UN official speaks out on racism

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After spending 12 days in Canada in September, the United Nations'special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance wants to send a message to Canada's federal and provincial governments.

Racism is alive and flourishing in this country, which boasts internationally of its progressive attitudes towards multiculturalism.

In the areas of housing, employment, education and health, which Doudou Diene describes as the strongest indicators of whether discrimination exists in a country, "the situation of the minorities, and the Indigenous peoples in particular, are clear revelations that they are discriminated against."

Diene, a former diplomat from the West African nation of Senegal, was appointed to the world's most influential position in the fight against racism on Sept. 12, 2002.

Diene visited five Canadian cities-Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto and Regina-and one First Nation-Piapot in Saskatchewan-during his visit, hearing from government officials and from groups seeking his assistance in getting government attention for their grievances.

He heard presentations from the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, the James Bay Crees, Treaty 4 and the Union of Ontario Indians.

"My mandate is to draft every year a report for the UN human rights commission and the UN general assembly on the situation of racism, discrimination and xenophobia in the world,"Diene said during an interview conducted at the end of his Canadian tour. "This report is based on information I receive to assess the global situation."

Diene said he had received complaints from minority communities in Canada.

"So I wanted to come to assess the situation with the spirit to contribute to the solutions which the government authority and the people of Canada are going to find," he said.

"When my program was being prepared, I was interested strongly in visiting and encountering members of the First Nations. I even required that my program be structured in such a way that I can visit the members of the First Nations in their place of living. This is what I did in Saskatchewan," he said. "I went to their houses to observe their conditions of living and even attended a powwow that was organized by the Cree community there and even had a dance with them. It was a very strong experience for me."

He said he would be taking home an "extraordinary body of documentation" to read and consider before finalizing his report in early December. It will be presented to the United Nations general assembly and the Commission on Human Rights in March 2004.

Diene gives credit to Canada for some of the steps it has taken to address discrimination, but he is encouraging officials to take bolder action.

He also suggested that authorities in Canada are not yet fully motivated to combat racism.

"Canada has not yet reached to the strategy that I'm promoting, which is an intellectual and moral and ethical strategy which will allow Canada to get to the deep root causes of the culture and the mentality of racial discrimination. This is very important to be done, to link to the legal strategy.

Because every day we are witnessing the fact that in countries like South Africa and the U.S. and elsewhere where racism has been an historical, profound factor, when even a very well drafted legal strategy has been adopted, from time to time there are incidents and acts which reveals there still exists and is very profound the feeling of hostility and discrimination among communities. So it's highly important in this context and conclusion that the combat against racism be very closely linked to the construction of a long-term, democratic, vibrant and equal multicultural society," he said.