Report calls on Ottawa to apologize for slavery

UNITED NATIONS— The UN Human Rights Council is set to discuss a report on issues affecting African-Canadians that makes recommendations to the federal government, including that it apologize for slavery and consider providing reparations for historical injustices.

A UN working group will submit its final report on the human rights situation of people of African descent in Canada to the council Monday based on its consultations with government officials and interest groups during a 2016 mission to Ottawa, Toronto, Halifax and Montreal.

A final report released in August raised deep concerns about Canada’s legacy of anti-Black racism, which traces its origins to slavery in the16th century and reverberates into the present day.

The report draws a through-line between Canada’s history of racial segregation to the structural racism that “lies at the core” of many Canadian institutions today, manifesting itself in the form of poverty, health problems, low educational attainment, higher rates of unemployment and overrepresentation of Black Canadians in the criminal justice system.

The authors appealed to the federal government to provide financial support to help claimants cover the costs involved in resolving land disputes, centuries after their ancestors were denied title to the rocky plots where they settled.

The report also suggested that Ottawa work with provincial and municipal authorities to develop legislation regarding what it called “environmental racism,” the risks created by environmental hazards like landfills, waste dumps and pollutants that are disproportionately situated near Black communities.

At the national level, the working group said Ottawa should develop a strategy to address anti-Black racism in the criminal justice system.