TORONTO —
New data from Statistics Canada is adding to growing calls for the federal government to address racial inequities experienced by various population groups in Canada during the course of the pandemic in its economic recovery plan.
The survey results released Thursday found that 28 per cent of Canadians surveyed reported they had experienced some form of discrimination since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistics Canada surveyed 35,000 Canadians between Aug. 4 to 24 to better understand which groups have been negatively impacted as a result of systemic failures amid the health crisis.
The agency notes that the survey data is not based on random selection and that the findings should not be interpreted to represent the overall Canadian population.
Young participants aged 15 to 24 were twice as likely as seniors aged 65 and older to report that they had experienced discrimination over the course of the pandemic. Among youth, Statistics Canada found women were 45 per cent more likely than their male counterparts to reporting having experienced prejudice.
Both Indigenous men and women were more likely than their non-Indigenous participants to report experiences of discrimination, but the difference was again particularly large among women.
DISCRIMINATION IN POPULATION GROUPS
According to the report, the experiences of discrimination also varied “across ethnocultural characteristics.”
Statistics Canada found that Chinese, Korean, Southeast Asian and Black participants were more than twice as likely as white participants to report that they had experienced discrimination.
The agency said the results are consistent with the data from a previous crowdsourcing initiative, which found that Chinese, Korean and Southeast Asian participants perceived an increase in the frequency of race-based harassment or attacks since the beginning of the pandemic.
The new report also found that immigrants who arrived in Canada within the last 10 years were more likely than established immigrants and Canadian-born participants to report that they had experienced discrimination.
Gender-diverse participants who did not report their gender as exclusively female or male were almost three times more likely than males to report that they had experienced discrimination during the pandemic. LGBTQ and other sexual minority participants were also more likely to report experiencing discrimination.
Additionally, participants who identified themselves as having a disability were twice as likely as participants without a disability to report being discriminated against.
FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION
Among those who said that they experienced discrimination, the most commonly reported form was based on race or skin colour (34 per cent), followed by age (30 per cent), physical appearance (26 per cent) ethnicity and culture (25 per cent) and sex (22 per cent).
Avvy Go, director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, says the new data amplifies equity concerns those who have experienced racism have had for years.
Go told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed racial inequities in multiple sectors across Canada including employment, health care, housing and education.
“Even before the pandemic, People of Colour, Indigenous people were earning less income, they were more likely to be employed in low wage jobs, and they have higher unemployment rates… There has also been significant increases for unemployment rate among Chinese and South Asian, more so than any other group,” Go said.
“We know that this is a result of systemic racism and structural racism within the labour market.”
Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change (COP-COC) is a campaign that is currently pushing for political parties to acknowledge racial inequalities amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada’s economic restart plan.
The campaign is calling for the federal government to address discrimination within its borders so the health crisis does not continue to impact racialized groups more so than other populations.
“By doing so, we will increase the opportunities for employment for the underrepresented groups, and that includes not just people of colour, but also women and people with disability as well,” Go said.
WHERE AND HOW DISCRIMINATION OCCURS
As each group faces its own set of unique challenges and circumstances, Statistics Canada found that the most common forms of discrimination differed between groups.
Among Indigenous participants who faced bias over the course of the pandemic, the most common form was discrimination based on Indigenous identity while those belonging to a visible minority group reported forms related to race and ethnicity. Among Black participants 84 per cent reported that they had experienced discrimination related to race or skin colour.
Similar to how the forms of discrimination were mixed, where participants experienced prejudice also varied.
Statistics Canada reported that about 4 in 10 participants (36 per cent) said that they had experienced discrimination in a store, bank or restaurant. One-third experienced it while using public areas such as parks and sidewalks, almost one-third experienced it online, and approximately 3 in 10 experienced it in the workplace or when applying for a job.
However, not all groups experienced the same types of discrimination situations.
According to the data, Black and South Asian participants reported more often incidents of discrimination that occurred in a store, bank or restaurant.
Chinese and Filipino participants were more likely to report experiencing discrimination while using public areas, and Arab respondents were more likely to report bias in the workplace.
Gender-diverse and sexual minority participants said they mostly faced discrimination online.
In all population groups, participants who reported experiencing discrimination also had lower levels of trust in institutions, including the police and the court system.
Statistics Canada acknowledged that each population group faces its own unique set of challenges and additional analyses will be required to get a deeper understanding of issues faced by all groups of people that live in Canada.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
