The Globe and Mail - 19.10.2019

O8 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019

O

ne afternoon in June, ear-
lier this year, the mayor of
the country’s largest city,
the Premier of its most populous
province and the Prime Minister
of Canada found themselves un-
expectedly sharing a stage to-
gether in downtown Toronto.
They – along with an estimated
two million fans from through-
out the city – had come together
to pay tribute to a group of
young (and mostly black) men.
Four days prior, the Toronto
Raptors had defeated the Golden
State Warriors for the NBA cham-
pionship, leading to a national
outpouring of pride and joy. The
Raptors possessed an incandes-
cent quality, and a rare one:
They were Canadianandcool,
two words that don’t usually
come together unless you’re
talking about the weather.
For the Prime Minister, the
election loomed, and for the oth-
ers, it was a rare moment in po-
litical life: a captive audience
with a deep well of goodwill. Of
course politicians wanted to be
associated with the Raptors.
It wasn’t just politicians. Nev-
er in my life have I seen so much
of the country so enthralled by
so many black men. Possibly not
since Donovan Bailey captured
the gold medal in the 100-metre
dash at the 1996 Atlanta Summer
Olympic Games had Canadians
felt such intense joy at the suc-
cess of someone (in this case,
many people) from the black
community.
Unwilling to brave the crowds,
I watched from a television in
my office as Justin Trudeau
screamed hoarsely into a micro-
phone that “the diversity this
team represents is that of the en-
tire country.” Mayor John Tory
presented the team with the key
to the city, while the crowd sere-
naded Premier Doug Ford with
boos.
What will happen, I won-
dered, when these men leave the
stage? What will happen when
the crowd disperses from Nathan
Phillips Square, when the gar-
bage is cleaned up, the streets
are turned back over to traffic,
and the glow of the champion-
ship begins to wane like the light
of a setting sun?
The crowd that day looked
more like the athletes who
joined the politicians on stage. I
saw black faces, many young –
not often fêted by our politic-
ians, not deemed as important
as a victory parade – faces that
also would fade conveniently in
and then out of the views of men
like the mayor, the Premier and
the Prime Minister. These power-
ful leaders had all found time
out of their busy schedules to
crash a party thrown for a victo-
ry they played no part in win-
ning. Where, I wondered, were
these politicians – leaders, I’m
told – for the regular and equally
(if not more, frankly) heroic

black people who don’t wear

team jerseys?

Black people are one of the

most targeted groups for hate

crimes in Canada. From 2005 to

2015, there was a 71.1-per-cent in-

crease in the federal black prison

population. Educational inequi-

ties persist between black people

in Canada and their white coun-

terparts. According to the 2017

Report of the Working Group of

Experts on People of African De-

scent on its mission to Canada,

“black Canadian children are liv-

ing in poverty at the unprece-

dented rate of 33 per cent for

children of Caribbean heritage

and 47 per cent for children of

continental African heritage,

compared to 18 per cent of white

Canadian children living below

the poverty line.” The list, unfor-

tunately, goes on. From house-

hold and economic concerns to

criminal-justice issues and im-

migration, black people face a

seemingly immovable force de-

termined to prevent our success,

and our politicians don’t seem

concerned with helping to coun-

ter that force.

I’ve thought about the Rap-

tors’ celebration many times in

the weeks and months that fol-

lowed, and especially during the

past six weeks, which have fea-

tured one of those men, Justin

Trudeau, in a battle to save his

job and to lead the country for

another four years. Again, we

have arrived at election day hav-

ing avoided debating the issues

relevant to black communities –

issues that overlap with and af-

fect many other communities in

this country. The concerns and

desires of those black faces in

the crowd that June day have

been missing, once again, from

the discourse, from the debates,

from the campaigns. Instead, as

usual, it’s up to the community

to make their voices heard.

As a politically engaged black

woman living in Canada, I will

head to my local polling station

on Monday, but it feels like my

ballot has been spoiled before

it’s even been cast.

The history of black Canadians is

a rich tapestry; tugging a single

thread could take you from the

enslaved and indentured men

and women of New France to the

fortunate escapees who took the

Underground Railroad to its ter-

minus in Ontario and Quebec;

from the Black Loyalists in Nova

Scotia to the black cowboys and

homesteaders of the Prairies and

the black communities of British

Columbia. We out here, but we

beenhere.

Yet, for all the history – deep,

diverse and dispersed – black po-

litical life has remained separate

from politics in Canada. Despite

an unbroken presence in the

country, the fortunes and well-

being of black people have risen,

stagnated and, in some ways, re-

versed. And our political leaders

don’t seem to care.

Contrast this with U.S. politics.

The agenda for Democrats is set

and won by courting black vot-

ers. Arguably, black voters are

captive to the Democratic Party,

but they are, at least, a force to

be reckoned with. The Congres-

sional Black Caucus wields 53

seats in the House of Represen-

tatives, approximately 12 per

cent of the total number of seats.

With black Americans making

up 13.4 per cent of the U.S. pop-

ulation, they thus are nearly

equally represented in their leg-

islature.

In Canada, during the 2015

election, 30 black candidates

from the five major parties ran

for office. Seven of those candi-

dates won seats, one of whom,

Celina Caesar-Chavannes, an-

nounced last spring she would

not run for re-election. (Notably,

the “Because it’s 2015” cabinet of

diversity did not include black

members.) That means that, in

the last Parliament, barely 2 per

cent of seats were held by black

members of Parliament. Accord-

ing to the 2016 census, black peo-

ple in Canada represent 3.5 per

cent of the population, number-

ing 1.2 million. Black people in

both Canada and the United

States remain underrepresented.

The black population in Cana-

da is a growing one. Since 1996,

when it was approximately

600,000, the number of black

Canadians has doubled. That in-

crease can be accounted for by

black immigration to Canada –

increasingly from Africa – but al-

so from the number of black

people born in Canada in the

past two decades. In 2016, per

Statistics Canada, 26.6 per cent of

the black population was under

the age of 15 while for the rest of

the population the number of

young people accounted for 16.9

per cent.

Ontario has the highest num-

ber of black people, containing

just more than half the country’s

black population. But from 1996

to 2006, the black population in

Alberta has quintupled, and in

Manitoba and Saskatchewan,

there are three times as many

black people now than in 1996.

Notably, the fastest growing ur-

ban populations of black people

include Lethbridge, Alta., and

Moncton, N.B.

The growing number of black

people across the country, espe-

cially in the Prairies, has political

effects.

For the first time in Manitoba,

black people will be represented

in the provincial legislature – by

not just one, but three MLAs. Ac-

cording to the population pro-

jections from Statistics Canada,

by 2036, black Canadians are

projected to account for between

5 per cent and 6 per cent of the

country. Canada is only going to

get blacker.

But black Canadians cannot

be said to be held in thrall to a

single party. Whereas black peo-

ple in the post-1960s United

States allegiances shifted en

masse to the Democratic Party,

black Canadian political “firsts”

represent an array of parties.

The first woman to vie for the

leadership of a federal party was

British Columbian Rosemary

Brown, a black woman who ran

for the NDP. The first black per-

son elected to the House of Com-

mons was Lincoln Alexander, a

Progressive Conservative from

Ontario. And the first black

woman to win a federal seat was

Jean Augustine, winning in 1993

for the Liberal Party.

The casual assumption that all

black people are left and Liberal

voters is common. But if you

think black voters are solely pro-

gressive liberals then you

haven’t met a lot of my uncles.

Ironically, this federal campaign,

which wraps up this weekend

with a neck-and-neck race be-

tween Justin Trudeau’s Liberals

and Andrew Scheer’s Conserva-

tive Party, is that we’ve been talk-

ing about race more than any

other election during my life-

time.

In September, several photos

emerged of a younger Mr. Tru-

deau wearing blackface. When

I’d finished screaming, then

laughing, I sighed, knowing the

photos would encapsulate the

frustrations of being a black vot-

er. The first people to speak to

the Prime Minister were a plane-

load of (white) reporters. It

would not be until the next day

and until the last question of Mr.

Trudeau’s follow-up news con-

ference that the Prime Minister

was asked to name specific pol-

icies to do with racialized people.

The moment was defined as a

choice between apologizing, re-

signing and counting the num-

ber of blackface instances. Mean-

ing a thoroughly political con-

versation – a politician! Wearing

blackface! In an election! – failed

to answer any political question.

Feelings overran policy, to the

detriment of black and racialized

people.

In the immediate aftermath of

the photos, the Liberal Party an-

nounced their plans for ending

gun violence – a policy that has

been led by former Toronto po-

lice chief Bill Blair, whose

achievements include the expan-

sion of racial profiling. The Con-

servative Party’s riposte included

a plan to classify gang members

on par with terrorists, increase

mandatory minimums and to

end “automatic bail” – a process

that does not exist. Their plans

also include an expansion of

prison sentences by both admin-

istrative and judicial means. The

NDP hopes to bring an end to

carding (racial profiling with a

snappier name) by federal law

enforcement and introduce a

task force to study the “chronic

overrepresentation” of black and

Indigenous people in the federal

prison system.

Of course, black political con-

cerns are not solely matters of

crime. Yet, as Robin Maynard re-

minds us in her bookPolicing

Black Lives: State Violence in Cana-

da from Slavery to the Present,

there is a long-standing confla-

tion of blackness and criminality.

In practice then, even “race-neu-

tral” policies about policing and

crime have serious, even deadly

effects on black lives. It is in

those places that the legacies of

anti-blackness and colonialism

are keenly felt. Prisons in Canada

are fast becoming sites of injus-

tice, where the most vulnerable

and least-thought-of are held by

the state, and not just black peo-

ple: Indigenous peoples, espe-

cially Indigenous women, and

people with mental-health is-

sues are also affected. Yet, in the

debates about gun violence that

immediately followed the black-

face scandal, anti-black racism

was somehow not a central top-

ic.

The black Canadian vote is no

more, or less, than anyone else’s

vote. I don’t enter a polling sta-

tion to vote for some mythical,

Garvey-esque black nation with-

out Canada. But it is still a deci-

sion that contains my black Can-

adian life, for good or ill.

As a black woman in Canada,

my income is likely to be less

than that of my white peers,

which affects, among other

things, my ability to own a

home. As a black immigrant, the

wealth gap is compounded not

just by my own immigration sta-

tus but by the late-start careers

of my parents and their cohort of

arrivees. And as a person who

falls a lot (I’ve learned a great

deal about how an arm breaks

this year), I’m keenly aware that

universal health care does not

mean universal health out-

comes, especially for black wom-

en.

If we’re going to spend yet an-

other election campaign not

talking about policy, what’s a

black voter to do?

One evening, earlier this sum-

mer, I elbowed my way to the

back of a room in a crowded the-

atre in Toronto’s east end to

meet the NDP candidate for Ha-

milton Centre, Matthew Green.

As the first black city council-

lor in Hamilton, he’d been an

outspoken voice on “street

checks” (basically the same

thing as carding, but sounds like

a nineties-era rap group) while

at city council. Who, I wondered,

would leave the relative inde-

pendence of city politics for the

constraints and frustrations of

federal politics?

CONTINUED ON O9

TheConservatives’AndrewScheerstoppingforaselfieinBrampton,Ont.,LiberalLeaderJustinTrudeauinRichmondHill,Ont.,andtheNDP’sJagmeetSinghataVancouverdaycare.

THECANADIANPRESS/REUTERS/THECANADIANPRESS

Inthiselection,what’sablackvotertodo?

WehavealwaysbeenpartofCanada,VickyM ochamawrites,butatelectiontime,theuniquechallengeswefaceareignored

OPINION

VickyMochamaisaToronto-based
writerandhostoftheSafeSpace
podcast

Asapoliticallyengaged

blackwomanlivingin

Canada,Iwillheadto

mylocalpollingstation

onMonday,butitfeels

likemyballothasbeen

spoiledbeforeit’seven

beencast.

ELECTION2019