Anti-black racism
Neighbourhood Legal Services (“NLS”) is outraged by the deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd who represent the latest of too many who have died in lethal interactions with the police. NLS understands the collective grief experienced at this time and it is aware of the specific stress, grief and triggering impact that these recent fatalities have caused on our board members, colleagues, clients, community partners and friends who are Black.
We acknowledge that these recent deaths are reflective of a very long history of anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence too often perpetrated by state actors, institutions and agencies. In a 2018 CBC News investigation focusing on the period of 2000-2017, it was found that Black people comprised 36.5 per cent of deaths involving Toronto police while only making up 8.3 per cent of city’s population (Deadly Force: Fatal Encounters with the police in Canada: 2000-2017, Jacques Marcoux and Katie Nicholson). This same study identified that “more than 70 per cent of victims suffer from mental health and substance abuse problems”. This means that at least some of the Black persons who died at the hands of the police were also experiencing substance abuse issues and mental health crises. NLS recognizes that when racism interlocks with other systems of oppression like poverty, gender identity etc., it heightens the likelihood of encounters of anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence.
NLS understands that it too is part of a network of state agencies that are complicit in perpetrating anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence. However, NLS commits to being actively anti-racist by among other things, continuing to educate ourselves about implicit bias and systems of oppression as well as reflecting on how we can work internally and externally to dismantle systems of racism.
We acknowledge that these recent deaths are reflective of a very long history of anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence too often perpetrated by state actors, institutions and agencies. In a 2018 CBC News investigation focusing on the period of 2000-2017, it was found that Black people comprised 36.5 per cent of deaths involving Toronto police while only making up 8.3 per cent of city’s population (Deadly Force: Fatal Encounters with the police in Canada: 2000-2017, Jacques Marcoux and Katie Nicholson). This same study identified that “more than 70 per cent of victims suffer from mental health and substance abuse problems”. This means that at least some of the Black persons who died at the hands of the police were also experiencing substance abuse issues and mental health crises. NLS recognizes that when racism interlocks with other systems of oppression like poverty, gender identity etc., it heightens the likelihood of encounters of anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence.
NLS understands that it too is part of a network of state agencies that are complicit in perpetrating anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence. However, NLS commits to being actively anti-racist by among other things, continuing to educate ourselves about implicit bias and systems of oppression as well as reflecting on how we can work internally and externally to dismantle systems of racism.
We are using the word ‘Black’ because many within the movement have chosen to identify as such and we respect the right to self-identify
