Canadian Heritage Committee on April 21st, 2016

[Albert Lo]

Right now we have 10 employees, including the executive director, who is a full-time GIC appointee. Seven of those employees are in permanent positions unrelated to the project grants.

In terms of raising funds, we don't have a particular person dedicated to doing that work, but we have a very committed board of directors. We have a working board, with working committees, who contribute a lot of time. They don't even claim the per diems they're entitled to. As we reach out across the country, we try to capitalize on the individual board members who have networks of people they know and reputations that we leverage a bit in order to drum up more interest.

Eliminating racial discrimination is not exactly a sexy subject with many donors, but we are focusing on the vision—to build an inclusive Canada—and that seems to resonate with more and more people.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes, I think it does.

You state in here that your focus is advancing an understanding and development of approaches to improving race relations and elimination of race discrimination. So how do you do this?

[Albert Lo]

For example, we partnered with the City of Richmond in B.C. For a long time there had been a lot of complaints in the public, in the media, talking about, for example, Chinese language signage. That caused a lot of angst in the local community.

The city partnered with us. We hosted a one-day symposium. We invited, in fact, the people who had launched the complaint to city hall and who had asked for a bylaw to be enacted to ban that kind of signage. I actively reached out to them and invited them to the symposium. At the end of that particular one-day symposium, they felt so good. They told me, “This is the first time we feel we've been heard. We're not racist. So what's the problem?” We also partnered with the media. Many journalists came and helped and participated in this discussion.

This is the direction we are going in, to bring people together and be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I want to congratulate you.

That's all I have. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much. That's right on time.

Now, Mr. Nantel, for the NDP.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Lo and Mr. Friedman, thank you very much for being here with us.

I don't know if everyone here knows this, but according to the documentation I am looking at and the documents the analysts provided us, the Japan-Canada Fund was created specifically to fight racism. The Japanese were victims of segregation at a certain time, weren't they?

[Rubin Friedman]

The fund was created in 1988 following an agreement with Canadians of Japanese origin.

Discrimination against them reached a peak during the Second World War. Racism and discrimination against them and against those who did not look like the majority of citizens continued. However, the worst example of racism in our country was the treatment of Canadians of Japanese origin during the Second World War.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Of course.

[Rubin Friedman]

And yet, in 1988, Canadians of Japanese origin were among the best integrated citizens in our society. They were very successful, with a high standard of

income among the highest of any ethnic group in the country. It's a success story.

However, the Japanese-Canadians wanted to ensure that what happened to them couldn't happen again. That's the purpose of the foundation, not to deal only with the discrimination against the Japanese.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Absolutely, and this is why I asked this question. I think it is important.

I also remember that there was a boat at the museum that was offered by the Japanese community, and we all wonder where it is now.

To make it on a contemporary basis, I want to ask, if you had more money, if you were able to raise more money or have more support from the government, what would be your next big mission or task?

[Rubin Friedman]

In 2012, when we appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, I was asked what major issues were facing Canada. At that time, I said there were two: one was the place of religion in the public sphere; the other was the relationship between the Canadian government and the aboriginal peoples. That hasn't changed. We focus most of our money on those areas now.

If we had more money, we would be able to deal with more issues like the treatment of various peoples in various regions of the country. Not only are we regional in terms of our cultures, but we're also regional in terms of the kinds of racism and discrimination that predominate in any particular area. The kind of racism and discrimination in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is different from what you find in B.C., for things that don't have to do with aboriginal peoples or religion in the public sphere. If we had more money, we would be able to deal with more issues.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

By the way, Mr. Lo, would you know where the Nishga Girl is now—the famous boat that was at the museum?

[A Voice]

Madam Chair, I will answer that.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Okay, I will ask you.

The other thing I want to ask is, what is your day-to-day struggle with the lack of funding that you may suffer with now?

[Albert Lo]

The day-to-day struggle is really that many of our board members, who are part-time appointees, supposedly spend no more than two or three weeks a year for meetings, but I can tell you that I personally spend about two or three hours a day. Those are some of the challenges. We try to fill in the gaps. We don't have the ability to have all of the regional presence, so all the board members in the different regions have to be the soldiers on the ground as well. Those are some of the challenges.

I'm very pleased to mention that in the 2012 committee hearing looking at the special examination report, the committee chair was very lavish with praise. He said at the time that no other organization, agency, or department ever had such a report from the Auditor General. There was not a single recommendation that was needed for any improvement.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

[Albert Lo]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Now we to Mr. Breton, for five minutes.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I welcome our witnesses.

Mr. Lo, your organization has existed for close to 20 years, and you have a very noble mission and vision.

I am curious to know if you had some way of measuring the impact of your actions over the years on racism toward Japanese Canadians. Following the initiatives you have taken, has the situation improved in Canada or has it deteriorated? I know it is not easy to measure such things, but I would like to hear what you have to say.

[Albert Lo]

Several years ago, around 2009, a consultant was hired by the Department of Multiculturalism to look into what we did. Part of the report said that at the time of the report, the foundation was really part of the chorus of protest groups. However, when they looked further, they said that based on the strategic direction that we adopted and the indicators that they had looked at, including the media reports and the surveys that were done across the country with various stakeholders and interested parties, they were beginning to see some hopeful signs.

Of course, then it evolved to the time that we actually had to prove ourselves in order to qualify for some funding in the form of grants and contributions from the department. We were looked at by a host of auditors, not counting the annual audit by the Auditor General and all the surveys. In fact, Postmedia group were so pleased with the work that we did that they decided to partner with us along with the Laurier Institution in Vancouver, for example, and various universities. Our reach is definitely expanding and growing.

People were saying they were excited, particularly young people. A number of them have come knocking on our door wanting to volunteer, because they feel that they can have a place to work and can be part of a solution.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you. What you say is interesting.

You mentioned some of your partners, some universities among others. I would like you to explain how your partners see their role and what their relationship is with you. A lot of immigrants settle in this country, and this has been going on for a number of years. That is a good thing, and we need them. And there are even more who are going to come here over the next few years. Several cities are welcoming some now. We have only to think of the 30,000 Syrians who have arrived in Canada over the past six months.

Can you tell us about your partners, and your relationship with them. I am not interested in the reception of immigrants so much as in your mission to eliminate the racism that might still persist.

[Albert Lo]

Well, in relation to, for example, the refugees and immigrants, we actually met as a board and committees just in the last few weeks. One of the things that was decided upon was that going forward we'll continue to work with the universities and municipalities, and by the way, the foundation is a founding member of the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities against Racism and Discrimination. We have discovered that a lot of work needs to be done in order to help the immigrants and refugees who arrive in this country. As they settle in, we have to work on communicating with them and helping them with settlement and particularly with the youth. If we don't do anything in terms of helping them to understand the systems and practices in Canada and how they can contribute to the best of their ability, there are other forces at work. There's a danger of radicalization. This is an area that we have spent quite a bit of time focusing on as well.

We want to address those issues. Young people need to be engaged. Their creative juices need to be flowing somewhere, and so we are bringing them together and creating, for example, as I mentioned, the Youth Café Canada, which is an example of engaging particularly the young people among the immigrants and the refugee groups.

As far as the universities are concerned, they are very pleased. On March 21, we had Canada Lecture 2016. We hooked up with UBC, University of Ottawa, Université de Montréal, and the Edmunston campus of Moncton University, and it was well attended by students across the country. They were also able to access it and participate through the Internet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Lo. I'm very sorry, but we went a little over the five minutes there. I wanted you to answer the question.

Thank you very much. We've come to the end of our question session.

I wanted to take the opportunity to ask you a question. I have a deep sense of interest in the Race Relations Foundation, since I was the minister who launched the Race Relations Foundation longer ago than I would care to remember. This is what I wanted to know. You're called the Race Relations Foundation, but I've heard Mr. Friedman say there is more. There's now religion that is becoming an issue we need to look at. How do you see yourself evolving? I'm very interested in the progress and evolution of your group.

First, how do you see yourself evolving to include things such as religious discrimination? How do you see yourself broadening to look at LGBTQ discrimination? These are strong areas of discrimination, some of which include violence, so I'd like to know where you see your role in moving forward in that evolutionary process.

My second question is about public awareness. I think there used to be a high profile for the Race Relations Foundation at one time in terms of your public awareness. How are you using digital media and how are you working with television, etc., to make sure that more than just youth know what you're doing, so that schools know what you're doing and that the public by and large is informed by your work and is able to see your awareness programs going further?

[Albert Lo]

First of all, on racial discrimination, years ago it started out based on nationality, then it was skin colour, and then it just morphed, and eventually has become framed now in the context of religion. So really, religion is.... We're looking at the fact that underneath it is racism, but it's framed in the religious narrative. That's part of the mandate, in fact. Racial discrimination and how to deal with it is the mandate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

What do you do about that religious piece?