We must confront systemic racism in Alberta

Rachel Notley says society has to act with intention to end racial injustice.

“Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.” Rosemary Brown, the first Black woman elected to a provincial legislature, spoke these words in 1972. Nearly 50 years later, we still haven’t made it.

We have all seen the videos. We have all seen the protests.

Thousands of people gathered in Calgary, 15,000 more outside the legislature in Edmonton, and many others across Alberta.

We cannot look at what is happening in the United States as someone else’s problem.

We have leaders in the RCMP saying racism doesn’t exist in Canadian policing. We have the head of ASIRT saying there is no reason to track race data, and we have people in charge of appointing provincial judges who don’t believe there is a need to actively work to include people of colour on the bench.

All of these things are recent examples of the systemic racism that has spurred protests here in Alberta, across Canada and, notably, in the United States.

As a white woman, I hesitated to write this. I believe now, more than ever, is a time to elevate the voices of Black people, many of whom have been doing anti-racist work for decades upon decades. These are activists, academics, community and faith leaders and everyday Albertans who both suffer from racism and put themselves on the front lines of the fight to end it.

I remain committed to standing with them, in solidarity, and to using every means at my disposal to elevate their voices and their experiences.

There are many truths that have been articulated by Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour. These truths bear repeating: Racism exists. It is systemic. And we must oppose it.

Sandy Hudson, a Black

Lives Matter organizer, said it best in a recent CBC interview: “The way that racism and anti-blackness often operates in Canada is by denial and through refusal, a refusal to take a look at the information that exists.”

Video footage of the violent arrest of Chief Allan Adam shook Canadians to their core. But here is a lesson every non-black, non-indigenous, non-person of colour needs to learn: If we are shocked by this violence, if we are shocked by injustice, if we are shocked by racism, then we’re not paying attention.

The disturbing footage is a recent but not isolated example of what Indigenous people, Black people and people of colour face regularly.

Racism shows up in our justice system, it shows up on our school grounds and in post-secondary institutions, it shows up in hiring practices, it shows up in health care, it shows up on our streets and in our communities, and it is sustained every time we fail to take action to fight it.

Albertans expect their leaders to face difficult truths and to act.

That’s why I was deeply disappointed when the UCP government chose not to support our NDP caucus motion in the legislature to create a task force to gather input from Black people, Indigenous people and racialized groups to develop a plan to combat racism within law enforcement.

I was disappointed that the UCP government refused to put politics aside to work together toward an end we can all agree on, an end to racism.

Many have argued recently that systemic racism does not exist, or that if it does, it is not intentional. We must collectively reject these assertions and challenge the idea of innocent intent. Because in the end, whether originally intentional or not, failing to acknowledge it and failing to address it are both intentional acts.

We, as politicians, and as a society, must act with intention to fight racism and to end racism. We must be anti-racist.