‘Tired of the word resilience’: Canada’s racialized communities navigate ongoing pandemic - Global News | Canada News Media
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‘Tired of the word resilience’: Canada’s racialized communities navigate ongoing pandemic – Global News

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For 17 years, Butterfly GoPaul has focused on community development like housing and health care in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhoods.

As a worker on the front lines, she said something as simple as securing an affordable place to live is often a barrier families run into.

GoPaul said these inequities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This has been in the works for years. It’s systemic. It’s chronic.”

Read more:
Coronavirus pandemic hitting Ottawa’s most diverse communities hardest: health unit

For racialized communities, there have been a number of factors contributing to higher rates of COVID-19 in major cities in Canada, but experts said many of these factors existed prior to the pandemic. Vulnerabilities like living situations as well as lack of neighbourhood resources are often left out of the conversation.

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Last year, Global News found Montreal’s more disadvantaged and multi-ethnic neighbourhoods were at a higher risk of COVID-19 due to tough financial situations or having a high-risk frontline jobs

In Ottawa, data released by the city’s public health department last November revealed Black people made up 37 per cent of all cases since the start of the pandemic.

And in Toronto, recent data from Toronto Public Health found 79 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city identified with a racialized group.






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Dr. Kate Choi, acting director at Western University’s Centre for Research on Social Inequality, said factors like living arrangements and neighbourhood amenities are just as important to consider when discussing the prevention of COVID-19. 

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Choi said when it comes to multigenerational households, which are often overcrowded, there are a number of household members going to work or school.

“Because the individuals have different social milieus, it means that they have multiple points of exposure to COVID-19,” she said.

“And as a result, someone who’s living in a multigenerational household has a greater vulnerability to being exposed.”

READ MORE: ‘I was shocked:’ Brampton neighbourhood has higher COVID-19 positivity percentage than any other in GTA

Additionally, Choi said it is evident that racialized communities tend to be economically disadvantaged and in comparison to non-racialized communities, often reside in inadequate housing that requires major repairs or maintenance.

“If we look at something like plumbing, we know that if you had bad plumbing within your home, that could mean inadequate access to clean water, which makes it difficult for household members to wash their hands,” she said. 

Low or poor airflow and circulation as a result of inadequate housing may also contribute to people’s ability to stay home and can increase one’s risk to COVID-19, Choi said.

Read more:
Black neighbourhoods in Toronto are hit hardest by COVID-19 — and it’s ‘anchored in racism’: experts

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Living situations and other barriers

Back in December, Aïssata Hann recalls a day when she got really sick. She was worried about whether she had contracted COVID-19 and decided to get tested.

Hann, who lives with her parents and two younger brothers in a small downtown Toronto apartment, said because of the limited space, it was difficult for her to isolate from the rest of her family.

“I was basically locked in my room,” she said, “I didn’t even feel like I should go to the bathroom, which is like right across the hall from my room.”

For Hann, the biggest challenge throughout the pandemic has been the fear of catching COVID-19 as she and her parents all work essential jobs and her brothers attended class in person prior to schools being closed. 

“They were both going to school. There were several times where we got emails from school being like, ‘Oh, another case positive,’” she said, adding that prior to the winter break, the school of one of her brothers closed because of COVID-19 cases.  

“At work every day it’s just another person has the case. Another person tested positive. I’m pretty sure my parents also have to deal with the same thing.”

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Read more:
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Similarly, when Anna-Kay Brown of Toronto caught COVID-19, she said it was difficult to isolate in her apartment with her husband and three children.

“I don’t have the luxury of most apartments having two bathrooms and my room is also a shared space (for) my husband and my youngest child,” she said.

For some, living with multiple family members, especially those who have language barriers, has put additional pressure on older siblings to take on more work. 

Omar Khan is a community worker in Toronto who works with refugee newcomer families. For people in these heavily COVID-19 impacted neighbourhoods, he said there are often language barriers.

“What I’ve been seeing is a lot of older siblings who are in (post-secondary) or high school taking on a lot and then struggling in their own school because they’re doing so much to help their family,” said Khan.






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Additionally, Khan added language barriers have lead to misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccine on platforms like WhatsApp.

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There has also been lots of material floating around on social media in the languages of families Khan works with.

“What happens with the youth, is they hear one thing from say, school or peers and another from their parents. Sometimes parents ask youth what they are hearing,” he said. 

Overcrowded housing and fear of eviction

Beth Wilson, senior researcher at Social Planning Toronto (SPT), said a joint report by the organization, University of Calgary and York University from last fall demonstrated how multi-dimensional the housing crisis is in the city. 

“(Overcrowded housing) is just one piece of it. Then you layer that on top of all of the other issues like people doing precarious work, not having protections, not having paid sick time, fearing they’ve lost jobs,” said Wilson.

Saroja Ponnambalam, a community planner at SPT, said racialized communities disproportionately experience overcrowding in comparison to non-racialized communities. 

“I work with a lot of residents who live in overcrowded housing, who are newcomers and don’t necessarily have formal citizenship status,” she said.

“Families are disproportionately impacted by COVID(-19) not only due to this overcrowding but as a direct result of the affordable housing crisis.”

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Ponnambalam added the fear of eviction is common in these communities and that residents can spend more than 50 per cent of their income on rent.






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Facing eviction during COVID-19 – Jan 30, 2021

Ongoing impacts of precarious housing and jobs

Jane and Finch is one of the neighbourhoods in Toronto that is home to racialized, working class communities doing precarious work and this has put them at a higher risk of COVID-19, said Brown. 

Brown, who has lived in the Jane and Finch community for more than 12 years and works as an advocate in the neighbourhood, said that one of the biggest barriers during the pandemic has been the lack of resources being allocated to communities like hers.

“We haven’t seen any type of relief for folks … We haven’t seen any of those initiatives. What does the community need? Like there’s nobody having those conversations with the community,” she said.

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While there are organizations providing communities with resources like housing and food insecurity, Brown said the burden shouldn’t just be on grassroots groups that are typically underfunded. 

How do we fix this?

According to Wilson, SPT recommended programs where people can isolate themselves if they are waiting for a COVID-19 test or have symptoms.

“One thing is we don’t hear a lot about the solutions. So are they working for people? Do people know about them? Are they full? Or are their spaces available?” Wilson said.

Ponnambalam said that it is also important for community agencies to work with resident leaders to communicate important information, especially in different languages, out to various neighbourhoods and buildings.

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Read more:
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Communities are also tired of talking about these issues because they are in survival mode, GoPaul said.

What is needed is money from not just the city but all levels of governments to work towards new development in these communities, she adds, because there are so many layers like income and health, that there needs to be a full turning over of the system.

“I’m really tired of the word resilience. Because this is inhumane. What’s happening in a pandemic with folks that have been excluded in so many ways historically for years … there’s no money, no real dollars that really address what’s happening on the ground.”

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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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 Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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