This is the time of year when so many best-of lists are produced. Best movies, books, television shows. Best classic rock songs (although I don't know what that has to do with 2020), best plays, best bloopers, the lists go on and on.
I thought I would add one more list to the many that are circulating and reflect on things that I found most frustrating as we went through 2020. My list focuses primarily on things in the social injustice area. I have to admit that I found my irritations around a number of these items growing and becoming much more intense as the year wore on. I think my vexations mirror what I have described in my other posts, particularly wellness and activism. I had been aware of these frustrations for a while, but for whatever reason (lack of focus or interest, not taking the time), they did not create the level of annoyance that I experienced in 2020. Like my wellness or lack of activism, I can say I had some level of awareness but not enough to create a strong or intense feeling to initiate any change. Like other areas, I could say I was busy, whether at work or with family, but in hindsight, I think that was a cop-out. I just wasn't focused enough to get to a level of taking action. If the saying better late than never has any value, hopefully, it applies to me here.
So with that as an intro, here is my list of my biggest 2020 frustrations.
The RCMP - the commissioner's signoff on investigative reports and so much more
There is a lot that frustrates me about Canada's National Police force.
One: The commissioner, Brenda Lucki, indicated she did not think there was any systemic racism within the RCMP, then reversed herself after pressure from the public (and likely from her government overseers).
Two: The consistent and continuing racist behaviour toward Indigenous Canadians and people of colour.
Three: The continued violent and dangerous behaviour by officers when dealing with individuals with mental health issues, forced and unlawful strip searches, and unlawful searches and arrests. Most of these behaviours are worse when involving Indigenous Canadians and people of colour.
Four: The ongoing mistreatment of its own employees whether that be rampant sexual harassment, discrimination against Indigenous and racialized Canadians, lack of advancement and deliberate actions to hold these people back in their career within the RCMP.
The thing I found most irritating about the RCMP in 2020 was its complete lack of transparency and deliberate blocking of all reporting with regards to issues and complaints lodged against it. In addition, it has been reported that the RCMP is deliberately and consistently unresponsive to the public's access to information requests. When an external complaint is lodged and the investigation is complete, a final report is issued. The commissioner, Brenda Lucki, must sign off on this report. She has gone over 18 months without signing off on any reports. This deliberate and unconscionable delay is clearly with the intent to remove the public's focus from the issues being investigated. The fact that Ms. Lucki continues to avoid the sign off on these reports, and attempts to bury the publics' visibility to understand the results, is reason enough for her to be fired. The ongoing mismanagement of the RCMP would only supplement the reasons for her removal.
Internal reports responding to complaints from within the RCMP because of all manner of discrimination, harassment and bad behaviour have also been delayed and suppressed. Meanwhile, employees have had their careers ruined because of a lack of corrective action, often resulting in serious mental and physical health issues, along with financial consequences.
Although our government talks about our freedom of access laws, they are worthless when organizations like the RCMP consistently refuse to act on the requests, and the government stands by and does nothing.
What has the government done about all these issues at the RCMP? From my point of view, the short answer is nothing. It seems to me that it would be very easy for Bill Blair, the minister responsible for the RCMP, to order Brenda Lucki to sign off on all external complaint reports and have them released immediately. Same for the internal reports. I recognize that changing the culture of an organization the size of the RCMP will be a challenge, but other large organizations have done so. It requires a strong, committed, visionary leader. I don't think Brenda Lucki is that person. The RCMP needs a new commissioner. It also requires discipline, consistency, measurements and transparency. Once the RCMP has a new commissioner, I suggest he or she reach out to other large organizations, both police and non-police, and establish a system of best practices to make progress on the RCMP culture.
This needs to change. The behaviour of our national police force at the moment is an embarrassment to all of Canada.
Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls - why has nothing been done?
There are so many things about Canada's treatment of Indigenous Canadians that frustrate me. The too-often unacknowledged systemic racism that is embedded into virtually every part of Canadian society, land treaties, clean drinking water, environmental and cultural protection of Indigenous lands, police treatment, society's treatment, the list goes on and on.
It could be argued that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) was not required given the number of royal commissions and national inquiries we have already had investigating issues surrounding Indigenous peoples. During Amnesty International meetings I have participated in where Indigenous Canadians have spoken, they indicated that there was nothing new in this report. The Canadian government was well aware of all these concerns from previous reports (that largely were not acted on) and regular ongoing feedback from Indigenous peoples.
Having said that, MMIWG, officially commenced on September 1, 2016. When the report was finally published on June 3, 2019, it contained 231 detailed, individual Calls for Justice that were directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians. You may remember the controversies around the inquiry where members quit, communities felt they were not listened to or did not have the opportunity to participate. The inquiry asked for multiple extensions, only one of which the government granted. Along with these logistical issues, you may also recall that the report stated, based on international law, that Canada had carried out a genocide.
Despite the fact that Justin Trudeau and his government repeatedly state they support Indigenous Canadians and want to focus on issues that continue to plague this community, they have yet to respond to the report with a plan to address the findings and the 231 Calls for Justice. If accusing the government of genocide cannot spur them to respond within 2 years then wow, I don't know what will. To me, this is another example of Justin Trudeau specifically and his government generally participating in air speak. He and his ministers have mastered the art of sounding like they are concerned but not really saying anything of substance. They are certainly not taking specific actions. I think it is a cop-out to say that COVID is the cause for the delays. First, the government had 7 months before COVID to develop a response and second, I don't think that it is unreasonable for Canadians to expect their government do more than one thing at a time.
This to me is simply an example of a Prime Minister and a government that does not seem to be able to get things done (they can't even get started let alone get completed), don't care enough and as I have said would rather speak in platitudes then take real and specific actions.
Migrant Workers - how can we treat people like this in Canada?
COVID exposed a lot of ugliness in Canada in 2020. Examples include the treatment of the elderly in long term care homes, the salaries and benefits of the front line workers in those homes, the low wages of retail workers in essential stores (grocery, pharmacy), the conditions in many meat processing plants, and the impact of the disease on many racialized Canadians due to underlying health issues. All of these issues are serious and require focus and action.
However, the treatment of migrant farmworkers in Canada seems particularly bad to me. Here are a few examples of how migrant farmworkers are treated in Ontario:
The approval that allows migrant workers to come to Canada ties them to one employer, normally one farm they are assigned to. This means that if they are mistreated by their employer they do not have the option of looking for another job, even another farming job. It follows that, if they are fired for any reason, they cannot look for another job in Canada.
Farmworkers, whether migrants or Canadians are not covered by many of the basic labour protections afforded to other workers in Canada. You need to read that sentence again, slowly, and think about it. The farm industry has successfully pushed the government to obtain exceptions to the labour code, to the point where I think we should be ashamed about how people are being treated.
Farmworkers are not entitled to the legal minimum wage.
Farmworkers are not entitled to overtime
Farmworkers and not subject to a maximum number of hours or days worked.
Farmworkers are forced to live in unhealthy living conditions under outdated and unsupervised government rules and regulations.
Many farmworkers were forced during COVID to stay in their living quarters and were only allowed out for a few hours per week.
As a result of many of the things above, farmworkers have suffered an infection rate of COVID that is 10 times the Canadian average.
Sean, our oldest son, has done research and written on the topic of migrant workers. He was telling me that the farm exception to Ontario labour laws was originally granted because of the predominance of family farms and family members working on them. It seems to make sense that if a family wanted their children to work on the farm, they should not be governed by minimum wage and maximum days/hours labour laws. However, that is certainly not the situation in 2020 where many of the farms are large industrial enterprises either privately or publicly owned. I am guessing that these large organizations have lobbied to keep the exceptions as it gives them greater flexibility in terms of staffing and likely higher profits.
I understand that changing some of these laws may result in higher food prices and recognize that this increase could cause real hardship for some families. However, I don't think it is fair or just to place the responsibility for lower food prices on the backs of farmworkers. I feel the same way about front line retail workers and personal support workers in long term care. These employees need to be paid a living wage and treated fairly. If laws don't support that then laws need to be changed. When I hear premiers and industry leaders talk about how CERB is discouraging people from going back to work, my conclusion is not that CERB is a bad program or is paying unemployed Canadians too much. My conclusion is that those jobs are clearly not paying Canadians a decent living wage. Again, I understand this is not a simple subject and actions have consequences and cause reactions. But either we decide as a society that people need to be treated fairly, or we are going to continue seeing huge groups of Canadians live risky, physically and mentally unhealthy lives.
While this is clearly a multi-faceted problem, I think the Canadian and Ontario governments need to immediately ensure that farmworkers are, at minimum, covered by Ontario labour laws with no exceptions. Although other changes are required, this would at least be a start in the right direction.
What else? The list is long ...
Doug Ford and his government's attacks on environmental regulations.
Justin Trudeau and his government's miss of their self-imposed deadline for ensuring clean water in all Indigenous communities.
Americans (including Barrack Obama who I love) who keep saying "America is better than this" ... America is not better than this. 75 million, voted for Donald Trump after watching a horror show for four years. Although not a majority of Americans, it is still 75 million! This is what America is (obviously not all Americans but far too many).
Rod Phillips going on vacation in St. Barts. Doug Ford knowing about it but not doing anything until it became public (the height of arrogance from both of them).
These all frustrate me but I am going to stop now. After going into some detail on the three areas above, I don't want to dilute them. I believe they are important and require change.
I will write about other annoyances that require a change in future blog posts.
Of course, the question is what can we do about these things. I firmly believe the starting point is to ensure we are aware of the issues, understand and read about them. Next, whenever we have the chance to support change, we need to act. I am fortunate that Amnesty International Canada where I volunteer focuses on all three of these concerns in an effort to drive change. I will continue in 2021 to participate with Amnesty International wherever I can, to try and drive improvement in these areas.
As always if you have comments or ideas let me know at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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