Canada’s unions call on the government to take meaningful actions to address the disparities in employment for Black workers. We want to acknowledge that social injustice is still present.

Did you know that hate crimes based on religion, race or ethnicity increased by 47% in 2017? In 2019, the federal government announced Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022.

Did you know that according to the article from the Canadian Labour Congress, unions in Canada call for fairness to mark Black History Month:

Statistics show workers of colour are more likely to be employed in precarious, low-wage jobs with no benefits. These workers also have higher unemployment rates. In fact, the unemployment rate of Black women is almost double that of non-racialized women. Black men earn 66 cents for every dollar a non-racialized man earns, and Black women only 56 cents per dollar.

All this in Canada and after people allege there is no racism in Canada? There is a lot of discrimination for Canadian workers of colour. However, did you know that solutions exist to eliminate this kind of unpleasant situation? We need to strengthen the Employment Equity Act and again force federal contract holders to comply with this law:

“Strengthening the Employment Equity Act is one step towards fairness for racialized workers,” said Canadian Labour Congress Vice-President Larry Rousseau. “In our country’s history we have seen men and women of colour work to support each other, even when discriminatory laws made it that much more difficult. We owe it to them to correct such inequality moving forward.”

We demand justice. We want a better future for the black community. We want equity, recognition, justice and development.