The mission we have set out to accomplish is to use our expertise here at Creason to improve the financial health of a generation. By providing actionable advice and material that can stimulate questions, we can grow together and make it through this very difficult and confusing time. This week we needed (and will continue to need) facts and material from others. We took some time to begin to educate ourselves on racial inequality, specifically here in Canada, and in its most multi-cultural city, Toronto.
Over the last ten days we have seen protests, riots and conversations in response to the public lynching of Mr. George Floyd. On duty police killed 1100 people in the US last year by gunshot – the overwhelming majority were African American. This is the only data we have and it does not include off duty police or non-gun related killings. The murder of Mr. George Floyd would not be included in this number. The murder of George Floyd, and of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Manuel Elis, Breonna Taylor and so many other African Americans has led to a call for action around the globe.
As we sit here in Canada and watch the events in the US, those of us who are privileged are often quick to point out that it is not as bad here. Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford gave a statement saying the following:
“Thank God we’re different than the United States and we don’t have the systemic, deep roots they’ve had for years,” he said at the time, adding that the distinction between the two countries is “night and day.” – Doug Ford
Our tagline at The New Norm is: it starts with asking questions. Many of the conversations I have had this week with others have resoundingly similar tones. They are statements rather than questions. They are comments like that of Doug Ford instead of questions like “is it bad here too”? We came across a quote on social media this week from Ahmed Ali (twitter, @MrAhmednurAli), a Wilson Scholar (granted to future leaders) and current PhD student at McMaster University. His doctorate focuses on exploring the impact of social determinants of health on health promotion.
“It’s privilege to learn about racism rather than experiencing it your whole life.”
If you can acknowledge privilege you can acknowledge bias. We are privileged. I am privileged. Many I have had conversations with are privileged. We are learning and have clear bias. Given our bias we need to ask questions to find facts rather than give statements based on assumptions.
The first question we are choosing to ask, and the question for the week is: how does the GTA and Canada stack up to America in regards to racial inequality? The data shows that contrary to Doug Ford’s comments, we unfortunately share much of the same inequality felt in America. It is not night and day. This is not a large platform but it is a platform. This week we wanted to use it to share our data driven findings in an effort to stimulate all of us to ask more questions.
In 2015, the United Way launched the first of a 3-part series examining the inequality in opportunity across the GTA. The report explores how access to opportunity is defined by age, immigration status, gender, if you belong to a Racialized group, and even your postal code and that these become barriers to success in today’s GTA. I distilled access to opportunity down to one’s ability to acquire wealth. Wealth buys you a place to live that is yours, gives you bank loans to assist when you’re in a tough spot, and it educated your children so they can move up in their careers. Wealth can keep you healthy, can give you more time with your family, less stress, and it passes on to your children to give them a head start in life. The most recent report by the United Way was written in 2019, which highlights that the GTA is the income inequality capital of Canada—the report states:
The rise of precarious employment, the decline of unionized manufacturing, and the persistence of experiences of discrimination have continued to make the labour market challenging for many Racialized groups in the Toronto region. The growing population of Racialized persons, combined with the increasing costs of living in one of Canada’s most expensive regions, means that these trends can make daily life a challenge and the ability to get ahead an increasingly distant dream for many. – Pg 10
Data in Canada broken down by race is very hard to gather. This report is no different. The report uses the term Racialized groups to bundle all people who identify as visible minorities – and it does not include the Indigenous people of Canada. While it is certainly not perfect, the report still demonstrates that Racialized groups have less full-time job opportunities, must spend more to live here despite much lower incomes, and have far less opportunity than the white population. Turning to the data, we look at how dramatic the effect of the pay gap actually is:
Over the last 40 years, across the GTA, the income gap between employed Racialized and White groups has grown, regardless of the form of employment. The divide has been most pronounced for people in permanent, full-time jobs. During this time, while the income gap has spread the actual average income for Racialized groups has not increased over this 35 year time frame – Toronto real estate increased 67% from 2010 to 2016.
So how does this compare to America? To enable us to compare apples to apples, we use ratios of income between the white workforce and the non-white workforce. In 2015, the Racialized full-time workforce makes an average of just under $60 thousand a year here in Toronto. The full-time white workforce makes just under $110 thousand a year. This ratio suggests that for every dollar a white person makes a Racialized person makes only 52.1 cents. Below is a similar graph from America:
In 2018 in America, the full-time African American workforce made 59 cents for every $1 earned by the full-time White workforce. According to these statistical surveys, income inequality is actually worse here in the GTA than in America.
Let’s move forward to some more non-financial stats for Canada. These are incredibly difficult to find. We have relied on a few sources, often from legal services and not statistical bureaus, and therefore are unsure of the accuracy of each and every piece of data. Below are our findings:
Black Canadians descend from over 150 countries and make up 3.5% of the Canadian population.
In 2016 an analysis of 10,000 arrests showed that Black Canadians were 50% more likely to be taken to a police station for processing and 100% more likely to be held overnight vs White Canadians. The lack of income already leads to a much lower ability to post bail and this is the same issue they are seeing in the US. As soon as you are in the system, the inequity grows.
Black Canadians are the youngest part of our population and make up over 15% of our youth under 15.
Black Canadian Youth have the same likelihood of committing a crime as white youth and yet despite this equal likelihood, Black Canadian youth are 2x more likely to be carded - stopped by police to ask for identification – than White youth. These are similar numbers found in Ferguson Missouri. (https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/black-lives-matter-eliminating-racial-inequity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/).
Black Canadians make up 9% of the population of our jails – a 3x over-representation. In the US, African Americans make up 13% of the population and are 38% of the prison system – the same 3x over-representation. In places like Nova Scotia, Black Canadians make up 2% of the population but 14% of the prison population. I would be remiss at this point to not point out the incredible disproportion of the incarcerated population regarding the Canadian Indigenous. The Canadian Indigenous represent 4% of our population yet are over 30% of the prison population. The graph below highlights the level of disproportion:
All the stats and data points we have referred to thus far are from a pre-COVID world. COVID-19 has further thrown racial inequality into the spotlight. Police brutality has led to a disproportionate killing of the Black community. COVID has done the same. In the US, African-Americans have died at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 people from COVID related deaths. The white population has died at a rate of 20.7/100,000. Black Americans are nearly 3x more likely to die from COVID as are White Americans.
Here in Toronto it took several calls to action for race based COVID data to even be collected (https://globalnews.ca/news/6892178/black-canadians-coronavirus-risk/). All we have right now is a map of COVID-19 cases here in Toronto where we can see low income areas are in a far worse state than the more affluent neighbourhoods https://globalnews.ca/news/6993844/coronavirus-toronto-neighbourhoods-covid-19-map/. If we combine our income inequality data with this map, we can make an assumption that from a health perspective, we are still, no different from our neighbours to the south.
The conclusion here is that in Canada, specifically in Toronto, when it comes to racial inequality, we are not that different from America. In some ways, by not collecting the data, we continue to refuse this as an issue, which can lead us to being even worse. We all need to educate ourselves on the facts. Facts drive data which allows us to have educated conversations and create effective policy. The facts clearly show we have a problem. Without knowing the facts, we are left with empty comments from our leaders, clearly misrepresenting reality.
This past week we tried to take our first steps by reading and listening. Below are resources we have used thus far:
We again turned to Ahmed Ali’s twitter feed to provide a great resource for here in Toronto: https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1l0TGDdHJIO6FGkKNWBBXINUmfGSXdM8eK6eY2ZmrK8Q/mobilebasic. This is a link to a shared google doc that, from the Black Lives Matter movement, gives reading materials, information on protests, petitions to sign, and organizations recommended for donations. We have decided to donate this month to the Black Legal Action Center (https://www.blacklegalactioncentre.ca/).
There is a great article in Esquire (https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a32755349/chef-jj-johnson-support-black-owned-businesses-restaurants/) from a chef in New York City about his experience as an African-American chef, police abuse, and the need for people to step up to support black owned restaurants. His main comment is that black owned businesses cannot get bank loans or forgiveness on their rent payments – and are very much in need especially due to Covid. Here is a list of black owned businesses and restaurants in Toronto: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/10l7NItyZUoNroE4iLePGn5GAvSuQ7KW5IK4XmOcDSTI/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR2_BwNWEMiGH-mvZX0Q3JgR2Vk6r52MKi9NlBICnyNC-0VnJIhghozBb7c
The United Way’s research was very impressive. There has clearly been a lot of thought and effort put into this. I hope in the future it will include Indigenous Canadians and much more detail on racial breakdowns. If you live in Toronto, this is a must read: https://www.unitedwaygt.org/document.doc?id=285 https://www.unitedwaygt.org/file/2019_OE_fullreport_FINAL.pdf
https://www.unitedwaygt.org/research-and-reports
Bill Simmons hosts DeRay Mckesson, one of the leading advocators for Black Lives Matter and one heading up Campaign Zero, and 8cantwait – both aimed at eliminating police brutality focused on the African American. I know there are better platforms to follow out there, but this is one I listen to and found the interview with Mr.. Mckesson very insightful: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6MrQnHuM3cVmJayaIDQRMr?si=_1C2lT6kTUC_OiTb0Avmgg
Mr. Mckesson has been the lead on two campaigns: Campaign Zero – www.joincampaignzero.org and www.8cantwait.org . These causes are to end police brutality. The stats are jaw dropping. Take a look at your favorite cities in the US to see how these data driven policy requests have been implemented (or not).
Other good sites we have gone through are: https://inequality.org/facts/racial-inequality/ & https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/black-lives-matter-eliminating-racial-inequity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/. We do not keep stats like they do in the US but we have shown that the income inequality in Canada is much like it is south of the border. These are US facts and figures but we have shown they likely translate. We have not made it through everything yet – but we will. Sign up for the newsletter from inequality.org: https://inequality.org/resources/inequality-weekly/
We have a lot more to do. It all starts with asking questions and we are looking to get educated so we can ask the difficult ones to others and ourselves. If we have in any way offended anyone or misspoken, we would very much like feedback. We look to a quote from Angela Davis to guide our need for education:
““If we do not know how to meaningfully talk about racism, our actions will move in misleading directions” ”