Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society - Lobbying Initiatives

Lobbying Initiatives

Five foreign trained medical doctors began a hunger strike in 1990 to draw attention to discrimination in the allocation of medical internships in the province of British Columbia, Canada. In response to a request from the doctors, CAERS and other representatives met with Bill Vander Zalm, then Premier of the province, and John Jensen, then Minister of Health, to demand that the Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons provide equal access for immigrant doctors to internship programs. A report on the demands was written. Meetings were also arranged with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and political opposition parties. Failing to achieve equal access, a complaint was made to the BC Human Rights Tribunal alleging discrimination in the allocation of internships by the BC Ministry of Health, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Hospitals. In 1999, the Tribunal ruled that foreign trained doctors were discriminated against by the College based on place of origin, but that Hospitals and the BC Ministry of Health had not discriminated.

In 1990, CAERS was invited to address the House of Commons legislative committee on proposed legislation to create the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) as part of a reparations settlement for the internment of Japanese-Canadian during World War II. CAERS' submission was that the name of the CRRF was inappropriate and should not reflect popular misconceptions about the biological significance of the concept of “race” in socio-economic relations. CAERS also argued that careful measures were needed to ensure that the Foundation would be at arms length from Government and that it should be a national voice on anti-racism to aid and support NGOs in the development of sustainable anti-racism initiatives.

In 1990, CAERS was requested to administer funding from the Canadian Labour Force Development Board to establish a national visible minority reference group for labour force development. The National Visible Minority (NVMC) arose from that funding.

The growth of hate groups and the widespread distribution of hate propaganda throughout North America, particularly in the early 1990s, led CAERS to lobby the Government of Canada to strengthen and broaden hate crime legislation, improve policing and lobby the various Attorneys General in each province to lay charges under the Criminal Code since the consent of the AG is a required before charges under the Criminal Code of Canada for the production and distribution of hate propaganda and advocating genocide can be laid. No charges had been made to then for the production or distribution of hate propaganda under the Criminal Code. To assess the degree of the problem and proposed solutions, CAERS convened an international conference on racism, hate crime and the law funded by the province of British Columbia. In response to a request from the Department of Justice, CAERS prepared a report on the production and distribution of hate material by white supremacist organizations.

Based on the recommendations of the Racism, Hate Crime and the Law conference and the report prepared for the Department of Justice, CAERS began lobbying the Attorney General of BC to establish a dedicated policing unit focusing on hate crime. The first hate crime unit in Canada was soon formed with representation from various police forces in the province and the Community Liaison Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General and in 1998 the Attorney General of BC gave CAERS an award for exposing the head of the KKK and for providing public education on how to stop the spread of racism. However, no charges were laid against the Klan under the Criminal Code.

In 1997, CAERS warned that the Heritage Front and Odin’s Law were establishing themselves in Surrey and in Vancouver’s Eastend and that violence would ensue. On January 4, 1998 five racist skinheads kicked to death Mr. Nirmal Singh Gill outside the Guru Nanack temple. CAERS was requested to develop a manual on combatting hate groups with funding from the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Neo-Nazi and other extremist groups have historically used public facilities for meetings because of their low cost and because they lend credibility to their cause. (pic) In response to the use of publicly funded facilitates by hate groups, CAERS began lobbying all levels of government and holding demonstrations outside libraries. In response, the BC Library Association argued that libraries were independent of government control and that freedom of speech had no limits when libraries were concerned. The controversy about the responsible use of tax-payer supported institutions versus free speech generated a great deal of debate and a number of important motions by various city councils to develop acceptable use policy for publicly funded institutions. A complaint to the Ombudsman of BC resulted in the recommendation that libraries in BC issue a written statement of acceptable use regarding meeting room rental much like the acceptable use policy governing computer use and sexually explicit images and that persons using libraries comply with all federal, provincial and municipal legislation and regulations. The Library board chair called the Ombudsman’s recommendations ludicrous.

In response to a request from the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services (MCAW) in 2004, Alan Dutton represented CAERS on a steering committee to establish a strategic direction on anti-racism and multiculturalism for British Columbia. The committee developed a “Blueprint for Change” document that was to guide ministry programs and activities for the next three to five years. Despite the representation by CAERS and other NGOs, the Government of BC ignored the major recommendations of the committee and began to isolate itself from grass roots organizations and NGOs in favour of five or six large immigrant settlement agencies in the province and to develop a Safe Harbour program without teeth, accountability or grass-roots community support. CAERS viewed the program as a fundamental shift from anti-racism to symbolic multiculturalism.

In 2007 the Department of Justice Canada conducted a national study to develop recommendations to better respond to hate on the Net, or cyber hate. A national conference was held in Toronto to examine the recommendations from the study. CAERS lobbied against one national hot line because of competing interests and definitions and for support of community hot lines and proactive measures to counter-act cyber hate and the recruitment of youth into extremist groups.