Today’s on-going political unrest and large-scale protests are a clear reflection of systemic racism and have real impacts on individuals and their health in our communities in Ontario. This kind of discriminatory hurt can pull apart the communities that we all live and work in.

Systemic racism impacts the delivery of health and social services for many minorities including Blacks, Indigenous people and People of Colour. There is strong evidence now that COVID-19 has augmented these systemic inequalities.

It is only by acknowledging these impacts and their root causes that we can start addressing them. At OCSA, we commit to listening and learning from those who experienced this every day in order to ensure our actions work towards eliminating them.

We call on the provincial government to declare racism as a public health crisis and ensure Black communities and other minorities have access to culturally appropriate home and community care services and develop a clearly articulated, targeted and systemic anti-Black racism strategy.