Inequality In Canada

Even today racism still exists in Canada, whether it is at the mall or somewhere else, the effects

A closer in depth analysis into Canada’s justice system will show that their acceptance of all cultures did not leak through to the confinements of its courts. Why it is that one race or class is more likely to be an inmate? From a racial standpoint,

In March of 2012, a white power rally in Edmonton drew out a dozen or two members of the Blood and Honour racist group. They were met and peaceably challenged by hundreds of participants in an anti-racism rally, which was "coincidental" (Dykstra). Therefore Canada still does have lurking racism, but in its overt forms it is socially unacceptable. This paper will address the overt forms of racism evident in Canada, which include hate groups like Blood and Honour. However, it is the covert forms of racism and bias that threaten to undermine the social fabric of Canada.

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

Racial inequality inside of Canadian prisons is shocking and sometimes unbelievable when taken into account the percentage a minority group takes up in Canada’s overall population versus behind bars. The injustices against Canada’s First Nations people are unfortunately not just historic, as their mistreatment is still evident today. Despite representing only 3% of the population, First Nations account for about 25% of the prison population in provincial/territorial facilities. More specifically, 31% of the female population, and 22% of the male population were First Nations in 2015. More than one in five admissions to men’s prisons are of Aboriginal descent, and one in three in women’s prisons. Although it can be said that more and more attention has been drawn to this issue by citizens and politicians alike recently, First Nations people continue to suffer from poverty, injustice, and a lack of opportunities compared to the average Canadian citizen. About one in four native children live in poverty, leading to criminal activity, and eventually

Racism is very prevalent in today’s society against Indigenous people in Canada. They face many forms of individual and institutionalized racism. According to LaRocque, Racism is prejudice or discrimination based on the belief that one or one 's group is innately or genetically superior to another. Racists believe that “race” determines qualities such as intelligence, innovation, creativity and even morality” (N.D). People have been taught the stereotypes of Indigenous people whether it be from the educational system, health system, court system and many other institutions in Canada.

Canada before working towards becoming a just society was a very discriminative place. During the events of World War One,WWI black and Chinese Canadians were prevented from joining the war along with aboriginals. Women were treated the same at the time, it was common for most women to stay at home wives and take care of the children. This was the stereotypical family at the time and was believed to be the ideal family too. Canadians thought poorly of minorities and even claimed it was to keep them safe, the aboriginals were an example, Canadians claimed the enemies might believe that they are savages which was a reflection of how they truly felt. Minorities were clearly being treated worse than the majority, they were seen as inferior and only good for

Another stereotype is that all Canadians are socialists or democrats. While we may be more sympathetic to or tending toward the left in politics in general than The U.S., Canada is a long distance from an egalitarian(meaning equal or equalism), capitalist-hating community, as revealed by our Prime Minister for the last eight years. Yes we have gay marriage and universal health care, but on a way less impressive note, we also have wealth inequality that rivals other

“You’re nothing but a dog… not a thing but a dog" (Hughes, 1944). Comparing a human life to a mutt was the reality for many that were enslaved in Canada. In comparison to Canada's southern partner, The United States, we are seen as a community that has always contained equality; but this ideology could not be more distorted. Canadians are blindly following this misconception that racism is not prominent in Canada; although the history of the nation evidently shows that this unjust practice was inflicted upon multiple ethnic groups. Naturally, there are specific groups that are burdened by this issue more than others. Such as the African Americans who migrated to British North America, hoping that they would be granted freedom and equality.

A few years ago in Smalltown, CA a burning cross was placed in the lawn of a visible minority family. Although the media seemed shocked at this explicit racial attack and portrayed the attackers as a group of abnormal, twisted deviants, I was not surprised. As an Asian student who is writing her Sociology honours thesis on visible minorities in Canada, I know on a personal and academic level that racism in Canada does exist. Although explicit racial incidents are not a common occurrence, they do happen. Here at school, a visible minority student left the school when a car sped past her, while the young men inside shouted racial slurs. Two weeks ago The school paper published an article about a group of

Canada is internationally renowned for its commitment to multiculturalism. In fact, Canada was the first nation to officially adopt a multicultural policy. However, while the Canadian government has developed a broad-based multicultural mandate that includes a national human rights code and increased penalties for hate-motivated crimes, and most Canadians oppose overt forms of discrimination and hate, racism continues to exist in Canadian society, albeit in a subtle fashion.

Canada’s history is packed with many examples of intolerable acts of racism. These acts of racism are projected towards the Indians and immigrants. In 1608, the Indians already occupied the land when Samuel de Champlain first arrived in Canada. The Indians became valuable allies. The Europeans relied on the Indian’s tools and skills, in order for them to survive in Canada.

As of 2009, racialized Canadians have an employment rate 2.4% higher than non-racialized Canadians. Racialized Canadians are also more likely to make less, earning 81.4 cents for every $1 made by non-racialized Canadians. There is a common belief that Canada contains less racism than their neighbours to the south could be one of the greatest falsehoods of the North American Society today.

Studies that have been conducted to examine the level of access and employment inequity experienced by minority groups show that with equivocal levels of education and work experience, job applicants who have an English sounding name are requested for an interview up to forty percent more than their competing job applicants who have a Indian, Pakistani, or Chinese sounding name (TIEDI, 2011). Furthermore, the dismissal of the African-Canadian woman discussed earlier is not as surprising when one takes into account that in Toronto, arguably Canada’s most multicultural city; those of African-American descent reported one of the highest amounts of discrimination in relation to those of other visible minorities (TIEDI, 2011). The deduction that can be made then is that there still persists to be a belief that there is a correlation between one’s racial background and their perceived ability to do a job as effectively as that of their Caucasian or other dominant racial counterparts. Such a belief greatly hinders Canada’s workplace as it fails to utilize the skill-sets, knowledge, and qualifications of visible minority individuals that would otherwise benefit the community, and it largely damages one’s ability to integrate into Canadian society as a functioning member treated with equal regard,

The role of Critical Race Theory provides us with the idea of “racial realism”, the idea that racism, the normalcy of white supremacy is part of the everyday life of an ‘other’, in other words, racial or indigenous minorities in Canada. Consequently, the Critical Race Theory gives an understanding of the power that can be given to a definition such as ‘race’, and how heavily influence the way society functions and sparked in a cultural divide in Canada due to the simple idea that biological and aesthetic difference. The Critical Race Theory gives us the understanding of how common it is for an individual, but most dominantly, a person who is Caucasian or who has light complexion can easily identifies with their ‘race’, and view a person of another colored complexion as an ‘other’ because this normalized.