Province needs a direct anti-racism strategy

In fairness to Premier Brad Wall, many wouldn’t be aware of hateful responses to the Colten Boushie shooting death had Wall not used his own ample profile to bring them to the public’s attention.

The premier’s staff explained that bigoted responses after 54-year-old Biggar-area farmer Gerald Stanley was charged with Boushie’s second-degree murder were brought to Wall’s attention and he decided to combat them with his own social media post calling for an end to hateful racism and warning hate could be prosecuted.

The problem, however, is neither the Criminal Code nor the existing Saskatchewan Human Rights Code make prosecution easy.

For example, one post that drew Wall’s ire is the nowinfamous “His (Stanley’s) only mistake was leaving three witnesses” signed by Lampman-area farmer and rural councillor Ben Kautz, who later apologized.

But as vile as it seems, could we realistically expect a charge or conviction under the existing Criminal Code or human rights code? (In fact, Wall’s staff made it clear that the premier in his online positing wasn’t advocating charges against anyone posting “hateful” remarks. That decision, they said, belonged to police and justice.)

So as it stands right now, there really isn’t much consequence for those who choose to add to the hate. And political leadership at all levels has been far too modest in its response.

Kautz’s council struggled with whether it should ask for (or even accept) his resignation. On Tuesday, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) president Ray Orb called the comments “disappointing” and added that SARM needed a code of conduct and wanted a meeting with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) on relationships.

However, Orb also said SARM wants to meet with the RCMP’s F Division on rural safety — an issue clearly attached to rural anger, hate and racism. Crime and violence do need to be addressed as well, but they are also a flashpoint, making addressing the racism that much more difficult.

We also need Wall to step up and take a far stronger position and more direct role in addressing the racism issue.

As a premier with immense popularity — especially in rural Saskatchewan — he is uniquely positioned to be the advocate for social change we need to tackle Saskatchewan’s racist attitudes.

In fairness, Wall likely hasn’t received the credit he deserves for the quiet way he’s approached this issue.

After Wall’s cabinet shuffle Tuesday — a shuffle in which cabinet lost its lone aboriginal woman and saw First Nations and Metis Relations again sandwiched into government relations — Wall noted his was the first province to start teaching the treaties in schools.

His list of initiatives is a long one:

$211.9 million for First Nations and Metis in the 2016-17 budget — a $3.5 million or 1.7-per-cent increase; $425 million for First Nations and Metis employment, education and training since 2007-08; $19.4 million for targeted First Nations and Metis advanced education initiatives; $5.1 million for the Joint Task Force on Improving Education and Employment Outcomes; $3.8 million for First Nations and Metis Achievement Fund; $600,000 for summer literacy camps targeting remote northern communities (although the government also recently discontinued funding for the Northern Teacher Education Program); $5.4 million for targeted pre-kindergarten programs in high-needs areas; $30.8 million in funding for targeted job training and adult basic education on and off reserves.

Space does not permit listing everything this government has also done in health, social services, corrections and other areas.

But what you won’t find, however, is a direct antiracism strategy, and Wall’s justification for scrapping the one the former NDP government was working on is more than a little contradictory.

On one hand, he argues direct action on education and jobs are better than the words and platitudes in the NDP’s never-implemented plan. But on the other hand, Wall admits words are important because he notes it’s the older generation that doesn’t understand the treaties and are attached to racist attitudes of the generations before them.

Essentially, it’s an admission that Wall needs to do more and do it loudly.

Educating the young and providing more jobs are not the entire solution.