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Racism in Canada traces both historical and contemporary racist community attitudes, as well as governmental negligence and political non-compliance with United Nations human rights standards and incidents in Canada. [1] Contemporary Canada is the product of indigenous First Nations combined with multiple waves of immigration, predominantly from Europe and in modern times, from Asia.
In a 2013 survey of 80 countries by the World Values Survey, Canada was ranked among the most racially tolerant societies in the world. [2] In 2021, the Social Progress Index ranked Canada 6th in the world for overall tolerance and inclusion. [3] [4]
Canadian author and journalist Terry Glavin claims that white Canadians consider themselves to be mostly free of racial prejudice,[ failed verification ] perceiving the country to be a "more inclusive society" than its direct neighbor the United States, [5] a notion that has come under criticism. [6] [7] For instance, Galvin cites the treatment of the Aboriginal population in Canada as evidence of Canada's own racist tendencies. [8] These perceptions of inclusion and "colour-blindness" have also been challenged in recent years by scholars such as Constance Backhouse stating that white supremacy is still prevalent in the country's legal system, with blatant racism created and enforced through the law. [9] According to one commentator, Canadian "racism contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of criminalization and imprisonment". [10] In addition, throughout Canada's history there have been laws and regulations that have negatively affected a wide variety of races, religions, and groups of persons. [11] [12] [13]
Canadian law uses the term "visible minority" to refer to people of colour (but not aboriginal Canadians), introduced by the Employment Equity Act of 1995. [14] However, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated this term may be considered objectionable by certain minorities and recommended an evaluation of this term. [15]
In 2019, the English and Art departments at Kwantlen Polytechnic University collaborated to put on an exhibition called Maple-Washing: A Disruption, which featured various works examining Canadian history from diverse perspectives. With "Maple-Washing" (portmanteau of maple and "whitewash") referring to the alleged tendency of Canadian institutions to sanitize Canadian history. [16] Historical topics and events covered in the exhibition included Canadian participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Komagata Maru incident, the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War Two, and the Chinese head tax, frequently "maple-washed" incidents. [17]
Canada's treatment of First Nations people is governed by the Indian Act . The Canadian Indian Act helped inspire South Africa's apartheid policies. [18] Many Indigenous people were forced into assimilation through the Canadian Indian residential school system. From 1928 to the mid-1990s, Indigenous girls in the residential school system were subject to forced sterilization once they reached puberty. The number of sterilized girls is not known because the records were destroyed. [19] European colonizers assumed the Indigenous peoples needed saving, a form of "charitable racism". [20] However, this attitude is not absent from modern Canada, for example, in August 2008, McGill University's Chancellor and International Olympic Committee representative Richard Pound told La Presse : "We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European origin, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization", implying that the First Nations people were "uncivilized". [21]
In 1999 the Canadian government created an autonomous territory, Nunavut, for the Inuit living in the Arctic and northernmost parts of the country. The Inuit compose 85% of the population of Nunavut, which represents a new level of self-determination for the Indigenous peoples of Canada. [22]
There are records of slavery in some areas of British North America, which later became Canada, dating from the 17th century. The majority of these slaves were Aboriginal, [23] and United Empire Loyalists brought slaves with them after leaving the United States.
Canada had also practiced segregation, and a Canadian Ku Klux Klan exists. [24] [25] Racial profiling occurs in cities such as Halifax, Toronto and Montreal. [26] [27] Black people made up 3% of the Canadian population in 2016, and 9% of the population of Toronto (which has the largest communities of Caribbean and African immigrants). [28] They lived disproportionately in poverty, were three times as likely to be carded in Toronto than Whites, and incarceration rates for Blacks were climbing faster than for any other demographic. A Black Lives Matter protest was staged at Toronto Police Headquarters in March 2016. [29] [30]
On August 12, 1911, the Governor General in Council approved a one-year prohibition of black immigration to Canada because, according to the Order-in-Council, "the Negro race" was "unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada." [31] It was tabled on June 2, 1911, by the Minister of the Interior, Frank Oliver, following mounting pressure from white prairie farmers who were discontented with an influx in the immigration of black farmers from the United States. [32] It was never officially enforced or added to the Immigration Act, likely because the government—led by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier—was hesitant to alienate black voters ahead of the 1911 federal election. [33] It was repealed later that year. [34]
In Nova Scotia, a community which mainly consisted of Black Canadians were forcibly removed and eventually razed between 1964 and 1967 after years of intentional neglect by the government in Halifax. [35]
The 1918 Toronto anti-Greek riot was a three-day race riot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, targeting Greek immigrants during August 2–4, 1918. It was the largest riot in the city's history and one of the largest anti-Greek riots in the world.
Jewish students were prohibited from studying at Canadian universities. [11] Canada had restrictive policies towards Jewish immigration. In 1939, Jewish refugees escaping from WWII Europe aboard the MS St Louis were not allowed to enter Canada due to racist immigration policies. [36]
While government policies have changed, antisemitism remains problematic. Jews are a tiny-and therefore more vulnerable-minority in Canada, comprising only 1.1% of the population, in 2018. [37] Partially due to the small size of the community, hate crimes against Jews (also referred to as "violent antisemitism") is the highest per-capita form of race-based violence reported in Canada. [38]
Black Canadians are discriminated in Canada. [39]
In 1914, Indians arriving in Canada were not allowed to enter despite being British subjects, leading to the deaths of dozens of immigrants in the Komagata Maru incident.
Starting in 1858, Chinese "coolies" were brought to Canada to work in British Columbia in the mines and on the Canadian Pacific Railway. [40] After anti-Chinese riots broke out in 1886, a "Chinese head tax" was implemented to curtail immigration from China. In 1907, the Anti-Oriental Riots in Vancouver targeted Chinese and Japanese-owned businesses, and the Asiatic Exclusion League was formed to drive Asians out of the province. League members attacked Asians, resulting in numerous riots. [41] In 1923, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act , commonly known as the Exclusion Act, prohibiting most Chinese immigration. [42] The Act was repealed in 1947, [43] but discrimination limiting non-European immigrants continued until 1967 when a points-based system was introduced to assess immigrants regardless of origin.
Although a British–Japanese treaty guaranteed Japanese citizens freedom of travel, they were nevertheless subject to anti-Asian racism in Canada, though a slightly lesser degree at the time than the Chinese before World War II, as an informal agreement between the Japanese and Canadian governments limited Japanese immigration in the wake of the Vancouver anti-Asian riots. [44]
In 1942, during World War II, many Canadians of Japanese heritage—even those born in Canada— were forcibly moved to internment camps under the authority of the War Measures Act . [45] At first, many men were separated from their families and sent to road camps in Ontario and on the British Columbia–Alberta border. Small towns in the BC interior such as Greenwood, Sandon, New Denver and Slocan became internment camps for women, children and the aged. To stay together, Japanese–Canadian families chose to work in farms in Alberta and Manitoba. Those who resisted and challenged the orders of the Canadian government were rounded up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and incarcerated in a barbed-wire prisoner-of-war camp in Angler, Ontario. [46] Japanese–Canadians fishing boats were also seized, with plans to drastically reduce fishing licenses from them and forcibly redistribute them for white Canadians. [47] With government promises to return the land and properties seized during that time period, Japanese Canadians left their homes. This turned out to be untrue, as the seized possessions were resold and never returned to the Japanese Canadians. Unlike prisoners of war, who were protected by the Geneva Convention, Japanese–Canadians were forced to pay for their own internment. [48]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Canadians reported increased incidents of violent assaults, especially against women of Asian descent. [49] According to an Angus Reid survey from 22 June 2020, up to 50% of Chinese-Canadians had experienced verbal abuse, and 29% had been made to feel feared, as if they posed a threat to public safety. [50] [51] Another survey of 1,600 adults conducted by ResearchCo and obtained by the Agence France-Presse revealed one in four Canadians of Asian descent (70% of whom were of Chinese descent) who lived in British Columbia knew someone within their household who had faced discrimination. [52] The survey also revealed 24 percent of Canadians of South Asian descent reported racist insults. [52] Canadians of Indigenous origin had also reported discrimination. [52]
Anti-Sikh sentiment in Canada has a historical and contemporary presence marked by several key events and ongoing issues. Early instances include the 1907 Bellingham Race Riot, where South East Asian and South Asian immigrants, mostly Sikhs, were violently targeted by white mobs in Washington (state), spilling over into Canadian anti-immigrant sentiments and the Pacific Northwest. [53] [54] [55]
The 1914 Komagata Maru incident incident further highlighted institutional racism when 376 Indian passengers, mostly Sikhs, were denied entry into Canada and forced to return to India, where many faced persecution. [56]
Post September 11 attacks, Sikhs in Canada experienced increased xenophobia and hate crimes, often being mistaken for Muslims due to their turbans and beards. [57]
The representation of murdered Indigenous women in crime statistics is not proportionate to the general population. [58] In 2006, Amnesty International researched racism specific to Indigenous women in Canada. [59] They reported on the lack of basic human rights, discrimination, and violence against Indigenous women. The Amnesty report found that First Nations women (age 25–44) with status under the Indian Act were five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as a result of violence. [60] In 2006, the documentary film Finding Dawn looked into the many missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada over the past three decades. [61] In September 2016, in response to repeated calls from Indigenous groups, activists, and non-governmental organizations, the Government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, jointly with all provincial and territorial governments, established a national public inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. [62]
Indigenous people still have to deal with racism within Canada and the challenges that the communities face are often ignored. [63] There are still negative stereotypes associated with Indigenous people such as being freeloaders, drug addicts or dumb. [64] Indigenous people are more likely to feel depression due to several factors such as poverty, loss of cultural identity, inadequate health care and more.
In 2020, the staff at a hospital in the Quebec city of Joliette were shown on video mocking and making racist remarks at an Atikamekw woman who eventually died. Indigenous leaders say the video exposes the grim realities of systemic racism that have long gone ignored or suppressed throughout Canada. [65]
Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group and it may manifest itself in suspicion of one group's activities by members of the other group, a desire to eliminate the presence of the group that is the target of suspicion, and fear of losing a national, ethnic, or racial identity.
The White Australia policy was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European non-white ethnic origins – especially Asians and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia in order to create a "white/British" ideal focused on but not exclusively Anglo-Celtic peoples. Pre-Federation, the Australian colonies passed many anti-Chinese immigration laws mainly using Poll Taxes, with Federation in 1901 came discrimination based on the Dictation Test, which effectively gave power to immigration officials to racially discriminate without mentioning race. The policy also affected immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other European countries, especially in wartime. Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1973, when the Whitlam government removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws.
Chinese Canadians are Canadians of full or partial Han Chinese ancestry, which includes both naturalized Chinese immigrants and Canadian-born Chinese. They comprise a subgroup of East Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. Demographic research tends to include immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from Southeast Asia and South America into the broadly defined Chinese Canadian category.
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare, education and political representation.
The Asiatic Exclusion League was an organization formed in the early 20th century in the United States and Canada that aimed to prevent immigration of people of Asian origin.
South Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to South Asia or the Indian subcontinent, which includes the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The term also includes immigrants from South Asian communities in East and South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Mauritius, and the rest of the world.
Racism has been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions against racial or ethnic groups, throughout the history of the United States. Since the early colonial era, White Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights, which have been denied to members of various ethnic or minority groups at various times. European Americans have enjoyed advantages in matters of citizenship, criminal procedure, education, immigration, land acquisition, and voting rights.
The Komagata Maru incident involved the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru, on which a group of people from British India attempted to migrate to Canada in April 1914, but most were denied entry and forced to return to Budge Budge, near Calcutta. There, the Indian Imperial Police attempted to arrest the group leaders. A riot ensued, and they were fired upon by the police, resulting in some deaths.
The Chinese Immigration Act, 1885 was an act of the Parliament of Canada that placed a head tax of $50 on all Chinese immigrants entering Canada. It was based on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration, which were published in 1885.
Sikhism is the fourth-largest religious group in Canada, with nearly 800,000 adherents, or 2.1% of Canada's population, as of 2021. The largest Sikh populations in Canada are found in Ontario, followed by British Columbia and Alberta. As of the 2021 Census, more than half of Canada's Sikhs can be found in one of four cities: Brampton (163,260), Surrey (154,415), Calgary (49,465), and Edmonton (41,385).
Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the continent of Asia. Canadians with Asian ancestry comprise both the largest and fastest growing group in Canada, after European Canadians, forming approximately 20.2 percent of the Canadian population as of 2021, making up the majority of Canada’s visible minority population. Most Asian Canadians are concentrated in the urban areas of Southern Ontario, Southwestern British Columbia, Central Alberta, and other large Canadian cities.
Indian Canadians are Canadians who have ancestry from India. The term East Indian is sometimes used to avoid confusion with Indigenous groups. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. As of the 2021 census, Indians are the second largest non-European ethnic group in the country group after Chinese Canadians and form the fastest growing national origin in Canada. Canada's census only counts citizens and permanent residents, and does not include non-permanent or temporary residents.
Racism in Australia comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are held by various people and groups in Australia, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and actions at various times in the history of Australia against racial or ethnic groups.
Racism in the United Kingdom has a long history and includes structural discrimination and hostile attitudes against various ethnic minorities. The extent and the targets have varied over time. It has resulted in cases of discrimination, riots and racially motivated murders.
The Vancouver riots occurred September 7–9, 1907, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At about the same time there were similar anti-Asian riots in Bellingham, Washington, San Francisco, and other West Coast cities. They were not coordinated but instead reflected common underlying anti-immigration attitudes. Agitation for direct action was led by labour unions and small business. Damage to Asian-owned property was extensive.
Order-in-Council P.C. 1911-1324 was a proposed one-year prohibition of black immigrants entering Canada because, according to the order-in-council, "the Negro race" was "unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada". It was tabled on June 2, 1911, by the Minister of the Interior, Frank Oliver, following mounting pressure from white prairie farmers who were discontented with an influx in the immigration of black farmers from the United States. Although it was approved by the Governor General in Council on August 12, it was never officially invoked or added to the Immigration Act, likely because the government—led by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier—was hesitant to alienate black voters ahead of the 1911 federal election. It was repealed by Order-in-Council P.C. 1911–2378 on Laurier's penultimate day in office, October 5.
"Racism against Asians" refers to racist policies, discrimination against, and mistreatment of people of Asian descent by institutions and/or non-Asian people - typically in the Western world or in other countries outside Asia.
Until 1965, racial segregation in schools, stores and most aspects of public life existed legally in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and informally in other provinces such as British Columbia. Unlike in the United States, racial segregation in Canada applied to all non-whites and was historically enforced through laws, court decisions and social norms with a closed immigration system that barred virtually all non-whites from immigrating until 1962. Section 38 of the 1910 Immigration Act permitted the government to prohibit the entry of immigrants "belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada, or of immigrants of any specified class, occupation or character."
Racism in Quebec refers to the attitudes, judgments, and discriminatory actions based on race, ethnicity, or nationality that have taken place and continue to manifest in the province of Quebec, Canada. Throughout history, the interactions between English-speaking, French-speaking communities, and Indigenous peoples, as well as the immigration of various ethnic groups, has led to the formation of racial tensions and conflicts at different times. Often, this matter in Quebec has been downplayed as isolated incidents.
Within Canada, anti-Sikh sentiment has included hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Canadian Sikhs as a religious and ethnic group. This form of racism has affected Sikhs in the country since Canada's Sikh community was established in 1897.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)This has been reported by the Bellingham Herald newspaper which incidentally had also reported the 1907 riots. At that time the early Sikh immigrants were termed Hindus and the banner headline of the daily on September 5, 1907, cried out, Hindus hounded from city, with the subhead saying, Mob drives foreigners from lodging houses and mills.
if something were not done soon the agitation started in Bellingham would spread all over the Sound country and massacres of the Eastern aliens was likely to result. Fowler was one of the speakers in Vancouver and some blamed him and League organizers from the U.S. for setting off the riot in Canada.
This hate speech reflected a broader phenomenon, as the retired professor Paul Englesberg shows in his contribution to the book. The mob had listened that Saturday night to A. E. Fowler, an activist from Seattle who gave an "impassioned speech," in which he invoked a riot against Sikh workers in Bellingham, Washington, just days earlier. Beyond the West Coast, white supremacism existed throughout the British Empire — personified by the presence of a New Zealand clergyman at the league's meeting
Both the US and Canada have seen a sharp increase of hate crimes waged against the Sikh population who have been 'mistakenly' targeted in racist attacks directed at Muslims – for example the first person to be killed in a 'revenge attack' following 9/11 was Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh turbaned man in Arizona