Asian American Empowerment - Survey: Racism Still Thrives in Canada

By Sue Bailey
©2003 Canadian Press
September 29, 2003

OTTAWA - Imagine changing your name on a business card so it sounds less foreign. Envision having to comfort a child who's distraught over racist taunts in the schoolyard.

Most Canadians are spared these searing realities. But more than one-third of black, South Asian, Chinese and other visible minorities have faced racism in the last five years, says a landmark survey released Monday by Statistics Canada. Arab Canadians are also increasingly targeted since the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, said Audrey Jamal, executive director of the non-profit Canadian Arab Federation.

Children tell their parents: "'I want to change the colour of my skin, I want to change my name' because their skin is darker or their name sounds ethnic," Jamal said.

"In workplaces, we see individuals . . . who are asked to change their names on business cards from an Arab or Muslim-sounding name to something more Canadian sounding. We hear this one regularly."

Many Arabs hide their identity to avoid recrimination, she added.

"These are members of our community who are law-abiding, Canada-loving people who face attack because of their appearance."

About three million Canadians over the age of 15 fall into the category of visible minority. The 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey says 20 per cent of non-Caucasian, non-native adults aged 15 or older - about 587,000 people - said they had sometimes or often experienced racism in the last five years.

The number is 22 per cent in Toronto, about 20 per cent in Montreal, Vancouver and other major centres, and 18 per cent in smaller cities, said Jennifer Chard, a Statistics Canada analyst.

Another 15 per cent of visible minority respondents said they had been victims of discrimination, but rarely. Unfair treatment stemmed from their skin colour, language or other ethnic trait, they said.

The survey does not rate incidents for severity or offer other details.

One Iraqi woman from Toronto, who asked not to be named, said she has been repeatedly told: "'Go back to your country."

"I pay taxes," said the microbiologist who once taught at a university in Baghdad. She has lived in Canada for 13 years but still feels unaccepted, she said.

"Whenever I want to feel that I belong to this place, someone will slap me on the face and say: 'No, you don't.' "

Feelings of exclusion don't fade over time, the survey suggests.

Forty-one per cent of visible minorities who'd been in Canada for at least a generation still reported discrimination at least rarely. Of those, 18 per cent said they experienced it sometimes or often.

Nearly one-third of black respondents said they'd sometimes or often been treated unfairly because of their skin colour, compared with 21 per cent of South Asians and 18 per cent of Chinese people.

Discrimination is covert, said a 28-year public service veteran in Ottawa who immigrated from Jamaica 35 years ago.

"I hear about dismissals, cases where there's no promotion," she said. Like others contacted for this story, she asked not to be identified in fear of recrimination.

People who complain still face long and costly fights for compensation, she said.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission reported in March 2002 that visible minorities hold almost seven per cent of jobs in the federal public service, still far short of the 13.4 per cent they comprise in the general population.

The 1995 Employment Equity Act directs the federal bureaucracy - along with Crown corporations and federally-regulated private companies - to fairly represent minorities in their workforces.

"To implement real change takes years," says Karen Mock, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

There is much good will, but managers who discriminate should face real penalties, she added.

The survey is Statistics Canada's first effort outside the census to measure ethnic makeup, and its broadest attempt to gauge multicultural acceptance.

About 42,500 non-native people aged 15 and over were interviewed by phone from April to August 2002 in all provinces.

Highlights of statistics:

Twenty per cent of non-Caucasian, non-native adults aged 15 or older -- representing about 587,000 people -- said they'd sometimes or often experienced racism in the last five years. Another 15 per cent said such discrimination had happened, but rarely.
Frequent or occasional discrimination was reported by 22 per cent of visible minorities in Toronto, about 20 per cent in Montreal, Vancouver and other major centres, and 18 per cent in smaller cities.
Almost one-quarter of Canada's population aged 15 or over, more than five million people, had a birthplace outside Canada.
Twenty-one per cent of the Canadian population reports British ancestry, 10 per cent French or French-Canadian, eight per cent Canadian and seven per cent a mix of British, French and/or Canadian origins. Nineteen per cent traced their roots to Europe (outside Britain or France), 13 per cent to China, East India or other non-European countries, and 22 per cent were of mixed heritage or didn't know.

Time Doesn't Aid Visible Minorities

By Nicholas Keung
©2003 Toronto Star
September 30, 2003

No matter how long they've been in this country or what generation they belong to, discrimination remains an issue for people of colour.

Among Canadians generally, only 7 per cent of those responding to a Statistics Canada survey reported experiencing discrimination or unfair treatment because of their ethno-cultural characteristics in the past five years.

But among visible minority groups — representing 3 million Canadians — 20 per cent of those 15 and older said they had been victims of racism.

For some groups the numbers are much higher. Nearly one-third of blacks, representing about 135,000 Canadians, said they had been treated unfairly in the past five years, compared with 21 per cent of South Asians and 18 per cent of Chinese.

"For people in visible minorities, there was little variation in the levels of discrimination or unfair treatment by length of time, or generation, in Canada," said the report, released yesterday. The 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey took the opinions of 42,500 people nationwide.

About one-fifth of non-white immigrants who came to Canada between 1991 and 2001 reported perceived discrimination. The number was similar for those who had come before 1991, and even those whose families had been in this country for two or more generations.

In contrast, only 5 per cent of the white population reported experiences of unfair treatment in the survey, mostly for reasons such as language and accent.

University of Toronto sociologist Wsevolod Isajiw, an expert in Canada's multiculturalism and immigration policy, said he was pleasantly surprised that the proportion of people experiencing discrimination was lower than one might expect.

"The study, by and large, shows the partial success of our multiculturalism policy. But as we all know, discrimination still exists in our society," he said.

Arab Canadians, for example, have been targeted since 9/11, said Audrey Jamal, executive director of the non-profit Canadian Arab Federation.

Children tell their parents: "'I want to change the colour of my skin, I want to change my name' because their skin is darker or their name sounds ethnic," Jamal said. "In workplaces, we see individuals ... who are asked to change their names on business cards from an Arab or Muslim-sounding name to something more Canadian-sounding.

"We hear this one regularly."

With regard to racism, "It's up to the 93 per cent of those who haven't experienced it to say, 'Look, even this level of discrimination against our fellow Canadians is unacceptable,'" said Karen Mock, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. It's important, she said, to acknowledge the "generalizations and stereotypes that are prevalent in our society."

While Canada has an outstanding legal and legislative framework for opposing discrimination, Mock said enforcement of such policies and programs has been inconsistent.

"We really need to work harder to implement the (human rights) code and make sure there are proper sanctions against those who violate the law," she said. "There is this level of racism because there's systemic bias built into many of our institutions and into aspects of our culture that needs to be addressed and redressed."

Isajiw said numerous studies have underlined the subtlety of racism in Canadian society.

"It's no longer as open and blatant as it used to be before all this anti-discrimination legislation," he said.

"The law can only catch the obvious violations and it's hard to enforce it when it's subtle."

The federal government's annual budget for multiculturalism programs has been cut to the bone, to roughly $15 million this year, Isajiw said, and diversity programs in the schools don't really instil a sense of appreciation of multiculturalism.

"I think the system fails to go one step further by teaching our children the philosophy behind our diversity policy, that it's good, that it's normal to be different and how much we can all benefit from being with someone who looks at the world differently," he said.

Perceived discrimination or unfair treatment was reported most often in the workplace (56 per cent), the survey found. The next most common setting was in a store, bank or restaurant, 35 per cent; and on the street, 26 per cent. About 10 per cent said they had experienced unequal treatment when dealing with police or courts.

Routine police stops and close surveillance by store clerks are not new to Silence Genti, 25, a writer who moved to Toronto from Zimbabwe two years ago. Many in the dominant culture may not even be conscious of their biases, he said.

"You get on a TTC bus and your transfer ticket got inspected more so than anyone else. You walk into a store and the guard will be following you," said the Parkdale resident. "There's this perception that black people are predisposed to crime. Discrimination is about people's attitude, but you can't change people's attitude by legislation."

Mock and Genti both said public education helps dismantle stereotypes. "We have to bridge that gap (of understanding)," said Genti, who has launched a Web page about his African heritage. "We have to take the effort to educate others, but it takes as much effort by the rest of society to get to know us."

Toronto scored higher for discrimination than other Canadian cities, with 22 per cent of visible minorities reporting it here, compared with 20 per cent in Montreal and Vancouver and 18 per cent in smaller cities.

One Iraqi woman from Toronto, who asked not to be named, said she has been repeatedly told: "'Go back to your country.'

The microbiologist has lived in Canada for 13 years but still feels unaccepted, she said.

"Whenever I want to feel that I belong to this place, someone will slap me on the face and say: 'No, you don't.'"