Certainly in the work we do we have seen numerous problems with the education of African Canadian children. I think it's well documented that drop-out rates are extremely high.
Within Toronto itself there has been a huge debate as to whether the public education system has failed African Canadian children, and it's pretty clear that it has. There was a debate around the Afrocentric school. I think all those problems are pretty well documented and accepted.
In our view, there are additional barriers to reducing poverty when you have undereducated children, high drop-out rates, and kids going through the applied stream instead of the academic stream and not getting the education they deserve. Safe schools legislation is resulting in kids being suspended and education being interrupted. We've seen the impact of that as well. That feeds into the cycle of poverty. When kids are not in school, where are they in the community? Who is safe? What is out there for them?
Part of what we're trying to say today is that it is multi-sectored. We have to look at the whole issue of racism--not just the economic circumstances, but what leads to that.