The African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC) says the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimi-nation (CERD) has raised concerns about the overrepresentation of African Canadians in the criminal justice system and urged Canada to take immediate action to address this glaring disparity.

On February 22 and 23, CERD considered Canada’s nineteenth and twentieth periodic reports on the government’s efforts to combat racial discrimination.

The ACLC said almost half of the Committee’s time was devoted to questioning Canada on issues relating to its African Canadian community. Margaret Parsons, executive director of ACLC, expressed disappointment at the lack of attention paid to these issues by the Canadian delegation in its response to Committee questions and by the Canadian media in its coverage of this session.

disadvantaged position

The ACLC prepared an alternative report, met with Committee members and was present at CERD meetings “to ensure that Canada was made to account for the issue of anti-Black racism and the continued disadvantaged position occupied by African Canadians.”

According to Parsons, the ACLC drew the Committee’s attention to “growing rates of poverty, increased rates of incarceration, and high rates of anti-Black hate, as well as the complete absence of reliable disaggregated race-based data, and the phenomenon termed the ‘school-to-prison pipeline.’”

In a media release, the ACLC said that Anwar Kamal, the Committee’s Rapporteur for Canada, noted the glaring absence of disaggregated statistics from Canada’s sate report while Ms. Dah, the expert from Burkina Faso urged the government to be careful not to exclude data that will make it more difficult for the state to report on its implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. This concern was also echoed by other Committee members who drew attention to and questioned the government’s recent decision to abolish the mandatory long-term census.

ACLC said Pastor Murillo, the expert from Colombia, questioned Canada on the extent to which the historical contributions of African Canadians are reflected in school curricula and upcoming commemorations such as the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Patrick of Great Britain questioned Canada on the high rates of suspension, expulsion and drop-outs and pointed to the success of the Africentric school in the Toronto District School Board as a possible best practice in this area.

Anastasia Crickley of Ireland congratulated Canada on the adoption of its National Action Plan Against Racism in 2005, noted that this action plan ended in 2010 and questioned what Canada is doing to address the structural racism and the power imbalance with respect to Canada’s racialized groups today.