Nothing new in report on systemic racism, says Black Lives Matter N.B.

Reading through the report into system racism, the executive director of Black Lives Matter New Brunswick said he's heard it all before. 

Matthew Martin said the report released on Friday by New Brunswick's commissioner of systemic racism didn't contain any new information. 

After more than a year of work, Manju Varma released 86 recommendations with her report.

Martin said it wasn't a worthwhile endeavour.

"Well, as someone from the racialized community, in my opinion, no. I mean, the reality of it is, these recommendations and the process that was done didn't really bring to light anything we didn't already know existed.

"So really, all this was was taking everything we had heard, putting it on paper, [and] providing some recommendations."

Martin said the real work has to start now. 

"The reality of it is until we start seeing these recommendations put into place — that's when the real work is going to start. That's when we're going to see how serious our provincial government is about these issues." 

Varma called for "a task force focused on dismantling systemic racism in New Brunswick policing" and more education for senior government officials and politicians "on the meaning of systemic racism."

But she stopped short of recommending the province call a public inquiry into systemic racism against Indigenous peoples, something Indigenous leaders have been calling on the province to do for several years.

That was the first thing that stood out to Martin when he read the report. 

Like so many Indigenous groups who have reacted to Varma's report, Martin is also disappointed that she didn't call for a public inquiry.

An inquiry, he said, would give teeth to recommendations — power that is lacking in her own recommendations.

"There was no legal power behind it. There's no legal obligations. There's no, 'Here's the recommendations that you have to implement.'"

A public inquiry would give the process the power to subpoena people and documents and force participants to speak under oath. 

"So to me, is it the end-all be-all? We can only speculate. But the reality of it is that the inquiry process has so much more of a legal backing behind it. There's a reason why our Indigenous communities are calling for it. It's because there's that legal power behind it at the end of the day."

Start with race-based data collection

Martin said he's hopeful this report won't gather dust like so many others. 

Historically, he said governments have developed a reputation of implementing the "easy-to-to-hit recommendations" very quickly, "but then the rest are kind of just left in limbo and never really implemented."

In order to make meaningful progress — and instill confidence in the process — Martin said his top pick would be to start collecting race-based data for things like policing and health care. That way, the province can establish a baseline by which to measure change for things like wait time for health-care services for members of the Black community. 

He would also like to see a task force or a position created immediately in government at the deputy-minister level for someone responsible for dismantling systemic racism. 

Whether it's an individual or a group, Martin said the position has to have autonomy and the authority to "make these changes and not get held up by a white individual's own personal belief around racism. We can't have that holding up the process for addressing racism and systemic racism."

Supports not kept up with immigration surge

Varma's report said the province's support systems haven't kept up with a spike in immigration. 

"Essentially, the structures required to properly support the number of newcomers are either overwhelming or non-existent. It is like trying to put too many people into an aging elevator and ignoring the weight capacity. Sooner [or] later, that elevator will crash."

Recommendation 13 of the report says discussions with provincial government employees, settlement organizations and newcomers revealed:

• Severe issues with newcomers obtaining Medicare. The Office of the Commissioner on Systemic Racism received numerous complaints regarding long wait times and lack of support to receive Medicare and health care in general.
• Housing and rental shortages, especially for large families.
• Employment struggles, including reports that education and experience are not valued.
• The "discriminatory practice" of insisting on Canadian experience without a valid reason.
• Antiquated funding models and unreasonable demands on settlement agencies.
• Failure to address urban and rural differences in immigration plans.
• The confusing process to access provincial government support.

"Currently, the funding and services to appropriately welcome and retain newcomers is clearly insufficient," stated the report.

The report said newcomers are often treated as statistics or "part of a business case."

"We need to treat newcomers as human beings; anything less is systemic racism."

Several immigration and newcomer groups were contacted for comment, but none responded by publication time.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.