Dissecting the Prime Minister’s claims of “systemic racism” in Canada

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki had a much more reasonable and nuanced take on the issues of racism and police brutality. Although she did end up caving to media pressure and admitting that the RCMP is systemically racist, an admission that would no doubt discourage many of the fine men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect the people in their communities, she at least offered up some solutions and tried to defend the RCMP an extended interview. 

Lucki admitted that she was having difficulty determining what exactly is meant by “systemic dicrimination”, since many different definitions have been bandied about by folks on all sides of this controversy over policing tactics. 

Up until an activist caused the definition to be changed a few days ago (how quintessentially Orwellian!), Merriam-Webster had defined racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” 

Logically, it would therefore follow that if Canada’s institutions were systemically racist, they would have to be systems that were founded upon this belief in genetic superiority and enacted that belief throughout the systems in the form of discriminatory policies and laws based on race. 

Evidently, that is not the case, for this is not the situation we find ourselves in here in Canada in 2020. Rather, the opposite seems to be true. Our system guarantees equality of all under the law, as codified in the Charter, and operates under the assumption that all who are charged are innocent until proven guilty. We have a wide array of anti-discrimination laws in place across the country and if anybody breaks them, they will suffer the legal consequences, not to mention the widespread public scorn if the case is publicized. 

All of this is not to say that racism does not exist on an individual level, or that even certain policies remain in place that actively discriminate against a given racial group. One might consider Canada’s Indigenous population and the poor situation many of them have fallen into due to government policies like residential schooling or according to some Indigenous Canadians, the Indian Act itself. There are no doubt injustices to be righted in Canada, and all Canadians should be unified in correcting these past wrongs and implementing solutions. 

However, to say that Canada is “systemically racist” is, despite whatever good intentions the Prime Minister may have had, to affirm that the system is beyond repair and that all the work that generations of Canadians have done to build this great nation has been in vain. 

This approach from Trudeau is reckless, foolish, and displays a shocking lack of leadership and foresight from the man tasked with running this country. Has he pointed out any specific policies that are currently discriminating against certain groups of Canadians? Has he suggested any policy solutions? No, of course not. He’s gone with the typical political playbook response of a gesture of solidarity (or virtue signalling, depending on your perspective) and a few words to show support for the cause of the day. Speak in broad terms and never get too specific or, heaven forbid, one might actually be held to account for one’s statements. 

So is Canada a systematically racist country? No, of course not. Do we perhaps suffer from unconscious bias as suggested by Commissioner Lucki? Doubtful, given the very shaky scientific ground studies on this matter rest upon. Can we improve things to ensure better outcomes for all Canadians? Absolutely. 

We have to remember that differing outcomes are not automatically a result of racism, as American academic Thomas Sowell is quite fond of pointing out. To boil anything that complicated down to one cause is a simplistic and childish approach to challenging, real world issues. 

If we want to improve on our current system, Trudeau is correct in saying that we should examine the building blocks of our society. The most fundamental of these is the family. Given the well documented impact family life has on child development and the rising rates of divorce and family breakdown over the past 75 years, perhaps the Prime Minister should start there if we really want to find the answers we need. 

What we most want to find might be where we least want to look.