The Broadbent Institute supports a class-action lawsuit that has been filed in the Federal Court of Canada on behalf of nearly 30,000 past and present Black federal employees. The lawsuit seeks long-term solutions to permanently address systemic racism and discrimination in the Public Service of Canada.

The lawsuit argues that systemic racism directed at self-identifying Black employees who work for or with the Public Service of Canada led to tangible damages such as the wrongful failure to promote, intentional infliction of mental suffering, constructive dismissal, wrongful termination, and violations of human rights law and Charter breaches.

Anti-Black racism is prevalent in Canadian society. Countless quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal research has documented the negative and discriminatory treatment of Black people in Canada - the federal government has even acknowledged it. If the government is to truly address anti-Black racism it must include how it treats its Black employees. The government needs to do all it can to right these wrongs and ensure they never happen again, starting with the implementation of recommendations that the government has received through various internal advocacy campaigns on how to address the anti-Black racism and the under-representation of Black workers in senior roles.

“We are committed to realizing the promise of Canada as a diverse, just, and inclusive society and addressing systemic anti-Black racism is one way we will help achieve it,” says Jen Hassum, Executive Director of the Broadbent Institute. “Now is the time to actively dismantle the historic and ongoing structural barriers that prevent people from having a life of dignity and realizing their full rights. This is why we stand with Black public service workers and their unions in supporting this class action lawsuit.”

For Black History Month, the Institute hosts a policy series highlighting bold policy solutions in order to tackle anti-Black racism, focusing on the need for intergovernmental action. Each submission proposes a plan for governments to work together to tackle a problem; while serving as a guide for advocates working towards [what should be] our collective effort to eradicate anti-Black racism.

For Black History Month, the Institute hosts a policy series highlighting bold policy solutions in order to tackle anti-Black racism, focusing on the need for intergovernmental action. Each submission proposes a plan for governments to work together to tackle a problem; while serving as a guide for advocates working towards [what should be] our collective effort to eradicate anti-Black racism.

During my time as Executive Director at FoodShare, and in leadership positions in previous organizations, I’ve come to learn the importance of creating a work structure that not only dismantles systems of oppression, but also works to reduce wide-scale inequality. 

As a follow-up to a blogpost by Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto Sandy Hudson on policy options for defunding the police and creating alternative services of safety and support, we've put together a resource list of further background information on the subject of divesting from the police and reinvesting in communities:

Podcasts 

1. CBC's Front Burner: Defunding police: what it means and how it could work
2. CBC's The Current: June 9, 2020
3. Now Magazine's Now What: The Case for Defunding the Police, Explained
4. CBC's Party Lines: Who feels served and protected?
5. Sandy and Nora: Abolish the police
6. Toronto Star's This Matters: Desmond Cole and the case for defending the police
7. Bad and Bitchy: Episode 92

Talks/Segments

1. TVO's The Agenda: The fight to end anti-Black racism (featuring Kike Ojo, Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, Sandy Hudson & Roger Dundas)
2. TVO's The Agenda: What does defunding the police really mean (featuring, Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, Lori Anne Thomas, Michael Bryant)
3. The Broadbent Institute Progress Summit: Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard
4. TED x Talks: Skin I'm In: Policing, Injustice & Youth Defiance | Scot Wortley & Akwasi Owusu-Bempah 

Print

1. Excessive Force: Toronto's Fight to Reform City Policing - Alok Mukherjee with Tim Harper (Book)
2. Policing Black Lives - Robyn Maynard (Book)
3. Policy Options for Defunding the Police & Creating Alternative Services of Safety and Support - Sandy Hudson (Policy guide, Broadbent Institute) 
4. Divest from Police, Invest in Communities - Anthony Morgan (Policy commentary, Broadbent Institute)
5. Are we ready to talk about defunding the police? - Alok Mukherjee (Opinion, Globe and Mail)
6. Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada - Sandy Hudson (Opinion, Huffington Post)
7. For Black people calling the police can be dangerous. It’s time we had another option - Angelyn Francis (Opinion, Toronto Star)
8. Defund Police? Dismantle Them? What Then? - Crawford Kilian (Analysis, The Tyee)
9. Do I believe we can have a police-free future in our lifetime? Absolutely”: Policing expert Robyn Maynard (Q&A, Toronto Life)
10. Op-ed: In Defunding The Police, We Cannot Forget Black Womxn (Samantha Peters and Danait Mehreteab, Anti-hate Network)
11. Before you "defund" the police (Open letter to Toronto City Council) - Zero Gun Violence 
12. Abolish The Police: The Financial Cost Of Law Enforcement In Prairie Cities (Emily Riddle, Yellowhead Institute)

News

1. CTV: What defunding the police could look like in Canada's largest city 

Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis by kneeling on his neck until he couldn’t breathe—while knowingly being filmed. Regis Korchinski-Paquet died after police arrived to her Toronto home, responding to a call to support a mental health crisis. Brampton’s D’Andre Campbell was shot and killed by police on his front lawn while experiencing a mental health crisis. Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation woman, Chantel Moore was killed by police in New Brunswick while they were performing a wellness check. Many people who are hearing about these incidents are considering—for the first time—what Black people mean when we call for defunding the police. The call demands that we divest funding from police services and invest in other programs that are better equipped to deliver the safety and security needs of our society. The support for this call has been overwhelming. A cursory critical survey of the services that police provide show that police generally fail at executing their purported function. This moment calls for us to seriously consider what sort of policy changes are necessary to accomplish our goal of divesting from this anti-Black institution, and reinvesting in crucial social services.

Filipino Workers on the Frontlines During COVID19 Globally and in Canada

Warlito Valdez. Amor Padilla Gatinao. Daisy Dorinilla. Debbie Accad. Leilani Medel. Christine Mandegarian. 

These are just a few of the names of Filipino nurses, personal support workers, and caregivers in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, who have died after providing frontline support to clients and patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and private residences. The need to fill in job vacancies for health care personnel in migrant-receiving countries like Canada, and the existence of a labour brokerage policy that make the ‘export’ of labour and transfer of payment to home countries a vital part of migrant-sending countries’ [like the Philippines] economic growth strategy, compel thousands of Filipinos to seek jobs as migrant workers. Because many Filipino migrant workers go abroad to become care workers, the Philippines has effectively created what author and historian Catherine Ceniza Choy describes as an “Empire of Care”.

To what extent should urban neighbourhoods and local businesses be impacted by the construction of transit or other infrastructure projects?

For Black History Month, the Institute launched a policy series highlighting bold policy solutions in order to tackle anti-Black racism, focusing on the need for intergovernmental action. Each submission proposes a plan for governments to work together to tackle a problem; while serving as a guide for advocates working towards [what should be] our collective effort to eradicate anti-Black racism.

This excerpt has been condensed and re-ordered from its original text [Submission to the B.C. Government on Accessibility Legislation] in order to provide a concise historical analysis of the colonial inception of Canada and its devastating impacts on Black and Indigenous peoples. Find the full report here.

For Black History Month, the Institute launched a policy series highlighting bold policy solutions in order to tackle anti-Black racism, focusing on the need for intergovernmental action. Each submission proposes a plan for governments to work together to tackle a problem; while serving as a guide for advocates working towards [what should be] our collective effort to eradicate anti-Black racism.