...And for the CJPH Editor's further consideration, both from Canadian Scholar's Press:
Canada's Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century
Author: Grace-Edward Galabuzi
ISBN: 9781551302652
Published: February, 2006
Format: Paperback; 256 pages
Format: Paperback; 256 pages
https://www.cspi.org/motion.asp?siteid=100366&lgid=1&menuid=5376&prodid=116611&cat=9869 <https://www.cspi.org/motion.asp?siteid=100366&lgid=1&menuid=5376&prodid=116611&cat=9869>
Anti-Racist Health Care Practice
Authors : Eilzabeth McGibbon & Josephine Etowa
ISBN: 9781551303550
Published: April, 2009
Format: Paperback; 245 pages
https://www.cspi.org/motion.asp?siteid=100366&lgid=1&menuid=5376&prodid=120432&cat=9869 <https://www.cspi.org/motion.asp?siteid=100366&lgid=1&menuid=5376&prodid=120432&cat=9869>
________________________________
From: Social Determinants of Health on behalf of Mohammed, Sara
Sent: Sat 11/7/2009 10:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SDOH] Response to "Apartheid in Canada"
Whomever believes Apartheid does not exist in Canada clearly inhabits a particular site of privilege and that makes me fearful for what sort of lives and bodies arent taken into account when it comes to the health and well-being of people living in Canada. Within public health, arent we attempting to reduce health problems through acknowledging how social inequities result in health disparities?
Thank you David for bringing this up. First Nations peoples are the perfect example of how Apartheid does exist. If this still does not convince, then perhaps it doesnt hurt to mention the Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP), a national Canadian policy, in which seasonal agricultural workers come into Canada, pay into EI, CPP and health care yet are not able to reap the benefits of our social welfare. Its no coincidence that those who come in under this program, categorically as non-citizen labourers (read: something similar to indentured labourhood) are those most affected by structural adjustment programs in so-called developing countries. From Nandita Sharma's Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of 'Migrant Workers' in Canada, she argues that "NIEAP relies on the legal differences organized between citizens, immigrant (i.e. permanent residents), and non-immigrants (or migrant workers) to ensure employers access to a 'just-in-time', unfree, migrant workforce that conforms to employers' demands for more flexible, cheaper, and more vulnerable workers." In this sense then, we can see how particular spaces and bodies are both highly imbued with various privileges and dis-priveldges, strategically marginalizing certain 'populations'. If this isnt Apartheid, then I am not sure what is.
If you still arent convinced, perhaps if we look back at THE Apartheid we traditionally think of, Apartheid in South Africa, it may shock you to learn that South Africa created their policies based on Canada's Aboriginal Reserve system.
Apartheid is still alive and well in Canada. When will we take off the blinders?
Sara Mohammed
Toronto ON
"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"
-Audre Lorde
-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health on behalf of Dennis Raphael
Sent: Sat 07/11/2009 6:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SDOH] Response to "Apartheid in Canada"
Response to "Apartheid in Canada"
David Bowering. Canadian Journal of Public Health. Ottawa: Sep/Oct 2009.
Vol. 100, Iss. 5; pg. 397, 1 pgs
Abstract (Summary)
Dear Editor, As a physician and public health practitioner with 38 years
of experience working and living in Northern British Columbia and the
Yukon, in close proximity to First Nations citizens, I was immediately
drawn to the title of your editorial "Apartheid in Canada".1 Finally, I
thought, someone in public health who is willing to tell the inconvenient
truth.
Full Text
(576 words)
Dear Editor,
As a physician and public health practitioner with 38 years of experience
working and living in Northern British Columbia and the Yukon, in close
proximity to First Nations citizens, I was immediately drawn to the title
of your editorial "Apartheid in Canada".1 Finally, I thought, someone in
public health who is willing to tell the inconvenient truth.
Imagine my disappointment on reading your last sentence, which begins "We
do not have apartheid policies in this country?" Of course we do! If we
take the notion of "apartheid" to mean legislated structural differences
in governance that have the effect of reducing the opportunities and
living standards of one race or ethnic group with respect to another
(which for me is close enough), Canada is an exemplar of apartheid. Your
editorial outlines the outcomes: relative poverty, poor living conditions,
marginalization, etc. You refer to the well-intentioned efforts of
"skilled competent and dedicated professionals" and suggest that the
answers lie in "greater efforts" and more resources.
Unfortunately, the problems have little or nothing to do with a lack of
either effort or resources. They are intentional, structural and
overwhelming in their effect. I would suggest that jurisdictional
complexity and dysfunction are at least as important determinants of the
health of First Nations people as are poverty and education.
Non-Aboriginal Canadians have access to a system of governance based on
carefully articulated relations between three distinct levels of
government: federal, provincial and municipal. By and large it is clear to
most of us where to go for services and solutions, and by and large the
three levels have learned to stay out of each other's kitchens. The
outcomes of this are reflected in relatively good social, economic and
health conditions for the majority of non- Aboriginal Canadians.
By contrast, First Nations communities have to survive in a jurisdictional
morass that replaces progress with unending processes, including "new"
ones such as the tripartite agreement in British Columbia. While the
principle of including and engaging First Nations' representatives in
these governance processes is admirable and important, the structural
underpinnings of this are a confusing substrate of politics and
jurisdictional fuzziness involving bands, treaties, partial treaties,
affiliated bands, Nations and others. This ensures that there is an
abundance of talk and almost no tools for moving forward in a systematic
way. When you add in the overlapping mandates of the federal and
provincial/territorial governments, include health authorities and
regional governments and truckloads of Memorandums of Understanding and
Agreements simply to provide basic services, "tripartheid" instead of
"tripartite" becomes more than just a slip of the tongue.
It seems crystal clear to me after watching variations of the same
scenario for many years that we desperately need to focus on systematic
restructuring along the lines of the Canadian federal/provincial/municipal
model and that, until we do, First Nations people in our country will have
to make do with policies that are designed to deliver hand sanitizers and
band aids in a pinch but that are completely ineffective if the goal is to
address and redress the systematic inequities First Nations people face
every day. We need to begin by acknowledging apartheid in Canada and
working with First Nations leaders to replace it with something at least
as useful and effective as the system that provides the rest of us with so
much.
[Reference]
REFERENCE
1. Paradis G. Apartheid in Canada. (Editor's page) Can J Public Health
2009;100(4):244.
[Author Affiliation]
David Bowering, MD, MHSc
Prince George, BC
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