Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate Hosting Public Meetings
Posted: July 13, 2016
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario
Have your say! Public Meeting July 14
The Ontario Government’s new Anti-Racism Directorate headed by MPP Michael Coteau, Don Valley East wants to hear from the public about how we work together to address structural racism in our communities. Meetings are scheduled throughout the province starting with the first gathering July 14, 7-9 p.m., Daniels Spectrum in Toronto.
Future meetings will be held in Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Windsor, London, and the Greater Toronto Area. Complete meeting schedule will be available from the Directorate. Everyone is welcome. American Sign Language and French translation are available.
The Anti-Racism Directorate was created in 2016 both to address and to prevent systemic racism in government policy, programs, and services. It seeks to eliminate the barriers caused by systemic racism for Indigenous and racialized communities through policy and advocacy work, education, collaboration, and sustainable governance.
Impact of Structural Racism on Food Systems
As Holt-Giménez and Harper explain, racism—the systemic mistreatment of people based on their ethnicity or skin color—affects all aspects of our society, including our food systems. Racism is not just an individual’s prejudice reflected in individual acts, racism is structural system of oppression. Growing Food and Justice for all Initiative defines racism as racial prejudice + power; racial and cultural prejudice and discrimination are supported intentionally or unintentionally by institutional power and authority, used to the advantage of one race and the disadvantage of other races.
The impact of structural racism is evident in food and farm employment and food insecurity:
- Ongoing unequal treatment of ethnic minority farm workers stemming from long history of abuse despite recent human rights legislation.
- Predominance of people of colour in “pre-industrial” food production processes while under-represented in more advanced stages of value chain.
- Farm workers often work under exploitative conditions, with little pay, inability to refuse unsafe work, and restrictions on their ability to collectively organize for their rights.
- Low rates of pay affect workers ability to buy food, which has lead to over 63% of seasonal farm workers being food insecure and half of agriculture workers relying on government assistance for food.
- In Canada statistics show that food insecurity is highest among recent immigrant households constituted primarily by people of colour.
- Aboriginal households have food insecurity rates three times higher than the average Canadian household.
How to get involved
- Learn more about structural racism, and how racism is ingrained within our food system. For parents and teachers, there are many great resources on how to talk about racism with children and youth.
- Remember it’s a process! Being open and willing to learn from our mistakes, and open to hearing about how individuals may unintentionally contribute to a racist system, and how they can work towards becoming positive contributors to transformation.
- Join the public conversations in your community and in events like these across the province.
- Support organizations that are working with an anti-racism agenda toward equitable and healthy communities (see below).
Building Healthy and Equitable Food Systems in Ontario
The barriers sited by the Directorate are many of the same identified by food and farming organizations throughout the province that are working to build equitable, food secure environments. Visit these Sustain Ontario members and partners to learn more about work on systemic issues impacting food security:
The Stop Community Food Centre
Social Planning Council of Greater Sudbury Community Development
Food Charters from communities around Ontario often also address underlying causes of food insecurity including racism and other forms of economic or social exclusion as they seek to build healthy, equitable and food secure environments.