Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair and committee members. I appear here today on behalf of the African Canadian Legal Clinic. The ACLC was established in 1994. Our mandate is quite specific. We are a non-profit organization committed to combatting systemic and institutional anti-black

Canadian Heritage committee  When I pulled the information I mentioned today, it was from the justice institute for statistics collection, I believe, the Juristat. The way it was presented, it seemed as though it's applicable across the country. I'm not sure how that data was collected and whether or not tha

Canadian Heritage committee  I haven't read that document, but I am familiar with its existence.

Canadian Heritage committee  I am not sure. There's no date on the document itself. I don't know when the document was published or when its distribution began. What I can do is collect answers to questions I'm unable to answer today and get back to you.

Canadian Heritage committee  The proliferation of negative ideas, stereotypes, hateful information, and hateful beliefs over the Internet makes it difficult to tackle the issue. I believe the Canadian Human Rights Act used to have a section—I think it was section 13—that could have been used as a recourse by

Canadian Heritage committee  Sorry, what's the most important step...?

Canadian Heritage committee  Right. I really do think that at this current time, continuing to publicly denounce these acts is of vital importance. Leadership and action from the federal level is critical to presenting to the general public the perception that the government really cares and that the governm

Canadian Heritage committee  Those are both fundamental and very important aspects to any success that would come from introducing and developing a national action plan to combat racism. The original plan had both of those things. There was an accountability element and a mechanism for reporting, and there w

Canadian Heritage committee  I do. I think a racial equality lens is necessary in order to really understand the ways in which various policies and programs are impacting individuals from different racial groups. The important thing to recognize—and really the only way you can get to this recognition is th

Canadian Heritage committee  It would take 15 minutes. I think this came up before, but I think it's important to work with community organizations, community leaders, people in different community groups who hold a position of trust within that community, and work with those individuals and those groups in

Canadian Heritage committee  In my view, and to be completely frank, I haven't read the entire document back to front. I've zoned in on specific sections. In the section I zoned in on in terms of the reported number of race-based crimes and violent crimes, I didn't see anything in terms of numbers of perpetr

Canadian Heritage committee  Of course.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can send those along as well.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a lot of the bread and butter of what our organization does. We have stood as a voice for those individuals who are facing visits from child welfare agencies. We have people calling us regularly. A lot of times what you will see is a situation of, for example, parents wh

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, there's that as well. In terms of what our organization has been doing to try to combat these issues, we try to bring them up. We lobby government. We've worked with the Children's Aid Society. We've met with the Toronto District School Board, for example.