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© Lora Denis
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Environmental justice advocates are celebrating Bill C-226’s reception of royal assent on June 20, 2024. First introduced by former MP Lenore Zann as, Bill C-226 – now known as the National Strategy of Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act – represents the Government of Canada’s commitment to offering “affected communities with the opportunity to participate in… finding solutions to address harm caused by environmental racism.”
The Act requires the government to develop a national strategy within the next two years that includes a study on the link between race, socioeconomic status and environmental risk. The government must also investigate ways to address environmental racism including amendments to laws and policies, compensation for affected groups and allowing communities to participate in environmental decision-making.
Environmental racism is a form of systemic racism where Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities are disproportionately affected by environmentally hazardous projects and industrial sites. A 2020 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights revealed a “pattern in Canada where marginalized groups, and Indigenous peoples in particular, find themselves on the wrong side of a toxic divide, subject to conditions that would not be acceptable elsewhere in Canada.”
Examples of affected communities include:
Marginalized groups often do not have equitable access to healthcare and affordable housing. They also bear the brunt of climate emergencies like intense heat waves and pollution.
Professor Ingrid Waldron, founder of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities & Community Health Project (the ENRICH Project), notes that environmental racism does not only refer to the physical exposure of pollutants and contamination but “the lack of political power these communities have to fight back against the placement of these industries” within their proximity.
The passage of this Act speaks to the larger context of the already-existing environmental justice movement in Canada. Grassroots organizing has been a crucial component of sparking national concern over hazardous sites impeding Indigenous, Black and racialized people’s right to healthy lives. Groups like the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice, Black Environmental Initiative and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment have been advocating for the Canadian government to recognize the reality of environmental racism and act to address this injustice.
Environmental racism impacts both people and nature. Diversifying the conservation movement is essential for finding solutions to the most pressing issues our communities and environment face today.
Ontario Nature recognizes that protecting wild species and wild spaces cannot be accomplished without the important contributions of Indigenous, Black and other racialized peoples. The people of Ontario must recognize the unequal impacts of pollution on marginalized communities and find ways to support progressive legislation, like Bill C-226.
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Northern leopard frog © Jozsef Szasz-Fabian
What an eye opening article! The article put together impacts of environmental government decisions on marginalized groups that should be in the forefront rather than an afterthought.
Great step forward!