Blades-Sutherland 1

Torrin Blades-Sutherland

Professor Stan Doyle-Wood

NEW240Y

22 April 2020

Website Assignment: Canadian Race Relations Foundation

PART A

1) What is the purpose of the organization?

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) is a bureaucratic organization paid for by the

taxpayers of Canada. As stated in its name, the organization deals with race relations and the bureaucracy

behind funding political initiatives. The employees of the organization all have a history in politics or

law, leaving the structure of CRRF synonymous with your average government organization. Despite the

authoritative sounding name, if compared to more grass-roots organizations such as the Ontario Coalition

Against Poverty (OCAP), this organization is not nearly as in line with this course’s description of equity

as OCAP would be. The immediate design of the home page is sterile, corporate and uninviting with no

visual sign of inclusive colour use or symbols to denote multiculturalism. In viewing the “about” page,

we can see the “top-down” structure of the organization. Outlined like a mission statement for a tech-start

up, the organization is structured like a business with a board of directors, heavy interest in partnerships,

funding and programs. Very little of the website is designed to connect with the everyday individual:

those suffering most from negative consequences of race relations. While going through the website, it

reveals that the purpose of the organization has nothing to do with dismantling the structures that hinder

those most affected. Instead, it is focused solely on social methods and individual attitudes. In addition,

none of the social or political topics touched on include reform or policy change. Due to the fact that the

CRRF is credited to the Canadian Government, there is an immediate feeling that this is only to showcase

Canada's innocence as a once racist country. Ironically, the same government that once promoted slaves,

reservations and residential schools now seems to be highly invested in funding the damage control.

Following this, the vision and mission statements revolve around earning reports, including funding
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breakdowns and board of directors. Successively, there are staff working below these directors and so on,

further replicating the hierarchical structure of government. The vision suggests that if we can get over

systemic issues of race relations, we can improve as a society. However, there is no indication of

combating systemic power, hegemony, misogyny and the racialization of spaces. If it spoke to the topics

of the course, we would see a push to decolonize these systems of oppression.

2) What does it do to achieve its mission and goals?

The CRRF is a bureaucratic organization, so the potential for radical change is possible by way of

petition, reform and use of words instead of physical action. The missions and goals of the CRRF include

eliminating racism and sharing knowledge about how to do so. However, the CRRF has proved to

perform with a low track record for bringing any real systematic change to the forefront of Canadian

politics. While attempting to eliminate racism, the CRRF is known for administration of varied human

resources, comprehensive workshops, government funded trainers, etc. The CRRF attempts to

disseminate change in a sparse number of ways. Although ventures are made to see through the

organization’s lofty goals, it is important to make clear that these goals themselves need to be reassessed.

For example, of all the programs and information provided, there is no mention of goals to elevate

Canada’s biggest race relation issues regarding immigrants forced to work under the table. This is

because, from the perspective of the organization, racism is an individual thing that can be removed,

ignored or forgotten. However, racism is a thread in the fabric of society and the simple fact that there is

no institutional change or recognition that this government ran organization is responsible for is a sign of

its ineffectiveness.

3) Discuss and analyze how well the organization advances the achievement of equity/social justice?

The CRRF is an organization run by majority white male CEOs and aspiring politicians. The employees

of the organization all have a history in politics or law leaving the structure of CRRF synonymous with

your average government organization. The CRRF perceives racism as a singular problem and the
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solution as the elimination of the problem. According to the CRRF one is considered valuable if they’ve

overcome their “disability” or “oppression.” Normalcy is the society that negates systemic hindrances for

individual responsibility. The CRRF promotes overcoming oppression and disabilities and becoming a

functioning person in society, but that leaves those oppressed with having to overcome their own bodies.

Those who struggle to survive in low income areas and those who can’t get a job, can’t keep up and are a

threat to society. In the eyes of the organization, those that are struggling attract individual forms of

oppression and the inherent structure of the system has nothing to do with it. The negative skills

developed by those attempting to overcome their situations are classified as illegal. For instance, drug

dealers are jailed, unless those skills are channeled into useful entrepreneurship as we’ve seen with the

cannabis industry, but even in that sector, there is much controversy over allowing those with criminal

records related to cannabis to work within it. This neoliberal, survival of the fittest mentality is inherently

part of a structure where we focus on the individual rather than the collective, and this is not an inclusive

or equitable way of building a race relations organization. This is why the organization has such a small

impact on the everyday Canadian citizen suffering from race related consequences. The very people this

organization claims to help, are the very people they do not include in their staff, programming or

funding. Those they do staff within their organization have the potential and leverage to back important

petitions, set up rallies, improve workshops, engage the youth and heighten the impact of change, but the

facilitators of this organization have no intention of serious political alteration and use the CRRF as a

symbol of perceived reparations.

PART B

1) Write a short summary of the article.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation is an organization that has undertaken this report as part of an

initiative to heighten awareness of Canadian values and traditions and their role in deepening our

collective understanding of what CRRF considers “Canadian identity”. Given Canada's rapidly changing

demographics, the CRRF has written this document to help explain some of the societal norms in Canada,
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for what appears to be for assimilation purposes. This is a clear attempt to give immigrants who have

chosen Canada as their adopted homeland what CRRF would call “a clear sense of Canadian values”. The

report also briefly examines support for French/English bilingualism and multiculturalism, which are key

components of Canada’s imperial history and pluralistic society. The document later touches on attitudes

toward religion, attachment to Canada and the accommodation of diversity. The CRRF has written a very

mundane and patriotic document in an attempt to begin a conversation. According to the authors of this

piece, “by bringing together Canadians of all ages and from all walks of life who are committed to

diversity and multiculturalism, we strengthen our understanding of democracy, as well as of the rights and

responsibilities of citizenship.” In the article, there are many pressing issues regarding imigration and

inclusion that are briefly discussed. Amongst the youth and religion, some more equity central topics of

discussion surround multiculism, bilingualism and assimilation. Many of the points used to support the

arguments presented are sourced through national surveys, census reports and general questions asked of

Canadian citizens to portray that the article was written in the interest of Canadian well-being. Although

flattering, this leaves many of the points and opinions presented in the text to be very biased and non-

inclusive, despite claims of the opposite. A large part of the article centers around newcomers adapting to

the Canadian way of life and how important that is to the current Canadian climate. The main argument of

the text attempts to define “multiculturalism” as the coexistence of diverse cultures and acceptance of

cultural differences, but very little of the article has to do with the steps Canada is taking to understand

the lived experience of its newcomers. Unfortunately, very little is said about how difficult the transition

may be for these newcomers, how important it is for newcomers to continue to preserve their own

traditions, and what Canada is doing to accept shortcomings or disabilities of these newcomers. In

addition, a majority of this article is written in an aggressively patriotic tone, prioritizing the values of

Canadians above all else. In an attempt to define Canadian values, the CRRF claims that this article will

help everyone to understand themselves more, but it reads as an explicit assimilation tactic that blatantly

enforces the negation of individual experience and classifies diasabled or racialized bodies as

“abnormal”. This is a fear tactic to ward off those with their own culture, traditions, religion or world
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view from infringing upon or questioning the Canadian colonial system. The same system that promotes

the preservation of the most racist and violent colonies in the world through bilingualism; England and

France. As the article claims, bilingualism does not mean everyone must speak both languages; rather, it

means there is equal access to services in both official languages. I can't help but imagine how those who

speak a language outside of the two main languages are treated. Acting as yet another classification for

discrimination, the underlying subtext seems to suggest that newcomers assimilate to Canadian customs

to make it easier on themselves. At the root of this, again, is the false idea that race relations, and the

struggles connected to it, are a personal issue, not a systemic one. The problem is the suggestion that one

could learn a language, dress the right way or make enough money to eliminate the problem. “What is

being imagined or projected on to specific spaces and bodies, and what is being enacted there?...How are

people kept in their place? And, finally, how does place become race?” (Razack, 2002, p. 5) This is an

organization that is completely based in wishful thinking, and therefore, there is a wide range of ideas and

beliefs within this text that is projected upon its target audience. The write up reads as somewhat of a

manual for navigating Canadian systemic control rather than an investigation into problems and solutions.

This is a form of social control that is prevalent across our society as people are kept in their place with

reminders of how different they are. The normalcy projected within this article is the result of a society

that was built on imperialism, slavery, conquests and racism, yet it is painted as the result of good will,

multiculturalism and diversity. The website says that those willing to make themselves at home in Canada

should be willing to forgo their traditions and cultural way of life to fit in. Although the text is an obvious

ploy at seeming inclusive, the ultimate point is to resist the actual change and inclusive behaviour

necessary to create systemic change. The undertone that can be felt through the text is a strong air of

inequity and indifference to various minority experiences. Through tactics of fear, ableism, radicalization

of space and instilling a survival of the fittest mentality, this document is a subtle and covert tool that

enforces confusion about one's own lived experience. While diverting attention from the real problem and

obfuscating the real solutions, this text is a form of patriotism that has hindered the true benefits of

multiculturalism from taking place. Instead of learning about the individuals who are coming to the
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country and fashioning the system to include them, this text reinforces the fine line of acceptance they

tread.