The recent tragic shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has once again raised the spectre of race relations in the U.S. However, there is little reason for Canadians to point holier-than-thou fingers at the Americans. If anything, it should encourage Canadians to really examine the state of our own race relations.
Case in point, take the situation of our aboriginal populations and the fact that rates of violence are so much higher than in the rest of the population. Aboriginal women now make up more than 20 per cent of all female murder victims, twice the proportion of 30 years ago, and five times their share of the female population. The murder rate among aboriginal men is more than twice as high as it is for aboriginal women. Last year’s Idle No More movement provided a valuable lesson in why so many aboriginal Canadians remain so chronically destitute — why progress has been so frustratingly elusive, and why it is likely to remain so. Native children are the least likely of Canadian children to complete a high school education, and even less likely to go on to post secondary schooling. When aboriginal persons move to larger Canadian urban centres, they often find themselves unable to find affordable housing, good paying jobs and applicable community services. Instead, substance abuse and prostitution become the only means of escape and survival. As a result, our prisons have an inordinate number of incarcerated aboriginals compared to the population as a whole.
Canada prides itself on being a diverse, tolerant and multicultural society. How tolerant white, middle-class Canadians really are is up for debate. More and more are sending their kids to private schools, sometimes to avoid the influx of new immigrant children into the public school systems. Listen to some local radio talk shows and one gets a pretty good idea of how older white Canadians view our current liberal immigration and refugee policies. Like the U.S., Canada opened its doors to welcome families and individuals for a whole slew of reasons, some being primarily economic in nature. All fine and dandy. However once here, are they being treated fairly and without bias? Many arrive with post-secondary degrees, but still find it difficult to obtain approval to work in their professions. These persons are often treated like second-class citizens. Many temporary workers are brought in to work in agriculture, retail and domestic services sectors due to a lack of interest on the part of Canadian workers. Temporary workers do not have the same benefits under our laws, including labour and health and safety laws, as do other workers. Don’t even address the longstanding English and French relationship in this country — or the “two solitudes” as Hugh MacLennan once wrote.
When it comes to race — sorry Canada — poverty, unemployment and underemployment, violence, and lack of access to education and professional opportunities remain significant issues. Call it systemic discrimination or whatever, but it still exists. We can’t afford to be too smug!
FROLITICKS 