Anti-Black racism is a cancer in our society. Racism, and particularly anti-Black racism, is endemic in modern Canadian society and must be fought, conquered, and destroyed.

“As Mandela said: No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

This committee is committed to working with partners to kick racism out of our society. This includes advocating for policy reviews to address systemic racism.

The committee is also working to ensure Criminal Justice Reform becomes a reality. There are 70% more Black Canadians in federal prisons than there were 10 years ago.

What are we doing about it? There is an opportunity to join this committee as we work to address the obvious systemic issues affecting the Black community. The hyper-incarceration of Black youth is troubling, and we cannot stay silent.

Our priorities include:

• Education — How do we hold the government accountable?
• Community responsibility — How are we holding ourselves accountable?
• Establishing complaint mechanisms and support networks.
• Criminal justice system reforms.

In a sweltering monsoon afternoon in Xiaobei, in Guangzhou, a city in southeast China, a group of young and middle-aged African men take positions up and down a street lined by shops, alert to the passing of potential clients. Not far from them, in an adjacent street, another group of Africans—three women and a man holding a child in his arms—huddle around bales of merchandise. As the sun slowly sets, the town square fills up with people.

“Welcome to Oversea Trading Mall,” reads a neon sign in front of a midrise building overlooking the square. Posters advertising different products and services are plastered on nearly all surrounding buildings.

This is Xiaobei, also known as ‘Little Africa’, in the central neighborhood of Guangzhou, China’s megacity, where the Oversea Trading Mall is the main attraction for thousands of sub-Saharan African traders in search of good value merchandise. Guangzhou, nicknamed “Chocolate City” because of the large number of Africans living there, is a megalopolis with a population of 13 million.

Having dragged their bales to the edge of the square, three women and their male companion try to negotiate fare with a taxi driver. Sensing a lack of progress in the negotiations, due perhaps to a language barrier, one of the African men gathered around the porch of a nearby shop steps in to facilitate the transaction.

“This is what we do,” Magloire, an immigrant from Côte d’Ivoire, told Africa Renewal. “We are helping our brothers and sisters with their business needs.” He was reluctant to give his full name.

Like Magloire, hundreds of Africans who live in Xiaobei and its neighborhood in Guangzhou see themselves as “brokers.”

As the capital city of Guangdong, China’s richest province and arguably its economic powerhouse, Guangzhou is famous for numerous wholesale markets and its annual International Canton Trade Fair.

Inside Xiaobei’s subway stations, on its streets and at the bougainvillea-adorned pedestrian overpass along the main road, Africans can be found speaking Arabic, Bambara, French, Portuguese, Lingala, Malagasy, Yoruba or Igbo—a reminder of the cultural diversity of this migrant community.

Until about three years ago, Xiaobei bustled with business activity. Wholesale traders from sub-Saharan Africa regularly streamed in.

In the first nine months of 2014, for example, 430,000 people from sub-Saharan Africa entered or left the city’s border posts, according to official Chinese data.

“Booming China-Africa ties attract Africans to pursue dreams in Guangzhou,” declared China Radio International in 2015, summing up the growing movements of population and goods between the southern metropolis and several countries in Africa.

And just three years ago, local media pointed out the economic success of some of the migrants. A quick survey of residents of Little Africa showed that 2 out of 10 earned over 30,000 yuan (US$4,800 at the time) a month, more than the average monthly income of local Chinese workers. The rest earn less, comparable to the earning of the average local Chinese worker.

But fast-forward to 2016, and Little Africa is losing its shine. “Commodity dip hits China’s little Africa,” the Financial Times reported in July of that year.

For centuries, unfinished materials for clothing manufacture—silk, cotton, hides—have been sold and shipped from Africa to the fashion capitals of the West, such as London, Paris and New York. In return, a small number of ready-to-wear clothes, cheap shoes and secondhand garments head back to Africa—at vastly marked-up prices or as charity donations.

Now an ambitious startup called the Walls of Benin, led by 30-year-old Chi Atanga, a man of Cameroonian descent born in Manchester, England, seeks to break with history by building factories in Africa that make sleepwear and loungewear—comfortable casual clothing that is stylish and sophisticated, suitable for “all night raves, boats, trains and jet planes,” according to the company’s website. Finished items are sold to high-end shops in Europe for their fashion-hungry clientele.

The brand name Walls of Benin refers to the world’s largest man-made structure, which was completed in the 15th century: a system of moats and ramparts designed to defend the ancient Kingdom of Benin, which is Benin City, the capital of present-day Edo State, Nigeria.

Mr. Atanga calls himself “chief evangelist,” instead of chief executive officer, of Walls of Benin, and says that the company’s goal is “to spread soft power through culture.”

Taking on the Goliath

Mr. Atanga researched and designed the business plan for Walls of Benin. Buoyed by $100,000 seed money from the Portuguese government and an apprenticeship with the Erasmus European Entrepreneur Programme, he was able to finance his dream. “Using his gift for networking, Mr. Atanga secured an investment from the Lunan Group, the team behind the well-known brand Fiorelli,” according to facetofaceafrica.com, an online publication.

He is now setting up production operations in a “special economic zone” outside the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city.

“Our concept is not about riding the stereotype, Africa-to-Europe, textile/raw materials value chain, but a new paradigm,” he declares. “Can we take on the Goliath Victoria’s Secret on lingerie in Africa?” he asks, and answers with a firm “Yes!”

How will it work? “Our business model is simple: we take the spirit of African print textiles and swap wax and heavy cloth for more luxurious and ecological fabrics,” he says. Kente, Ghana’s famous silk-and-cotton blend, is an example of an African fabric, while silk and Tencel are natural fibres with extra softness and moisture-wicking properties. “We feel fashion brands in top cities in Europe should manufacture some of their wares in Africa and create jobs, and not merely export jeans, suits and other garments to Africa.”

His first trip to Africa as an adult was to Ghana in 2014, and it was an eye-opener. “Everything was bright, vibrant and alive. It amazed me to see African print textiles everywhere. It dawned on me that this was a part of my heritage.

Currently, Walls of Benin operates from Kenya and Rwanda and it is importing silk and Tencel from Portugal. In April 2018, the company partnered with Wildlife Works, a wildlife conservation group based in Kenya, to launch an African production. The hope is to export luxury loungewear made of extra-soft silk and Tencel to Europe and elsewhere. The production is first of its kind on the continent.

Wildlife Works can manufacture a thousand loungewear items per week using digital screen prints. “From the east of Africa to the south of Europe, we are building the value chain,” enthuses Mr. Atanga. He believes that the loungewear fashion industry in Africa, once ignored, has a bright future.

Meanwhile, rapid changes are taking place on a continent that a top British supermodel once chided for not having a Vogue magazine. “Africa’s fashion industry is right now super exciting! It is new, at the same time it is centuries old. We are talking about the 55 countries in Africa and huge diaspora populations with billions of dollars of spending power,” says Mr. Atanga.

In the heart of Accra, Ghana’s capital, just a few meters from the United States embassy, lie the tombs of W. E. B. Du Bois, a great African-American civil rights leader, and his wife, Shirley. The founder of the US-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People moved to Accra in 1961, settling in the city’s serene residential area of Labone and living there until his death in August 1963.

Mr. Du Bois’s journey to Ghana may have signaled the emergence of a profound desire among Africans in the diaspora to retrace their roots and return to the continent. Ghana was a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

In Washington, D.C., in September 2018, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo declared and formally launched the “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” for Africans in the Diaspora, giving fresh impetus to the quest to unite Africans on the continent with their brothers and sisters in the diaspora.

At that event, President Akufo-Addo said, “We know of the extraordinary achievements and contributions they [Africans in the diaspora] made to the lives of the Americans, and it is important that this symbolic year—400 years later—we commemorate their existence and their sacrifices.”

200 yrs
since the abolition of slavery

US Congress members Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, diplomats and leading figures from the African-American community, attended the event. Representative Jackson Lee linked the Ghanaian government’s initiative with the passage in Congress in 2017 of the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act. Provisions in the act include the setting up of a history commission to carry out and provide funding for activities marking the 400th anniversary of the “arrival of Africans in the English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619.”

Since independence in 1957, successive Ghanaian leaders have initiated policies to attract Africans abroad back to Ghana.

In his maiden independence address, then–Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah sought to frame Africa’s liberation around the concept of Africans all over the world coming back to Africa.

“Nkrumah saw the American Negro as the vanguard of the African people,” said Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, who first traveled to Ghana when he was 20 and fresh out of Harvard, afire with Nkrumah’s spirit. “He wanted to be able to utilize the services and skills of African-Americans as Ghana made the transition from colonialism to independence.”

Ghana’s parliament passed a Citizenship Act in 2000 to make provision for dual citizenship, meaning that people of Ghanaian origin who have acquired citizenships abroad can take up Ghanaian citizenship if they so desire.

That same year the country enacted the Immigration Act, which provides for a “Right of Abode” for any “Person of African descent in the Diaspora” to travel to and from the country “without hindrance.”

The Joseph Project

In 2007, in its 50th year of independence, the government initiated the Joseph Project to commemorate 200 years since the abolition of slavery and to encourage Africans abroad to return.

Similar to Israel’s policy of reaching out to Jews across Europe and beyond following the Holocaust, the Joseph Project is named for the Biblical Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt but would later reunite with his family and rule Egypt.

The African-American community is excited about President Akufo-Addo’s latest initiative. In social media posts, many expressed interest in visiting Africa for the first time. Among them is Amber Walker, a media practitioner who says that 2019 is the time to visit her ancestral home.

It’s Sunday night at Aba House, an open-air bar in Lomé, Togo’s capital, and stylish young men and women in modern African dress fill the dance floor as the bass guitarist pumps up the tempo. Powerful! Soulful!

The lyrics are in Mina, a local language in southern Togo and parts of neighboring Benin, but the music is unmistakably Afro-Cuban, a genre with global acclaim.

The weather is cool, the air filled with a misty marine breeze coming from the roaring Atlantic Ocean.

Across the street, onlookers marvel at the colorful dresses and practiced dance moves and watch as patrons nibble on finger food and wash it down with beer, whiskey and soft drinks.

A few minutes earlier, the band had played an up-tempo reggae tune and a highlife rendition of a Christian hymn, but it was the sound of the Afro-Cuban rumba that got people spinning, shimmying and swinging their hips on the now-crowded dance floor.

“This is my father’s bar and we play here every Sunday evening,” George Lassey, the bandleader, told Africa Renewal. “We play all kinds of music: reggae, gospel, salsa and others.”

However, Mr. Lassey says, salsa is “by far the most requested during our live performances.”

Salsa music has remained popular in West Africa since it was introduced in the region in the 1950s, reportedly by sailors.

From Lomé to Bamako in Mali, Conakry in Guinea, Cotonou in Benin and Dakar in Senegal, live bands have gained international fame playing catchy Cuban dance tunes.

Among the well-known bands incorporating the Cuban groove are Orchestra Baobab and Le Super Etoile de Dakar, the latter famed for mbalax and Latin-influenced dance music, in which Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour, who is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, shot to fame. Others include the Rail Band in Bamako and Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou.

African-flavored salsa

In early 2010, some of Africa’s renowned salsa vocalists joined forces with New York–based musicians to form Africando, a group that successfully brought African-flavored salsa to the global music market.

Growing up in Benin, Angélique Kidjo, now an internationally acclaimed artist and another UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, felt a strong connection to salsa.

“As I was listening to Celia, I could hear Africa,” Ms. Kidjo remembers, referring to Celia Cruz, often called the “Queen of Salsa.”

It’s a Sunday night at Aba House, an open-air bar in Lomé, the capital of Togo. Stylish young men and women dressed in modern African attire fill the dance floor as the bass guitarist picks up the tempo. Powerful! Soulful!

The lyrics are in Mina, a local language spoken in southern Togo and parts of neighboring Benin, but the music is unmistakably Afro-Cuban, a globally recognized genre.

The weather is cool, the air filled with a misty marine breeze blowing in from the roaring Atlantic Ocean.

Across the street, bystanders admire the colorful dresses, polished dance moves, and watch as patrons nibble on finger foods while sipping beer, whiskey, or soft drinks.

A few minutes earlier, the band had played a lively reggae tune and a highlife rendition of a Christian hymn, but it was the sound of the Afro-Cuban rumba that truly got people spinning, swaying, and shaking their hips on the now-crowded dance floor.

“This is my father’s bar, and we play here every Sunday night,” said George Lassey, the bandleader, to Africa Renewal. “We play all kinds of music: reggae, gospel, salsa, and more.”

However, Mr. Lassey notes that salsa is “by far the most requested during our live performances.”

Salsa music has remained popular in West Africa since it was introduced to the region in the 1950s, reportedly by sailors.

From Lomé to Bamako in Mali, Conakry in Guinea, Cotonou in Benin, and Dakar in Senegal, live bands have gained international fame playing catchy Cuban dance tunes.

Among the well-known bands incorporating the Cuban style are Orchestra Baobab and Le Super Étoile de Dakar—the latter famous for mbalax and Latin-influenced dance music, through which Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour—also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador—rose to fame. Others include the Rail Band of Bamako and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo of Cotonou.

African-flavored salsa

In early 2010, some of Africa’s most renowned salsa vocalists joined forces with New York-based musicians to form Africando, a group that successfully brought African-flavored salsa to the global music scene.

Having grown up in Benin, Angélique Kidjo—now an internationally acclaimed artist and also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador—has always felt a deep connection to salsa.

“As I was listening to Celia, I could hear Africa,” recalls Ms. Kidjo, referring to Celia Cruz, often called the “Queen of Salsa.”

Legacy in Action: Igniting Our Collective Brilliance for the Next Generation

By Hector Addison
Chief Servant, African Canadian Association of Ottawa

As another year draws to a close, I write to you once again on December 31st with gratitude, reflection, and resolve. This annual moment is never about nostalgia alone. It is about truth telling, soul searching, and recommitting ourselves to becoming better than we were yesterday.

This year, my call to you is simple but demanding.

Legacy in Action.

Not legacy as a word we admire, but legacy as work we must do. Not brilliance admired from a distance, but brilliance activated collectively for those coming after us.

We Are Standing on Purposeful Shoulders

The freedom, access, and opportunities many of us enjoy today did not arrive by accident. They were secured through courage, sacrifice, and unrelenting commitment to community.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” That question still confronts us today.

Marcus Garvey taught us to “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery,” reminding us that liberation begins in the mind before it ever manifests in institutions or systems.

Maya Angelou left us this charge: “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.” Legacy lives in that exchange.

These leaders did not wait for perfect conditions. They acted with what they had, where they were, for those around them.

So must we.

Collective Brilliance Is a Choice

Our brilliance has never been in doubt. The question has always been whether we will activate it together.

Collective brilliance is what happens when we stop competing for small spaces and start building bigger tables. It is what happens when professionals mentor youth, when elders are honoured, when success becomes a bridge instead of a wall.

Shirley Chisholm once said, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” Service is not optional. It is responsibility.

In our communities today, collective brilliance looks like:

• Choosing collaboration over fragmentation
• Building institutions that outlive personalities
• Supporting Black-led organizations with time, trust, and resources
• Holding one another accountable with love and honesty

It means refusing to retreat into individual comfort while community struggles persist.

Legacy Begins With Daily Decisions

Legacy is not written at the end of life. It is shaped daily.

It shows up in how we raise our children.
In how we manage money and teach financial literacy.
In how we challenge injustice without losing our humanity.
In how we show up when no applause is guaranteed.

Nelson Mandela reminded us that “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.”

That difference does not require fame. It requires commitment.

A Call to Action for the Year Ahead

As we step into a new year, I ask you to reflect honestly:

What knowledge are you hoarding that should be shared?
Who are you lifting as you climb?
What institution are you helping to strengthen, not just critique?
What legacy are your daily actions creating?

The next generation is watching us closely. They are learning not from our speeches, but from our consistency. They will inherit what we build or what we fail to build.

Let us give them more than stories of resilience.
Let us give them systems of support.
Let us give them pathways, not just advice.

Our Time Is Now

The work ahead is demanding, but it is worthy. We have everything we need within our communities to thrive, if we choose unity over ego and purpose over passivity.

As Coretta Scott King said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”

Let this be the year our compassion becomes visible through action.

Let this be the year our brilliance is not scattered, but aligned.

Let this be the year we turn intention into legacy.

Happy New Year to you and your families.

May we enter 2026 with courage, clarity, and a renewed commitment to each other.

In service and solidarity,

Hector Addison
Chief Servant Officer
African Canadian Association of Ottawa

As we enter into 2020, as a community, let’s reflect on a few things. Life is short but we can make it count for something bigger than ourselves—something that will outlive us. Something prosperity will remember you for.

What is man, O Lord, that you’re so mindful of? You were created for something greater than yourself and your family. You were created to be a blessing to others. You’re a tool in God’s hands to affect humanity. There’s no one like you throughout the world. No one can become you, no matter how hard they try. You are uniquely formed to do unique things. You have a choice to make, however. It’s in how you want to be remembered when you are long gone. What do you want to be remembered for? The builder or the destroyer? The one who gathers or the one who scatters what others have gathered?

Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself these questions: Who am I? What do I want? Why am I here at this very moment? I do not believe in coincidence. We are here for such a time as this for a reason. Make it count for something. Let the injustice and racism spur you to something great. Associate yourself with community builders and fellow citizens who care deeply about service. Be a servant leader and lead by example.

Nelson Mandela once said: “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

ACAO is fortunate to have leaders who have a real following and exhibit the character of servanthood. I am talking about leaders who answer the 3 a.m. phone calls from people other than their family members. Yes, I am talking about community leaders who unfortunately endure hardship for others—leaders who sometimes have to bury the dead in their communities. That is unfortunate, but that is what I have seen many of you do. You comfort widows and their families. Many times, you have to negotiate to get relief for a family whose breadwinner passed intestate. And you do it gracefully, without grumbling and without asking for recognition. You have demonstrated the spirit of a servant leader over and over. Yes, you do it quietly without much fanfare. You are my heroes and heroines.

As a human, you sometimes second-guess yourself. You sometimes ask: Why am I doing this or that? Sometimes, it looks like giving up is the easy option. But you have resisted the noise, the distraction, and sometimes the ungrateful community you lead. You have always looked at the bigger picture. You have remained when others have given up because of the noise from those whose mission is to destroy and scatter. Make it count, keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.

For those who are getting saddled by noise, the insults, and manufactured chaos—I dare you to be strong. It is never about you. Keep your eyes on the prize. Hold on. Get inspired by the works of our great men and women of old, the character of their perseverance, and the content of their hearts. You can do it. You are my hero and heroine.

I urge you all to continue the good work. You know it is never about you. It is about our children. The opposite of poverty, they say, is not wealth—it is justice. This justice is denied to our people because of the colour of their skin or where they came from. If no one has told you, hear it from me today: you’re making a big difference. I know you may not see the results of your efforts, but believe me—you’re a big deal.

Some of you have planted many seeds than you can count. God is bringing the increase. Like those who came before us, we may never live to see the fruits—but you continue to plant them anyway. Your efforts are multiplied when you partner with like-minded people. That is where ACAO comes in. This is not just a WhatsApp platform for community building—it is a powerful movement capable of changing the Canadian landscape for good. Yes, there is nothing we cannot do if we come together with the prize in mind. Those who have received much—much is required of them. You have received much. Make it count.

Our community has great people doing amazing work. Let’s support each other. Let’s unite and work to defeat the common enemy, “the System.” We are not each other’s enemy—we are friends, we are a community with shared history and promise. The reality is that there are good people—builders—here. But sadly, we also have those who have no greater vision beyond their selfish dreams of wanting to be famous. Don’t aspire to be famous. Aspire to be great. Serve with dignity. Be respectful and give people spaces to also flourish. Let your words be seasoned with salt. Build people up with your words. Encourage one another. Live peacefully and let others live.

As you look yourself in the mirror and reevaluate your purpose and ask yourself critical questions, remember it is never about you. Keep up the good spirit and let’s join hands to fight for our children and our children’s children. Let’s be optimistic.

“Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.” — Nelson Mandela.

IGNORE the NOISE, Keep your eyes on the Prize, Hold on.

Happy New Year!

From your servant, Hector.

Following the release of a damning report of systemic anti-Black racism within the Peel District School Board (PDSB), Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce issued 27 directives on March 13, 2020, to be implemented by the organization under strict timelines.

In a news release, the Ministry of Education stated that these directives to the PDSB are “aimed at addressing the systemic discrimination, specifically anti-Black racism; human resources practices; board leadership and governance issues.”

The PDSB, which serves over 155,000 students across 257 schools in Caledon, Brampton, and Mississauga, has since admitted to “systemic racism” within the Board and issued a formal apology for the “hurt and harm” inflicted on the Black community.

Last November, the Ontario government announced a formal review of Canada’s second-largest school board, following years of racism and human rights complaints. The three-member Review team was led by Human Rights lawyer Ena Chadha, lawyer and former CABL president Shawn Richard, and former deputy minister Suzanne Herbert.

Between December 2019 and early February 2020, they considered over 160 written submissions, conducted 115 interviews, and held 4 community engagement sessions, hearing from more than 300 individuals in Peel and Toronto.

Key findings from the March report include:

• 83% of high school students in the PDSB are racialized, yet 67% of teachers are white.
• Black students were subjected to frequent police intervention.
• Black students were heavily overrepresented in suspensions, including in junior kindergarten. Though they represent only 10.2% of the student body, they accounted for 22.5% of suspensions.
• Black students reported being held to higher standards and different conduct codes than white or other racialized students.
• Students expressed that Black History should be integrated into the curriculum—and go beyond slavery.
• Teachers and principals made degrading, inappropriate, and racist comments about Black students and staff.
• Teachers often failed to intervene when students used the N-word or engaged in classroom micro-aggressions.
• PDSB Director of Education Peter Joshua had served since July 2017 without ever receiving a performance appraisal.
• Numerous Black educators were removed from their roles after speaking out against white supremacy and oppression.

Despite claims that work on the directives had begun, reports suggest that little has changed. Following a breakdown in mediation, Minister Lecce appointed lawyer Arleen Huggins to investigate the PDSB’s compliance with his directives.

Lecce emphasized he would not tolerate “delay or inaction” in “confronting racism and discrimination” and vowed to ensure these issues are addressed “immediately and effectively.”

Ms. Huggins is expected to submit her findings by May 18, 2020.

Resources:

Minister’s Directions: Download PDF
Final Report: Download PDF

Canada’s Lack of Race-Based COVID-19 Data Is Hurting Black Canadians: Experts

By Olivia Bowden – Global News

Rachel, a frontline worker in social services in the Greater Toronto Area, juggles multiple jobs. After a long day, she returns home to her children. That evening, she learns that a resident at her facility has been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms. Yet, no official communication was given to her.

Rachel laments that the majority of support workers, like her and her colleague, are Black women, often left without information or protection. She denounces the lack of transparency and the negligence of managers who work remotely while Black employees face all the risks.

This lack of recognition for racialized workers exposes a deeper problem: the absence of race-based data collection on COVID-19 cases in Canada. Unlike the United States—where statistics revealed that African Americans were dying from COVID-19 at twice their population rate—Canada did not initially gather this crucial data.

In Toronto, it wasn’t until April 2020 that public health authorities began collecting such data. The decision aims to better understand health inequities and adapt interventions accordingly. Black health leaders in Ontario have long warned about barriers to employment, economic insecurity, and lack of access to healthcare in Black communities.

A 2009 study from Ryerson University already showed that 42% of home support workers were visible minorities—nearly double their representation in the Canadian population at the time.

The death of Arlene Reid, a 51-year-old Black support worker in the Peel region, sparked outrage. Unions denounce the lack of adequate protection for these essential workers. Her tragic death highlights the inequalities in access to safe and well-paid jobs.

The Historical Impact of Systemic Racism

According to Arjumand Siddiqi, Canada Research Chair in Health Equity, the poor health outcomes among Black Canadians are no surprise—they stem directly from systemic racism. Inequities in housing, employment, and income cumulatively affect physical and mental health.

Without professional autonomy, stable income, or healthy housing, it becomes difficult to protect oneself during a pandemic. These disparities are reflected in every illness, disproportionately.

Voices Calling for Data

Safia Ahmed, Executive Director of the Rexdale Community Health Centre, witnesses these inequalities daily. Her organization serves a population largely made up of newcomers and Black Canadians, who are especially affected by job loss, food insecurity, and lack of access to healthcare.

She hopes Toronto’s data collection will inspire other provinces and the federal government. Without data, she says, it is impossible to adopt fair and effective policies to protect the most at-risk communities.

Kathy Hogarth, professor of social work at the University of Waterloo, agrees: without numbers, it’s easy to ignore the problems. She calls for a structured national effort to collect race-based data and better prepare Canada for future crises.

Conclusion

The pandemic has exposed a painful truth: in a system built on inequality, some bodies become “disposable.” Until Canada acknowledges these disparities, minorities will continue to suffer the consequences.