The Transformative Energy of Black Lives Matter

As we experience the transformative energy of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping around the world, it is a critical moment to reflect on unconscious bias and the racist assumptions which affect Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities in our own city and country.  It’s not an easy thing to do.  Our cultural tendency to view things through the lens of the individual blinds us to much of what’s going on in society, including systemic racism. It can also blind us to the graced potential for transformation which exists even within imperfect social actions such as protests marred by the violence of a few.  The challenge is to focus on and follow the graced energy for transformation which is working to bring about greater wholeness and justice. In that spirit, we revisit this short excerpt from a 2019 newsletter from the Federation Office for Systemic Justice.

Robin DiAngelo, who is white, wrote a book called White Fragility (2018). She insists that white people are all racist, and whites who think they’re not racist cause the most damage of all. DiAngelo explains “we are taught to think about racism only as discrete acts committed by individual people, rather than as a complex, interconnected system”.

The individual framing of the issue means we can focus on changing a few individuals who say or do hateful things. It means we don’t have to examine our own unconscious racist assumptions. It means society doesn’t have to change, just individual ‘bad’ persons.

In our society, whites have held, and continue to hold, nearly all the positions of social, political, and economic power. So, the pre-judgements (thoughts, feelings and assumptions into which we are socialized) which whites tend to hold about people of colour have become institutionalized; that is, white prejudice has shaped the structures and systems of our society.

DiAngelo points to a New York Times article from 2016 which illumines the degree to which white people still hold the seats of power. The article is based on the U.S. context but is relevant to Canada. Here are a few examples:

• Ten richest people - 100% white

• Highest-levels of politics – 90% white

• People who decide which television shows are available – 93% white

• People who decide which books are available – 90% white

• People who decide which news is covered – 85% white

• Teachers – 82% white

These statistics reveal “power and control by a racial group that is in the position to disseminate and protect its own self-image, worldview, and interests across the entire society”. Whiteness becomes the norm, while other races are ‘othered.’ The impacts can be devastating:

• Racialized people in Canada are significantly more likely to live in poverty. The 2016 Census showed that 20.8% of peoples of colour are low-income compared to 12.2% of non-racialized people.

• In 2015, there was a 69% high school graduation rate for Black students and 50% for Indigenous students, versus 84% for White students.

• People of colour living in Ontario have higher unemployment rates than White residents. Racialized men are 24% more likely to be unemployed than non-racialized men. Racialized women are 43% more likely to be unemployed than non-racialized men.

(https://colourofpoverty.ca/)

 -Sister Sue Wilson, csj

#HealthCare4All

We are proud to support the National Healthcare for All Coalition's open letter on healthcare calling for #healthcare4all, regardless of immigration status. We join over 200 organizations signing to show their support. You can too! https://migrantrights.ca/healthforall/

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World Day of Social Justice

I’ll confess, I don’t usually pay much attention to awareness-raising days which come around once a year to draw our attention to an issue.  But this week my attention was drawn to two days which occur side by side:  World Day of Social Justice on February 20^th and Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Ontario on February 21^st.  Together, these two days do more than simply call our attention to an issue.  They dialogue with each other.

If we use the lens of social justice to examine human trafficking, we are reminded that human trafficking is not just a criminal activity, and we can’t prevent human trafficking simply by prosecuting criminals and raising awareness.  Rather, it’s critical to focus on the social, economic and cultural factors which create vulnerabilities to being trafficked: social exclusion, poverty, lack of education and job opportunities, racism, and gender bias, weak mental health and addiction services, to name a few. 

These factors highlight a lack of access to human rights.  The good news is, this means there are structural changes which would go a long way toward preventing this exploitation: robust social protections (living wage, basic income guarantee, adequate shelter, health care, and access to ongoing education and skills-training), strong labour standards with frequent inspections, and more pathways to permanent residency. 

In other words, better access to human rights is the best way to prevent human trafficking --- and many other injustices.  All we need is the political will to make it happen.  

-Sister Sue Wilson, csj

The Pen Is Stronger Than the Sword

On December 10^th, a group of Sisters of St. Joseph (pictured) met in London, Ontario to once again join Amnesty International’s annual Write for Rights campaign.  Each year, we feel a sense of solidarity knowing that thousands around the world are joining the writing force to bring to world leaders’ attention the many global individuals who are unjustly accused of wrongdoing and to appeal for their release.

This year, one of the issues upon which I wrote to the Canadian government is the ongoing mercury poisoning crisis of the Grassy Narrows First Nations, a northern Ontario Native community near Kenora. In the 1960s, the government allowed 10 tons of waste from a pulp mill to be dumped into their English and Wabigoon river system. Fifty years later, in a youth led campaign and supported by Amnesty International, the Grassy Narrows people are still fighting for justice in the face of ongoing mercury poisoning.

Lest you think that our letters fall on deaf ears, Amnesty provides us with updates on how people who have been wrongly accused have been released from prison due in part to bringing to government our concerns and the call for release of victims from prison.  For instance, The Amnesty website posted that Eskiner Nega, a renowned Ethiopian journalist who had been jailed over nine times for doing his job, was released in 2018.  Mr. Nega writes, “I received letters of support from Amnesty International.  It helped keep up my morale and it lifted the spirits of my family.  I am glad I inspired people to write. I am proud of that.  Nothing beats the written word”.

Although letter writing takes some time and effort, our group netted 96 letters.  Written support of others is time well spent, knowing that a every act performed with love and commitment helps to bring peace and change to a troubled world.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Letter to Minister MacLeod

Office for Systemic Justice

Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada

London, ON, N6A 4X3

August 1, 2018

The Honourable Lisa MacLeod

Minister of Children, Community and Social Services,

Queens Park, Toronto ON M7A 1E9

Dear Minister MacLeod,

We are writing to urge the Ontario government to restore the Basic Income Pilot Project and the planned 3% increase to OW and ODSP benefits.

In April 2018, the Toronto Star reported that the Ford Campaign guaranteed it would keep the Basic Income Pilot Project.  The people participating in this program have made life-altering decisions based on the guarantee that this income would be available for a 3-year period.  People have gone back to school, found safe housing, started job-training programs and re-connected with the wider community.  Simple fairness demands that they be allowed to complete this pilot project.  The completion and review of the project also will enable the Ontario government to take an evidence-based approach to employment participation in Ontario.

Rolling back the increase to OW and ODSP from 3% to 1.5% means that, once again, the increase will fall below the rate of inflation.  This means recipients will fall further behind and be further marginalized from participation in the Ontario economy and society.  This decision doesn’t just hurt Ontarians who received these benefits, it hurts our economy and society.  Past research studies have shown that such marginalizing policies increase health care costs, exacerbate mental health concerns, erode a person’s capacity to participate in the labour market and tear apart the fabric of our communities.  Given that the tax cuts will offer most Ontario families only about $18 extra per year, the painful costs of these tax cuts are not worth it.

Finally, we call on the Ontario government to cease immediately the scapegoating rhetoric about fraud amongst recipients of social assistance.  When this harmful rhetoric was used in the 1990s, police investigated and found that the rate of fraud was, in fact, quite low; lower than tax fraud among the general population and lower than corporate fraud.  

We measure well-being and progress in Ontario not by increasing the wealth of the wealthiest but by ensuring that each of us has access to the resources and opportunities which are fundamental to participation in our society.  We expect all levels of government to work collaboratively to make this a reality.