TABLE OF CONTENTS

Video Summary & Related Content ...………………………. 3 Video Review ...………………………………………………….. 4 Before Viewing ...……………………………………………… 5 Talk Prompts ……………………………………………………. 7 The Story …………………………………………………………… 10 ACTIVITY: Exploring Systemic Racism in Canada ………….. 18 Sources ……………………………………………………………...19

CREDITS News in Review is produced by Visit www.curio.ca/newsinreview for an archive CBC NEWS and curio.ca of all previous News In Review seasons. As a companion resource, go to www.cbc.ca/news GUIDE for additional articles. Writer: Chris Coates Editor: Sean Dolan CBC authorizes reproduction of material contained in this guide for educational VIDEO purposes. Please identify source. Host: Michael Serapio Senior Producer: Jordanna Lake News In Review is distributed by: curio.ca | CBC Media Solutions Supervising Manager: Laraine Bone © 2020 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation SYSTEMIC RACISM: Does It Exist in Canada? Video duration – 10:59 The police killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed have brought renewed attention to systemic racism. In Canada, some have been quick to deny its existence. But these experts say racism has been normalized within Canadian institutions. Related Content on curio.ca • News in Review, January 2020 – Exposing Hate: Are Hate Crimes on the Rise in Canada? • News in Review, January 2015 – Our Canada: Are We Racist? • Cindy Blackstock (Mansbridge One on One) • nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (CBC Docs POV) • The Science of Racism series (Canadian Race Relations Foundation) • The Skin We're In (Firsthand) • Skinhead (CBC Docs POV) • White Privilege: Does It Exist? (The National)

curio.ca/newsinreview / 3 VIDEO REVIEW

curio.ca/newsinreview / 4 BEFORE VIEWING: Teacher instructions

Teachers: Don’t let students see this slide

1. Organize your class into three rows facing an empty (and clean) garbage can at the front of the classroom. Space the rows out a bit. 2. Give students in each row a ball (you’ll need a minimum of three balls). Note the proximity of each row to the garbage can. 3. Explain to the students that the classroom is a microcosm of Canadian society, where each individual has opportunities to achieve success. In this example, success is measured by being able to throw the ball into the garbage can. 4. Ask the front row to throw their balls first, followed by the second row, and then the third row. 5. Keep track of both the successful throws and the ones that don’t make it into the garbage can.

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 5 BEFORE VIEWING: The ball toss activity As a class, consider the following: a. What factors influenced your chance for success in the ball toss activity? b. Did each individual have an equal chance of success? c. What measures could be implemented to ensure equal access to success? Define the terms privilege and systemic racism. Use your smartphone, tablet or computer if necessary.

Guiding question: How do the concepts of privilege and systemic racism apply to the activity you just took part in?

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 6 TALK PROMPTS

curio.ca/newsinreview / 7 TALK PROMPT #1 Consider pausing the video and giving students the opportunity to talk to an elbow partner for a few minutes or use these questions as part of a class discussion. Pause the video after Professor Rinaldo Walcott says, “These are institutions that were built with the intention and the understanding that they were not actually University of Toronto Professor Rinaldo Walcott really to service people who were not White.” (photo credit: Abdi Osman) 1. Is this statement surprising? Explain your answer. 2. Why might leaders like Ontario Premier Doug Ford, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Quebec Premier Francois Legault have difficulty conceptualizing the existence of systemic racism in Canada?

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 8 TALK PROMPT #2 Pause the video after Rinaldo Walcott says, “When I see the prime minister take a knee, I think of it as a distraction. Here is the leader of a middle power in the world who could do much to demonstrate what moving to anti-Black racism could look like. And that is not what we’re being offered. We’re being offered a knee.” 1. Do you agree with Walcott’s opinion regarding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to take a knee at a Black Lives Matter protest? 2. Why might this gesture be seen as inauthentic given the prime minister’s status and position? 3. What do you think racialized Canadians and their allies are seeking from our political leaders ?

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 9 THE STORY

curio.ca/newsinreview / 10 Perspective: A Parable What the older fish knows When faced with the question that the two younger fish of whether systemic racism do not is what American exists in Canada, a parable sociologist C. Wright Mills comes to mind: called the sociological imagination — the idea that There are two young fish “neither the life of an swimming along, and when they individual nor the history of meet an older fish swimming the a society can be understood other way, the older fish nods at without understanding Fish out of water them and says, “Good morning, both.” In other words, a It’s no wonder then why boys. How’s the water?” The two person’s experience is the Brenda Lucki, Doug Ford, young fish swim on for a while, product of the social Francois Legault and Stockwell before one of them eventually context in which they live, Day — four prominent White turns to the other and says, and vice versa. political leaders, when pressed “What the heck is water?”

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 11 about the prevalence of Chief Allan Adam of the Conservative MP Day later institutional discrimination Athabasca Chipewyan First echoed Ford’s view. against Black, Indigenous and Nation while he was on a After considerable public Canadians of colour — seemed date with his wife in June. backlash, all four leaders so out of their depth, as ● Ontario Premier Doug Ford walked back their claims. The demonstrated by the following expressed a similar initial statements, however, quotes: sentiment about the May are part of a long history of 25th killing of George Floyd ● “I think that if systemic denial by our politicians — by Minnesota police, racism is meaning that the majority of them White — “Thank God we’re different racism is entrenched in our who simply don’t have the than the United States and policies and procedures, I experience of racialized we don’t have the would say that we don’t systemic, deep roots Canadians’ with systemic have systemic racism,” said they’ve had for years.” racism as a barrier to equality RCMP commissioner Lucki, and success. responding to questions ● Quebec Premier Legault about officers assaulting and former Alberta

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 12 Revisionist History racial exclusion and But, this narrative silences the According to Natasha Henry, dispossession.” suffering of thousands of President of the Ontario Black The history Henry is referring enslaved people within History Society, such offhand to isn’t often written in our Canada, says Henry, and dismissals of systemic racism textbooks. Generations of ignores the fact that systemic are rooted in a biased Canadians have been taught racism on this land is older understanding of our past. about Canada’s place as the than Canada itself. “It’s part of the Canadian last stop on the Underground Slavery in Canada national narrative to position Railroad where American Between 1628 and the 1800s, ourselves in juxtaposition to slaves found their freedom. nearly three thousand people the United States,” Henry says. This idea has been stretched of African ancestry were “That’s how we get this to suggest the implicit premise brought to Canada from the ‘exceptional Canada’ of being that this somehow absolves U.S. and forced to live here in welcoming and warm — and Canada of structural prejudice. slavery. It wasn’t until 1834 not paying attention to our that the Slavery Abolition Act own parallel history of

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 13 became law — just 27 years Recent efforts at reconciliation “Because you can’t parcel out before the American Civil War. with Canada’s Indigenous what you want. That’s not population focus more on the how history works.” After emancipation, Canada’s 150,000 children taken from Black population experienced their families and forced to An undeserved reputation segregation and other forms attend residential schools The current dominant view is of discrimination, including the between 1886 and 1996. The that we live in a post-racial menace of hate groups like the generational trauma of slavery society where everyone is Ku Klux Klan, whose and residential schools, as well born equal and treated fairly pamphlets and rhetoric as the subsequent attempts to and equitably by the country’s continue to circulate today in eliminate Indigenous cultures, institutions. Yet, disparities some communities. First also persist. between White and racialized Nations, Metis, and Inuit “You have to decide — are you Canadians in criminal justice, peoples were also enslaved by going to accept all of Canada child services, education, and colonial powers — a fact or none of Canada?” said the workplace suggest that we largely omitted from our Henry. are deceiving ourselves — that curricula.

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 14 the values that shaped our other racial groups to commit greater numbers, are far less past also inform the present. a crime. A separate OHRC likely to be returned to their study showed that Black and families, and more likely to The Ontario Human Rights Indigenous people living in spend significant portions of Commission (OHRC) reported Toronto are 10-20 times more their youth in foster care. recently that Black people are likely to be shot by police than According to Renu Mandhane, more likely than other groups Whites. chief commissioner of the to be arrested, charged, or OHRC, “[T]he long term treated with force by Toronto Negative Outcomes damage caused by separating police. According to the study, Similar disturbing outcomes children from their families is Black people represent only exist in national child services. undeniable.” 8.8 percent of Toronto’s Black and Indigenous children population, but represent 32 in Canada have a greater In school and in the workforce, percent of all people charged chance of being referred to Black and Indigenous — despite the fact that Black the Children’s Aid Society, are Canadians lose more learning people are no more likely than removed from their homes in time to suspensions than

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 15 non-racialized Canadians, have Stop, listen and learn and people of colour, they lower expectations for higher would do well to stop, listen When our leaders offer glib education, make less annual and unsupported denials of and learn. income, and are far more the systemic racism they do TO CONSIDER likely to be unemployed. not have the personal context Representation of these to understand, not only are 1. What lesson does the groups in corporate they gaslighting racialized parable of the old fish boardrooms and in provincial Canadians, they are proving and the two younger fish and federal parliament — the very notion they reject. teach? spaces where the nation’s real 2. What do Brenda Lucki, economic and political power So, the next time the Luckis, Doug Ford, Francois is wielded — is virtually the Fords, the Legaults and the Legault and Stockwell non-existent. Days of this country are asked Day have in common in about the structures that their responses to the repeatedly produce negative idea that systemic racism outcomes for Black, Indigenous exists in Canada?

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 16 3. What important fact about Black and Indigenous

populations in Canada is often left out of our textbooks? 4. What are some examples of systemic racism in Canada today?

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 17 ACTIVITY: Exploring Systemic Racism in Canada Your task is to explore the ways in which Black, ● Conduct research on your selected topic, with Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) are specific focus on data that supports the impacted by systemic racism. existence of systemic racism (we suggest a ● Form a group of four and select an area of good place to start is the “Subjects” area on the Statistics Canada website — focus below. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/subjects?MM=1 ❏ Education — however, you may choose to focus on the ❏ Health Care provincial or municipal level instead. ❏ Employment ❏ Income ● Using the data you find, create a graph using ❏ Criminal Justice an app such as Canva: www.canva.com/graphs/ ❏ Housing ❏ Representation in Parliament ● As a group, prepare a 5-10 minute ❏ Representation in business and on multimedia presentation on systemic racism Corporate Boards in your chosen area of focus.

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 18 SOURCES Carter, A. (August 10, 2020). Black People Face 'Disproportionately' High Charge, Arrest Rates from Toronto Police: Report. CBC News. Retrieved from: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/black-people-human-right-commission-police-1.5680460.

Cecco, L. (June 14, 2020). Canada Urged to Open Its Eyes to Systemic Racism in Wake of Police Violence. The Guardian. Retrieved from: www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/canada-systemic-racism-history.

Estrada, M. (June 9, 2020). Yes, There Is Systemic Racism in Canada - Our History Is Filled with It. Global News. Retrieved from: globalnews.ca/news/7029694/canada-systemic-racism/.

No author. (April 12, 2020). Black and Indigenous Children over-Represented in Ontario Child Welfare System: Report. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-black-and-indigenous-children-over-represented-in-ontario-child/.

Slaughter, G. and Singh, M. (June 7, 2020). Five Charts That Show What Systemic Racism Looks like in Canada. CTV News. Retrived from: www.ctvnews.ca/canada/five-charts-that-show-what-systemic-racism-looks-like-in-canada-1.4970352

Thorne, D. (June 12, 2020). Systemic Racism Is a Canadian Problem, Too. TVO. Retrieved from: www.tvo.org/article/systemic-racism-is-a-canadian-problem-too.

Systemic Racism: Does it Exist in Canada? curio.ca/newsinreview / 19