Navigating anti-racism, reconciliation and inclusion
Against a backdrop of calls for racial justice and the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools, anti-racism, inclusion and Indigenous reconciliation are expected to be key areas of focus during this federal election campaign.
“I think Canadians definitely want to understand what is this thing called reconciliation, and if there is such a thing as reconciliation, what are the steps, including what’s the knowledge they need to have, and what are the policies,” said Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, academic director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia.
The recent discoveries of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools is pushing a new generation to demand action from their government, TurpelLafond said.
“There’s a period of high emotionality right now as this comes out to the Canadian public, and to a new generation of Indigenous people, who are saying, ‘This happened to my grandparents.’ They’re mighty mad.”
The Liberals have committed millions of dollars to assist in locating graves at the sites of former residential schools, and the New Democratic Party has called for a special prosecutor to probe crimes committed within the residential school system.
The Conservatives have promised a “comprehensive plan” to implement calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission dealing with missing children and school graves.
And while justice issues don’t often get much attention in a campaign, any party seriously committed to tackling systemic racism will need to take on justice reform, said Jonathan Rudin, program director at Aboriginal Legal Services.
“A systemic racism discussion absolutely has to include justice reform, and framing it that way allows for a discussion of justice reform that would not normally happen in an election campaign,” Rudin said.
“And I think it would also force those people who oppose these sort of reforms to be explicit about what their objections are.”
Black and Indigenous peoples remain overrepresented in prisons, and the proportion of Indigenous prisoners has steadily increased since the Liberals came to power in 2015.
In a bid to reduce that over-incarceration, the government tabled legislation this year that would repeal a number of mandatory minimum prison sentences and reform the way drug possession cases are prosecuted.
In doing so, the Liberals were walking back some justice measures implemented by the Conservatives, who have maintained that the Liberals’ proposed changes will make communities less safe. The Conservatives have proposed adding mandatory minimum sentences for some offences, while the NDP has called for judges to have greater discretion in sentencing.
“Racial justice in Canada will never be achieved without drastic criminal justice reform,” said University of Toronto criminologist Akwasi Owusu-Bempah.
“If Black families are increasingly in contact with the criminal justice system, they’re more likely to live in poverty, more likely to have contact with the child welfare system.”
LGBTQ2S+ rights groups will also be looking for commitments on key issues including a ban on conversion therapy, the discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, or to coerce those questioning their gender identities to be in alignment with the sex assigned to them at birth.
The Liberals’ Bill C-6, which would criminalize some but not all instances of conversion therapy, made it to the Senate in June after many delays, where it died with the election call. The Liberals blamed Conservatives for delays in getting the bill through the House, where half of the Conservative caucus voted against it. The Conservatives have said they would table their own law to ban conversion therapy if elected.
The NDP supports banning conversion therapy and has accused the Liberals of not taking it up on its offers to fast track C-6 through the House.
“The impact that this has on individuals’ lives is dramatic,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of national LGBTQ2S+ rights group Egale Canada.
“We have high suicide rates among folks who have undergone conversion therapy, and the mental health issues are really dramatic and it’s just so unnecessary.”
Finally, online hate is also expected to be raised as an issue on the campaign, on the heels of national summits that dealt with antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The Liberals tabled a bill on the very last day the House was in session that would allow for complaints about hate speech online to be investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The Conservatives said the bill would muzzle free speech. In its platform, the party promises to fight online hate by “criminalizing statements that encourage acts of violence against other people or identifiable groups,” while also protecting other forms of speech that do not call for violence.
The NDP has committed to establishing a national working group on online hate, and ensure that social media platforms are held “legally responsible” for the removal of hateful content.
“When it comes to this election, all political parties have to be on side with ensuring that hate is dealt with, and yes, even through legislation,” said Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
He said racialized and other marginalized community groups will be demanding to know where each party stands on the need for legislation, and that if any party argues against it, “I think they’re going to have huge problems on their hands, and at their peril they will ignore the voting power of minorities collectively.”