Community organization provides recommendations to the government towards the elimination of systemic racism

BY PAUL JUNOR

The Toronto Youth Council (TYC) is a youth-led organization, which was founded in 1998. It has been at the forefront of advocacy and activism. It has pursued its mission of giving youth a voice at Toronto City Hall. On November 9th, 2020 they released a joint statement that seeks to address anti-black and anti-Indigenous racism in Ontario schools. More than ten education unions and advocacy groups supported the statement.

In many ways, this volunteer-based organization that served as an official advisory body, has been able to bring youth issues to the attention of Toronto’s politicians. TYC has outlined a list of recommendations that it intends to send to Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario), Stephen Lecce (Minister of Education), Sylvia Jones (Solicitor General), Andrea Horwath (Leader of the Official Opposition, NDP), Marit Stiles (Education Critic), Laura Mae Lindo (Anti-Racism Critic), and Sam Oosterhof (Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education).

The recommendations include the following as outlined in the statement:

1. A total revision of the curriculum to fulfil the recommendations on Education for Reconciliation in the Truth and Reconciliation Common report, and make age- appropriate curriculum on: residential schools, Treatises, and Aboriginal peoples historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a MANDATORY education requirement for K-12 students. We are also calling for the same to be done to tell the contributions of black individuals to Canada, and not only Canada’s negative history of enslavement and disenfranchisement toward them.
2. All school boards must take an Anti-Racism Approach, by beginning the collection of disaggregated race-based data by the end of 2021.
3. A complete and total end of streaming in Grades 9 and 10 in all secondary schools by 2023. Black youth continue to be streamed into lower education tracks as a result of both individual and systemic factors. This is evident with the over representation of black students in applied or locally developed classes.
4. There must be a suspension pending a review of the “School Resource Officer” program (and other programs in similar form that have police in schools) through an equity lens that will ultimately lead to the immediate and total removal of regular police presence in all schools.

These recommendations have been made several times by different groups and organizations, especially by the advocacy group, Parents of Black Children (PoBC). According it its website: https:// parentsof blackchildren.org, “We are working to ensure that black children across Canada can meet their full potential and achieve success in their educational outcomes.”

Dismantling systemic racism is one of its goals as, “We are working to address and dismantle anti-black racism and systemic barriers within the education system and adjacent systems. Our goal is to ensure that our black children are able to access an equitable and peaceful education.”

The group has made ten demands, some of which coincide with the Youth Council’s statement. These demands have been sent to the Minister of Education, Stephen Leece.

The ten demands are listed below:

1. Reform the education act
2. Decolonize the curriculum
3. Eliminate all streaming
4. Fund education system navigators
5. Police-free schools province wide
6. Collect race-based achievement and discipline data
7. Accountability of teachers
8. Equity audits of school boards
9. Anti-racism courses in faculties of education
10. Hire black teachers

The work towards the elimination of systemic racism, specifically anti-black racism and anti-Indigenous has been recognized and acknowledged by the Ministry of Education. It is currently working on a provincial-wide anti-racism policy. There is much hope that this policy will be acceptable to the equity-seeking groups.