otherwise attack organizations that don't conform to its narrow view of the world. Examples include funding cuts to KAIROS, the elimination of the Court Challenges Program, and attacks on the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy) whose staff are members of PSAC.
Wherever oppression occurs through institutions, legislation, treaties and policies, PSAC will be there, along with the labour movement, its members and progressive groups, to fight for the rights and equality of all workers and peoples.
Date Modified : 2010/07/13
