Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, colleagues and committee members. Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
As you indicated, Madam Chair, I'm joined by my wonderful officials, who have said that they'll be able to stay later, so thank you.
Madam Chair, when we got elected back in 2015, we started a very important conversation in this country about systemic racism and how we can address the impact that discrimination has on Canadians. We know that two in five Canadians say they face discrimination in Canada, and these proportions rise to 50% among indigenous people and to 78% among racialized people. We also know that the rise in hate incidents disproportionately affects indigenous people, Black and racialized people. At the same time, Jewish and Muslim Canadians are also disproportionately being impacted by the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Whether it is online or in our streets, hateful words and actions have a devastating impact on our communities and our country. Whether it is places of worship being attacked, communities being divided or losing loved ones, we have seen first-hand what hate and racism can do. When we look at the pain and damage that hate causes, one thing is clear: We cannot allow hate to go unchecked. The cost of inaction is far too great and, as a government, we have been very clear from the very beginning: Hate, racism and discrimination have absolutely no place in Canada.
We can all agree that every single person in Canada has a right to feel safe, regardless of where they're from, who they love and how they pray. To that end, in the last six months, our government has introduced two historic measures to address the critical situation our country is facing.
In June, we announced Canada's new anti-racism strategy, which is investing over $110 million to fight racism and discrimination, of which $70 million is being invested directly into communities to promote equity and to ensure communities have the resources they need to fight racism and discrimination, and to also break down systemic barriers that racialized Canadians face.
Additionally, just two weeks ago, we launched Canada's first-ever action plan on combatting hate. The plan represents an additional $273-million commitment from our government that is going to support 20 different initiatives that will empower communities to identify and respond to hate, that is going to support victims and protect survivors, and that is going to build community trust and improve institutional readiness within our institutions.
Combined, these two plans represent a whole-of-government approach that is fundamentally about security and unity. This is about being proactive, this is about safety and this is about building trust.
Just to give an example of the kind of work we're talking about, earlier this year I was in Halifax, and there I announced funding of $800,000 for an organization, Imhotep academy, which aims to improve BIPOC representation in STEM by providing after-school tutoring and mentorship for BIPOC youth in Halifax. I had an opportunity to meet a young man named Joshua, who, because of the mentorship he received, is now going to study engineering at Dalhousie University.
He's not the only one. Thanks to the program that we as government have been funding, working alongside community groups, there are 10 times the number of BIPOC students in STEM at Dalhousie University. This is just one of the hundreds of different projects that we have been supporting across this country. They are not just transforming lives; they are transforming and changing communities.
As a government, we are stepping up and doing what any responsible government would do to support communities on the ground and to continue to fight to keep Canadians safe. It is also important to remember that there is only one way to combat hate and racism, and that is to do it together. That is to do it with allies and partners on the ground. It's incumbent upon all of us to stand up against hate and racism and to build a Canada where everyone feels safe, and to reflect that when we work together, we actually bring people along, together. It's not just the right thing to do. It's the Canadian thing to do. That is the vision of Canada that our government is working to build.
I'm happy to take any questions from my colleagues. Thank you, Madam Chair.