Back in 2014, friends of mine invited me to visit them in the Yukon.
“The Yukon?” I thought. “What the fuck am I going to do there? Black people don’t go north, let alone the Yukon.”
But with a heart full of love for these friends, who assured me that the Yukon was a magical place, I left for my first visit to the North; my first time travelling on my own. I still remember boarding the flight to Whitehorse on Air North, which I later found out was owned by a First Nation in the territory.
Race and anti-racism
Our Time at the September 27 Global Climate Strike (photo by Laura Cameron)
The Monitor starts off 2020—the CCPA's 40th anniversary year—with a direct attack on the Trudeau government's contradictory climate plans and the close connections between public officials and the fossil fuel sector. Will minority status and a rising Green New Deal movement change the government's course, or will it be just more business as usual?
Illustration by Remie Geoffroi
This report uses 2016 Census data to compare work and income trends among racialized and non-racialized Canadians. Overall, the report finds significant barriers remain entrenched along racial and gender lines, with little change between 2006-16. The paper also looks beyond the labour market more broadly at economic inequality including differences in income from investments and capital between racialized and non-racialized Canadians.
Un résumé en français est disponible ci-dessous
TORONTO ET OTTAWA — Malgré une population de plus en plus diverse, un nouveau rapport publié aujourd’hui révèle que peu ou pas de progrès ont été réalisés dans la réduction du racisme sur le marché du travail.
TORONTO & OTTAWA — Despite an increasingly diverse population, a new report released today reveals that little-to-no progress has been made towards reducing racism in labour market outcomes.
Taxes are the foundation of a healthy democracy. They fund the public services we depend on every day: roads, schools, community and social services, health care, justice, environmental protection and much more. But over two decades now, governments have undermined the progressivity of our tax system by cutting corporate and top income tax rates and letting tax loopholes proliferate. The top 1% of Canadians by income now pay a lower overall rate than all other income groups, including the poorest 10%.
Like many Black children who grew up in Canada in the mid-80s and early 90s, I was raised with the idea that making your parents proudest meant becoming a doctor or a lawyer. It didn’t matter if your family descended from 18th century Black Loyalists or 19th century African American Refugees, or if your parents had recently immigrated from the Caribbean or Africa to serve as working class labourers or foreign-trained professionals, or to find greater safety and security.
For centuries, the political right has opportunistically blamed immigrants for everything from economic slowdowns to lousy weather. The ferocity of these baseless attacks in the 20th century produced tragic results. Yet we are letting it happen again—in the United States, Brazil, Australia, different parts of Europe, and here in Canada.
We must confront this vile political discourse wherever we come across it on social media, in classrooms, at public events, and in daily conversations with family and friends. But how can we do it?