Walk a Mile in Their Shoes--Op-Ed

The following is an op-ed by Michael Noonan, acting director and CEO of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

I often wonder what they were feeling on the day they stood up for their dignity in Sharpeville, South Africa. Black men and women had been under the thumb of institutionalized racism for more than 200 years at the southern tip of the African continent. Where did they find the strength and the courage to face the jackboots of the state on March 21, 1960?

We can only speculate about the determination of the anti-apartheid protestors almost 50 years ago. They paid a high price for asserting their dignity as human beings. Hundreds were injured when police applied force to end the demonstration. The death of 69 people turned this watershed moment in the global struggle against racism into the Sharpeville Massacre.

The government of the day in South Africa, under Premier Hendrik Verwoerd, placed the blame on the protestors. If they had just obeyed the pass laws and stayed away from white neighbourhoods they would have been fine, according to that line of reasoning.

It is comforting to blame the victims of racism for their predicament. It absolves the status quo of any responsibility for the choices we make in our daily lives. We can hide behind the banner of multiculturalism and employment equity and argue that we have made the commitment to opening our workplaces and communities to others who have been shut out. Then, when we fail to hold ourselves accountable for actually keeping our promises, we shift the blame to those who never had a chance to breach the barriers of racism and discrimination.

The world finally took notice of the callous display of inhumanity by the South African government in Sharpeville. The United Nations General Assembly condemned the brutality in April 1960 with only South Africa abstaining from the vote. Perhaps world leaders could no longer ignore the blood on their own hands for turning a blind eye to the long history of racism in South Africa.

Since 1966, the world has observed the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre on March 21 - the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Here in Canada, the federal government's March 21 campaign reaches out to schools across the country and encourages young people to "Stop Racism".

The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission is confronted daily with the ongoing challenges posed by racism in our world. The turmoil, sacrifice and achievements of the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s in Canada and the United States echo in the missed opportunities which still confront Nova Scotia's diverse population. We look south of the border at the exciting choices American voters have in this election year and long for a similar burst of progress in Canada.

As we marked March 21 last week, it was with the knowledge that human rights commissions are under attack from many corners. The media has been galvanized by a complaint of discrimination involving a columnist with Maclean's magazine filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress with the federal human rights commission and two provincial commissions. From the perspective of the media, human rights commissions are out of control and assaulting freedom of speech at every opportunity.

Like Chicken Little in the children's story, it appears the sky is falling even though there is scant evidence to back up that assertion. A number of public commentaries I have read have used this issue to call for the abolition of human rights commissions. But whoever said freedom of speech meant you could not be held accountable for what you say and how it might impact another person or group?

In my view, this smacks of the "blame the victim" mentality all over again. The so-called mainstream media have taken an extreme example and used it to divert public attention from the dirty little secrets hiding under the carpet of Canada's grand multicultural tapestry.

I remember when Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa visited Canada during the 1990s. Here was a man who had personal experience with racism and its power to kill the soul of freedom; a man uniquely qualified to know discrimination when he saw it. What did he think when he toured a First Nation community during his visit? He compared the conditions he saw to poverty in the developing world.

Since that time we have witnessed more examples of how Canada's apartheid system, the Indian Act, has robbed First Nations of their indigenous rights, dignity, health, languages, culture and right to a future. It has taken resorting to the courts for the original inhabitants of this continent to reclaim their power to decide their own future and hold government accountable for the promises contained in treaties dating from the 17th century.

Here in Nova Scotia the legacy of racism lingers. As the last inhabitants of Africville fade into memory, there has still been no true apology and recompense made to African Nova Scotians who were pushed from their homes in the name of progress. A memorial plaque at Seaview Park hardly signifies justice for the displaced community of Africville.

It has been more than 14 years since the Black Learners Advisory Committee released its report and recommendations for improving educational opportunities for Nova Scotia's black learners. The dozens of recommendations covered everything from classroom resources to increasing the number of African Nova Scotian teachers and administrators to the creation of institutions to promote sound policy development related to the education of black learners.

And yet try to find a single statistic or report which gives a coherent picture of the progress made on the recommendations in the report and you will call to mind the proverbial needle in the haystack.

The commission recently tried to obtain information on success rates in recruiting African Nova Scotians into education degree programs and we quickly realized that the information is largely non-existent. I am sure the Council on African Canadian Education and the Department of Education's African Canadian Services division are committed to improving the situation for black learners in Nova Scotia, but the scarcity of reliable information certainly complicates their difficult task.

And what of government's accountability? Successive ministries have reaffirmed their support of the Black Learners Advisory Committee report but where are the measurable results? Why does the commission continue to receive complaints about the quality of education being accessed by black learners 14 years after the report hit the shelves?

To those who call for the demise of human rights commissions, I invite you to walk a mile in the shoes of the many Canadians who are still waiting for the promise of multiculturalism and human rights to trickle down to them.

Freedom of speech is an important hallmark of a liberal democracy, but it is defeated when the means to express opinion is concentrated in the hands of a powerful media elite. If Maclean's had been willing to present the dissenting view of the Canadian Islamic Congress, there might never have been a complaint in the first place. Billing oneself as Canada's national magazine would seem to call for a broader expression of opinions.

So as we reflect on the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre I challenge every Nova Scotian to try and imagine yourself in the shoes of those brave men and women who stood up against the tyranny of state-sponsored racism in 1960. Be thankful that you do not have to put your life on the line to enjoy freedom and respect for your human rights. Be thankful for the existence of a human rights commission which is here to fight the good fight and ensure that human dignity is always on the public agenda.