ON RACISM IN CANADA
National Chief Perry Bellegarde
“On Racism in Canada” by National Chief Perry Bellegarde is a contribution to Air Quotes Media in association with our new video podcast series “Through the Looking Glass: Race in Canada.”
Over the past year, the problem of systemic racism has become more evident to people not exposed to it. Media stories and an inquiry revealed that doctors and nurses in British Columbia had been wagering on the blood alcohol levels of First Nations patients in crisis.
In Manitoba, an older First Nations woman slipping into a diabetic coma was accused of lying that she hadn’t been drinking, even though she had never once touched alcohol in her life.
In Quebec, a pain-wracked Joyce Echaquan had the presence of mind to record her own death as a nurse kept telling her to be quiet. That story only came out because the video was given to the media. But there are lots of people in an emergency room. Why did that nurse think it was OK to treat someone that way? And, why didn’t her colleagues intervene and report the incident? The answer is frighteningly simple: racism is too often normalized, it is not unusual, tolerance of it is still baked into the way we operate key government services. It’s been with us a long time. Too long.
Every First Nation person has experienced racism and its lasting impacts. I remember when I was a 15-year-old kid walking through the aisles of the local drug store in Saskatchewan, the watchful security guard hovering nearby. I had never stolen a thing in my life and wasn’t about to, but the guard seemed pretty sure that was what I was there to do, and that made me feel guilty.
I remember it because, even now when I walk into a drug store, I still feel the stare of that security guard. I am a 58-year-old man who has travelled the world and dined with presidents and prime ministers, and a trip to buy toothpaste sends me back to a time when I was made to feel suspect … lesser … guilty of being ’an Indian’. “All Indians steal, you know.”
My story is not unique. Any person who has been labelled with racial identity with negative stereotypes experiences such events countless times; I have a lifetime of such experiences. The cumulative impact of racism is exhausting and oppressive. Early in my adulthood, I chose to fight back through public service and a commitment to public education and awareness.
I believe that Canadians are beginning to see the cost of not addressing racism,- it causes pain and too many First Nations people have paid with their lives – Joyce Echaquan, Brian Sinclair, Barbara Kentner, Helen Betty Osborne and so many others.
Bradley Barton was recently convicted for the horribly violent death of Cindy Gladue. In its decision requiring a retrial after Barton’s initial acquittal, the Supreme Court of Canada said:
“our criminal justice system and all participants within it should take reasonable steps to address systemic biases, prejudices, and stereotypes against Indigenous persons — and in particular Indigenous women and sex workers — head-on.” The Supreme Court reiterated the recognition that Indigenous persons have suffered a long history of colonialism in Canada, and that widespread racism against Indigenous people within our criminal justice system continues to have detrimental effects.”
Anyone who has ever felt the cold stab of racism carries the scars with them for the rest of their lives. It’s not something one ever fully overcomes. One can try to understand it. One can even try to forgive it. But the damage and dehumanizing effects last a lifetime.
Racism is not a new problem. It is tied to our colonial history. Racism has been a significant feature of Canadian history and the Canadian legal system. We can see this in the experience of First Nations, Black, Asian and other racialized Canadians.
The first step to addressing racism is acknowledging it exists and listening, really listening to those who have been subjected to it in its many forms.
Some people hold the misconception that racism is concentrated among a few ‘bad apples’, that it is all about personal feelings or attitudes of individuals. Of course, individuals can speak or act in ways that are racist. But part of the reason, we have struggled as a nation to prevent and address racism at the individual level, is the failure to address systemic discrimination – discrimination embedded in law, policy and the way governments operate.
In other words, we will not be successful addressing racism at an individual level, if we do not fix the longstanding aspects of systemic discrimination. I can give you a concrete example. In 2007, the Assembly of First Nations, along with the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, launched a legal action under the Canadian Human Rights Act alleging racial discrimination is embedded in the way the federal government funds child and family services for First Nations on reserves.
Why did we argue that? Off reserves, a significant proportion of child and family services are aimed at family supports to prevent government apprehensions of children. However, federal funding programs provided no funding for prevention programs for First Nations. The entire orientation has been focused on apprehension. The result is that there were approximately 40,000 First Nations children in care when we launched this lawsuit – well beyond our representation in the overall population. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agreed with our argument and in 2016 held that the federal government had discriminated against First Nations children on grounds of race. The only way we can stop and reverse the over-apprehension of First Nations children in Canada is to address the systemic discrimination in child welfare systems. This is one of the reasons the Assembly of First Nations worked so hard to ensure passage of the 2019 First Nations, Inuit and Métis child and Family Services Act.
To ensure First Nations children are not unfairly disadvantaged, to ensure First Nations women and girls are treated with respect by policing services and the judicial system, to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in jails and prisons, we must acknowledge and address racism in all its forms, including systemic racism.
In the legal system, First Nations also face systemic discrimination when we are told the courts take the ‘sovereignty’ of the Crown as a given but the opposite assumption has been applied to First Nations - we are assumed not to have inherent rights and jurisdiction over ourselves, our peoples, or lands until we prove that we are First Nation and then prove every aspect of our right to self-determination. We have been placed in the position of ‘claimants’ in our our land on almost every aspect of our human rights.
This is beginning to change - slowly. Canada has started a journey with us – to begin rolling back and unravelling the systems and the prejudices that hurt our people.
In 2019, First Nations’ inherent jurisdiction over our languages and child and family welfare was affirmed in two pieces of federal legislation.
We are now working on our third effort to see federal legislation to advance implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2019, we came very close to seeing Bill C-262 passed. We had the support in terms of numbers. It passed in the House of Commons and would have passed in the Senate – if not for an undemocratic filibuster by a handful of Senators.
By necessity, First Nations are persistent in our goals. We persevere.
In a non-partisan effort, we have secured the support of most federal parties to try again. Bill C-15, the proposed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act was tabled on December 3, 2020. This would be an important tool to work with Indigenous peoples to address all forms of violence and discrimination against Indigenous peoples.
It is time to get this work done. We all want to move forward to the Canada we want and expect – a place where the human rights of all are respected.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
National Chief Perry Bellegarde - Originally from Little Black Bear First Nation in Treaty 4 Territory, Perry Bellegarde has served as Tribal Council Representative for the Touchwood-File Hills-Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and Saskatchewan Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations, as well as Chief and Councillor for the Little Black Bear First Nation. In 2014, the Chiefs-in-Assembly first elected Perry as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He was re-elected to the position in July 2018.
The views expressed belong to the author.
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