The people of Ontario have spoken and we now have a new government; a Liberal government elected with an overwhelming majority. I am not going to say anything about "absolute power." We will just have to wait and see what happens over the next four years.
However, I have noticed that the new government has not addressed an issue that is of concern to people of colour in this province and in the entire country. That issue is racism. I know that there are people who experience racism who will not even acknowledge that it exists. We experience racism in every area of our lives. We experience racism on a daily basis. Racism erodes our self-esteem and affects our mental and physical health. Even if we think we can ignore it, the effects eventually harm us like water wearing away at a stone. Sometimes it catches us unaware.
A parent recently came home from work to find an envelope left at her door. When she opened the envelope there was a notice warning her that she was banned from her seven-year-old child's school. This woman, who is the chairperson of the parent council at her child's school, was seen as a threat by the principal. When a parent is treated like that, imagine what happens to our children in this school. The Safe Schools Act is used by racist educators to harass and victimize parents and students. This is of grave concern because our children must be educated and we must be involved in their education.
The other system that causes concern is the policing system. We cannot continue to tiptoe around this issue and hide our heads in the sand. This will not just go away if we ignore it.
In the past few weeks there have been numerous incidents of police brutality of African youths. Two male police officers strip-searched a 14-year-old African Canadian female child in St. JamesTown. Nearby, at 269 Jarvis, several police officers pepper sprayed a young African Canadian male in the building where he lives. They were so enthusiastic in their task that they accidentally pepper sprayed two of their cohorts. Those two police were quickly rushed to hospital for treatment. The young man who was suffering from being pepper sprayed was not taken to hospital. Bystanders asked the police why they were not taking this young man to hospital also. The young man was pepper sprayed to such an extent that he was in obvious distress. The bystanders were told that they would be charged with obstructing police.
The police continue to brutalize us because there are no consequences for this behaviour. We need to make this an election issue. We did not make this an issue of the provincial election. Municipal elections are on Monday, November 10. We must hold politicians accountable for the decisions they make regarding the over-policing of African people. We have more than anecdotal evidence. As we all know, racial profiling existed even before we had a name for it. We have to stop being afraid to speak out and name this horror.
It is a horror when police are allowed to strip search our children in public. It is a horror when police are allowed to point guns at children. It is a horror when police are allowed to brutalize us and not suffer any consequences. We have to protest when they are invited into the schools where our children attend and they arrive armed to the teeth to stand in classrooms. In those classrooms are children who have been traumatized by seeing police point guns at them or their friends or relatives. Imagine the helpless rage, the trauma of being made to sit in a classroom and listen to the hypocrisy.
We need to be especially vigilant about police because they can legally carry guns, which they can use to kill or maim and never be held accountable. No one else in this society has that power. The police force is the place where the White supremacists can safely act out their hatred towards us.
We must ask the people who are vying to become mayor and councillors how they plan to deal with this issue. Our lives and the lives of our children depend on the decision we make at the ballot box on November 10.