Home / Commentary / African-Canadian Community Must Hold Politicians’ Feet To The Fire

African-Canadian Community Must Hold Politicians’ Feet To The Fire

By Lincoln Depradine
Pride Contributing Writer

One can get a sense of who – and what – are important to political leaders and candidates seeking electoral office, by listening to their campaign speeches.

We are in the political season in Canada, with various forthcoming elections at the local, provincial and federal levels.

In a recent commentary published in this newspaper, I suggested a political cultural change among African-Canadians, urging them to become more active as voters and candidates.

It’s also important for our community leaders, irrespective of political persuasion, to try and get issues of concern to African-Canadians to be addressed specifically by the politicians.

For example, a sore issue in the community at the moment is police profiling of African-Canadians and other people of colour. A campaign, which includes legal action, is ongoing in an attempt to stop the police practice.

The community now must hold politicians’ feet to the fire, demanding of those whose names are on various ballots – especially candidates aspiring to be mayor, premier and prime minister – to publicly state their positions on police “carding,’’ and what measures they would take, if any, in eliminating it.

I listened to Justin Trudeau, leader of the Federal Liberal Party, addressing members at their annual convention on February 22.

He was typically eloquent and charming Trudeau; a chip off the old block, so to speak.

He pointedly mentioned a range of things, but nothing directly about the unique challenges facing Black folks in Toronto and other parts of Canada.

Trudeau talked about “senate reform’’, for instance, and the “bold and ambitious’’ action he took to “improve the institution’’.

He discussed  the “historic decline’’ of Canada’s middle class and how Liberals will build a “sustainable economy’’; the education expense burden confronting youth in Quebec and other Canadian cities; and of the opportunity “to build a true partnership with Aboriginal peoples’’.

And, Trudeau painted a beautiful picture of a young Canadian woman, arbitrarily named “Nathalie’’.

“She works hard,’’ says Trudeau, “maybe in an office in old Montreal; maybe at a retail outlet along Sainte-Catherine Street. She makes $40,000 a year. It’s about what her spouse makes, too. She sits in traffic a lot. Often on the Champlain Bridge, wondering – after all that she has heard and read – how safe it is. She’s worried about whether her kids – who are, of course, growing up too fast – will get a fair shot at good jobs.

“She’s bothered by the debt she’s carrying. She wonders how she will ever retire that debt in time to get a real chance to retire herself. She volunteers for her kids’ school. Maybe she supervises a field trip, maybe she cuts up oranges for her daughter’s soccer team….She’s anxious about her future, probably even more so for her kids’ future.’’

The trouble is that no matter how rough things are for Trudeau’s “Nathalie’’, it likely is compounded for Toronto-based African-Canadian “Nathalie’’, because of her race.

Empirical evidence exists that demonstrates the difficulty that qualified Black men and women encounter in finding good-paying jobs. And often when they do, or are lucky to land one at even $40,000, they frequently hit a ceiling where neither salary increase nor job promotion is experienced.

There is compelling data on this phenomenon in a report compiled last year by a working group that included representatives from the Jamaican-Canadian Association and Tropicana Community Services.

It must not be that African-Canadian concerns are simply lumped together in a general category of addressing issues of “ethnic minorities’’. The danger in that is that more “minorities’’ may be hired tomorrow to work in the federal public service, at Queen’s Park, Toronto City Hall, or at the corporate head office of our most profitable companies.

But, it’s possible that there’s hardly a dent in the high unemployment rate among African-Canadians because none of the newly hired is Black.

All groups take care of their special interest needs by lobbying hard and are not bashful about their political action. African-Canadians ought to adopt the same attitude.

It is not enough for some politician to show up, once in a while, at a community event or to speak at an annual function of one of our organizations.

It’s time to insist that our concerns are included on their agendas, and to demand more tangible benefits for them. After all, we are only demanding those things to which we are entitled.

Justin Trudeau put it best when he told the Liberal Party convention: “It makes no difference where you were born or where you came from, what language you speak, or how long you have been a Canadian citizen. There is no us and them in this country. There is only us’’.

Now, African-Canadians must ensure that these words, spoken by Trudeau and others when they are in election campaign mode, are translated into jobs for Black parents and their children; in investment in infrastructural development in communities where many of us live; and in ending all forms of racism and discrimination, including police profiling.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Scroll To Top