A CHANCE FOR REAL CHANGE
We in Canada need to get over our smugness, writes Lindsay Blackett.
This month is the 11-year anniversary of Bill 44, the Alberta Human Rights Bill. As the minister who brought this forward with the help of the justice minister of the day, I am proud of the achievement that enshrined gay and lesbian rights in Alberta, at the same time that we enshrined parental rights.
The legislation was contentious, but I believed by straddling the political middle, I would offend both sides and have positives for both sides. I believed, with all my heart, that Alberta would make those changes and Peter Lougheed, who authored Bill 1 in 1972 as our first Human Rights Bill, thought I was rolling a ball uphill. We not only convinced the caucus and cabinet to move the bill forward, Lougheed offered me advice and support.
I now come to the present day. I am a former politician, criminology student, businessman, father and a man who happens to be Black. I have always, personally, not protested because I want to see change actually happen.
I came to Canada in 1967 with my Oxford-educated father, mother and three siblings. We came to the new world to escape the racism that was pervasive in London, England. My father could not get a job except for one firm, with Jewish partners, because he was Black.
Over the years, my father and then my mother were able to obtain good government jobs and went on to have outstanding careers. My siblings all went on to post-secondary education and are thriving with their growing families, as it should be. We go about our normal lives, barely remembering what our childhood was like with the constant spectre of racism hanging over your head.
I remember being warned about certain police who targeted Black people in North York in the ’70s. The stories of the phone books being used to administer punishment so they would leave no mark. I have had people refuse to let me in their home, work for them, or date their daughter.
This is old stuff that I hate to dredge up. Who of us wants to be reminded of a time that we were marginalized, humiliated, scared and angry. As we get older, we can forget the images of the ’60s race riots in the U.S., murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. It is easy to forget Rosa Parks, Rodney King and the endless number of victims that I cannot remember.
Today, I have two brilliant, young adults who are a graduating criminology student and another who is a business student and works at the Alberta legislature. Despite all my attempts at getting the best for my kids in terms of neighbourhood, school and activities, I could not protect them from racism. I could do nothing to stop the kids from painting on my son’s car racist messages. I could not stop them from being treated by those who chose to do that. It mattered not that I was a cabinet minister who had championed human rights.
My family and I live in the best cultural mosaic representing 37 million people from every corner of the earth, representing every religion, if not also language and food. Just imagine our country with all our different ethnic delicacies, music, dance and so much more. These are our doctors, mechanics, teachers and politicians.
I say all of this because there are a few unenlightened people in Canada who think that racism does not exist or if it does, it is not as bad as in the U.S. The reality is it happened and is happening and will continue to happen unless we act. Our Canadian history of Chinese head taxes, First Nations residential schools, policies, policing, and incarceration numbers tell a vastly different story. To all that have felt it, it hurts just as much here as it does there.
There does seem to be hope and a solution at the end of the tunnel. Firstly, people who protested and those who watched them have finally realized that many peaceful protests are infiltrated by agitators, such as gang members in Seattle or cartel members in the south, who want to spark insurrection and looting under the guise of a peaceful protest. Finally, this year protesters started to form human chains around businesses, tackled looters and some were held for the police.
Secondly, our young people, millennials and Generation Z are not OK with this. These two generations represent a larger number of people and potential voters than do the baby boomers. They are smarter, technologically savvy with a huge bullshit meter that aligns perfectly with today. Dinosaurs of my age and the failed vestiges of the ’50s and ’60s shall be gone FOREVER.
Finally, the solution lies in the upcoming U.S. elections and by pressuring our local politicians to change. The best and easiest way to change the government is at the municipal level. In the United States this fall, mayors, district attorneys and some sheriffs will all be running for election if not re-election. The George Floyd protests would probably not have happened if the police and the
D.A. did their jobs. They should have charged Derek Chauvin the next day, as well as the three other officers. Charges can always be dropped.
The people of Minneapolis should ask if the mayor and administration caused the issue by allowing a cop with over 18 complaints to remain on the force after looking at that video displaying pure evil. The police are to serve and protect, as are the mayors and administration. If they can’t do the job, throw them out. These civil servants work for us, the taxpayer. Bring them to heel or fire the lot of them.
In Canada, we need to get over our smugness. The last time I checked, every major police force in the country has a problem with the treatment of female co-workers. Although American Blacks outnumber the percentage in jail of all our visible minorities is cold comfort. First Nations and then Blacks make up a disproportionate number in our jails and prisons. I studied this, as my daughter is now, and the numbers are going up — not down. Just like in the United States, police and Crown attorneys work to serve and protect and charge those who break the law.
Let us ask our local governments during the next election what they have done or plan to do to address that.
Today, we have the opportunity to effect real change, not platitudes. It is not OK to be a racist and not OK to exhibit racist or discriminatory behaviour. There is a reason so many are having difficult decisions with our children.
We see the world through different glasses.
Lindsay Blackett is a former Alberta minister of culture and community spirit.
Despite all my attempts at getting the best for my kids in terms of neighbourhood, school and activities, I could not protect them from racism ... It mattered not that I was a cabinet minister.
Lindsay Blackett
First Nations and then Blacks make up a disproportionate number in our jails and prisons.