TAKING ACTION AGAINST SYSTEMIC RACISM AND RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION INCLUDING ISLAMOPHOBIA Report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Hon. Hedy Fry, Chair FEBRUARY 2018 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION The proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees are hereby made available to provide greater public access. The parliamentary privilege of the House of Commons to control the publication and broadcast of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees is nonetheless reserved. All copyrights therein are also reserved. Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that the reproduction is accurate and is not presented as official. This permission does not extend to reproduction, distribution or use for commercial purpose of financial gain. 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Substantive reports on a subject-matter study usually contain a synopsis of the testimony heard, the recommendations made by the committee, as well as the reasons for those recommendations. STANDING COMMITTEE ON CANADIAN HERITAGE CHAIR Hon. Hedy Fry VICE-CHAIRS Hon. Peter Van Loan Pierre Nantel MEMBERS Pierre Breton Jim Eglinski Sean Casey* Stéphane Lauzon* Julie Dabrusin Martin Shields Anju Dhillon Dan Vandal Julie Dzerowicz Arif Virani* * Non-voting member, pursuant to Standing Order 104(5). iii OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED William Amos Bernard Généreux Seamus O’Regan David Anderson Garnett Genius Scott Reid Frank Baylis Cheryl Hardcastle Jean R. Rioux Rachel Blaney Majid Jowhari Ruby Sahota Celina Caesar- Robert Kitchen Darrell Samson Chavannes Hon. Michael D. Chong Jenny Kwan Ramesh Sangha Roger Cuzner Linda Lapointe Scott Simms Pam Damoff Michael Levitt David Sweet Francis Drouin Larry Maguire Mark Warawa Peter Fragiskatos Bryan May Kevin Waugh Colin Fraser Elizabeth May Nick Whalen CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE Andrew Bartholomew Chaplin Michael MacPherson LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Gabrielle de Billy Brown Erin Virgint iv THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON CANADIAN HERITAGE has the honour to present its TENTH REPORT Pursuant to its mandate under Standing Order 108(2), the Committee has studied Systemic Racism and Religious Discrimination and has agreed to report the following: v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................. 1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW .................................................................................. 7 1.1 THE COMMITTEE’S STUDY ................................................................................................... 7 1.2 LEGAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................................. 8 1.2.1 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms .......................................................... 8 1.2.2 Canadian Human Rights Act ...................................................................................... 9 1.2.3 Canadian Multiculturalism Act ................................................................................. 9 1.2.4 Criminal Code ............................................................................................................... 10 1.2.5 United Nations Documents ..................................................................................... 10 1.2.5.1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights .................................................. 10 1.2.5.2 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ................................................................................ 11 1.3 EXISTING INITIATIVES ....................................................................................................... 14 1.3.1 Federal ............................................................................................................................ 14 1.3.1.1 Multiculturalism Program ............................................................................ 14 1.3.1.2 Canadian Race Relations Foundation ....................................................... 15 1.3.1.3 Court Challenges Program ............................................................................ 15 1.3.1.4 Office of Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion ............................... 16 1.3.2 Provincial ....................................................................................................................... 16 1.4 KEY TERMS .............................................................................................................................. 19 1.4.1 Systemic racism ........................................................................................................... 19 1.4.2 Religious Discrimination.......................................................................................... 21 1.4.3 Islamophobia ................................................................................................................ 22 1.4.4 Intersectionality .......................................................................................................... 24 vii PART 2: RACE AND RELIGION ISSUES IN CANADA................................................................ 25 2.1 PRESENTATION OF THE CURRENT DATA .................................................................. 25 2.1.1 Police-reported hate crimes ................................................................................... 26 2.1.2 Self-reported hate crimes ........................................................................................ 29 2.2 CHALLENGES WITH COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS ................................................. 30 2.2.1 Underreporting ............................................................................................................ 30 2.2.2 Lack of uniformity ...................................................................................................... 31 2.2.3 Improving reporting .................................................................................................. 32 2.3 RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................ 34 2.4 ISSUES RAISED BY WITNESSES ....................................................................................... 34 2.4.1 Hate speech, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience ..................... 36 2.4.2 Discrimination related to employment .............................................................. 38 2.4.3 Social discrimination ................................................................................................. 39 2.5 LEGAL CONCERNS RAISED BY WITNESSES................................................................ 41 2.5.1 Criminal Code review ................................................................................................ 41 2.5.2 Facilitate investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.............................. 43 2.5.3 Legislation related to Indigenous Peoples ........................................................ 44 PART 3: MOVING FORWARD........................................................................................................... 46 3.1 NATIONAL ACTION PLAN—A WHOLE OF GOVERNMENT APPROACH .......... 46 3.1.1 Development of a National Strategy ................................................................... 47 3.1.2 Race Equity Lens ......................................................................................................... 49 3.1.3 Benchmarks and Accountability ........................................................................... 52 3.1.4 Intersectionality .........................................................................................................