Our day to talk about the elimination of racism

OTTAWA—The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is on March 21. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which itself was the world’s response to human evils of the Holocaust. On this day in 1960, South Africa police opened fire against citizens demonstrating against apartheid laws and killed 69 people. We mark this day in memory of what happens when racism is allowed to flourish. In 1960, Canada had no issue with South Africa’s policy of white minority rule over the Black majority, though one might have questioned Canada’s credibility if it did call out South Africa when it was actively doing the apartheid-style pass system here. First Nations on-reserve needed a pass to leave the reserve for much of the first half of the 1900s, which is just another historical example of the iron fist of the Department of Indian Affairs over First Nations, and Canada’s tarnished human rights record. The year 1960 was also the year that, finally, all Indigenous Peoples got the right to vote, like real citizens. But this was not a clearcut path, not at all. When the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed with Canadian sign-on after the Second World War, the federal government didn’t see fit to include Indigenous Peoples. It took the pressure of international voices to force Canada to give Indigenous Peoples those international human rights. Canada’s human rights record is tattered yet again. The 1960s were also a time of the buildup of “Indian hospitals” for Indigenous Peoples, the federal government’s race-based health approach. They weren’t hospitals. They were prisons with locked doors, non-consensual treatment, accompanied by stories of forced sterilization, experimentation and worse. So when we talk about the elimination of racism, health care and mental health should be at the top of the list in order to atone for the sins of racism and differential treatment against Indigenous peoples, and to fix it. We’re still waiting. Colleges of health professionals, specialty groups, health-care unions, health-care executives, it’s time to step up. It’s time to own the problem and fix it. The National Observer did an investigation into racism against Indigenous Peoples within health care, and the #SurvivingHate collection of experiences is haunting. And yet nobody is counting the incidents, so we can’t address the problem. The work is not rocket science, but it does require courage. Quebec could sign into law Joyce’s Principle, named after the tragic loss of Joyce Echaquan to racism in a hospital. The principle is essentially this: Indigenous Peoples deserve and require the best possible and culturally safe health care, free of racism. Quebec Bill 32 is the province’s response, but the draft doesn’t name the issue of systemic racism nor enshrine the principle … you really can’t make this stuff up. Quebec, please sign Joyce’s Principle into law and enforce it. Anything less maintains Indigenous patients at higher levels of risk and harms in health care. And then every single province and territory needs to do the same: legislate Joyce’s Principle. This is one time that the feds can’t touch the problem, because the accountability for health care is outside their jurisdiction. Provincial/territorial health-care systems and leaders are responsible for providing services free of racism, yet the ministers of health are likely to refuse naming racism. Nobody has to wait for the elected political leaders here. Health regions, hospitals, and clinics could easily choose to adopt Joyce’s Principle, and then enforce it. It's the enforcement part that makes it real. It’s not just onboarding and training in anti-racism, it’s about accountability for results as measured by the patient. Training alone will not eradicate racism, only terminating for racist behaviour will eradicate racism. There’s some serious fear to this but racism is harassment and every single employer is required to have disciplinary policies for harassment. The problem with tolerated harassment in any organization is that pretty soon, everybody wears it. Health care cannot be known for tolerating harassment nor racism, or the ‘white coat’ will have a completely different meaning sooner than you think. Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradicting the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth. The Hill Times