Question Period Note: Anti-Racism Strategy

• Canada’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, while tackling racism and discrimination, is unwavering.
• Budget 2019 allocated $45 million over three years to support a new anti-racism strategy.
• The strategy aims to find ways to counter racism in its various forms, with a strong focus on community-based projects.
• The Government of Canada established a new Anti-Racism Secretariat which supports federal organizations in addressing issues of racism and discrimination, including the systemic barriers that risk being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government also launched the new Anti-Racism Action Program to fund community projects.
• The Secretariat will engage and work with provinces and territories, civil society, Indigenous peoples and communities to identify and develop further areas for action.

• Budget 2019 provided $45 million in funding over three years, beginning in 2019-2020, for Canada’s Anti−Racism Strategy 2019-2022. The Strategy recognizes that racism in Canada is a serious, long-standing and systemic issue. It has been designed to support the following three principles:
o Demonstrating Federal Leadership: The Government of Canada must take a leading role in addressing systemic racism and discrimination, and has established a new Anti-Racism Secretariat for this purpose.
o Empowering Communities: The Government of Canada must support organizations on the ground who have expertise in addressing various forms of racism and discrimination. The new Anti-Racism Action Program will deliver community funding to address barriers to employment, justice and social participation.
o Building Awareness and Changing Attitudes: Public education and awareness are essential to the elimination of racial discrimination and inequality. The Strategy will support a National Public Education and Awareness Campaign to increase awareness and understanding.
• Since the official launch of the Strategy in June 2019, Canadian Heritage has established the Federal Anti−Racism Secretariat, launched the Anti-Racism Action Program, taken preliminary steps to define the methodology to support data and evidence activities in collaboration with Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice and has developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Public Safety that will transfer $300,000 per year for three years, starting in 2019-2020, to that organization to develop a national framework to better understand and address hate crimes and hate speech in Canada. The Secretariat has begun engaging with stakeholders, government and the private sector to foster alignment and collaborate on further action to address identified gaps and issues.

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