Canada is promoted as a multicultural country.
Back in 1988, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act was enacted to protect the cultural heritage of Canadians, reduce discrimination, and promote the importance of diversity in race, ethnicity, language, and religion.
This all ties into Black History Month, where every February since 1978, people all across Canada participate in events and celebrations that honours and amplifies the voices of Black Canadians and their communities.
The theme of Black History Month for 2025 in Canada is “Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations.” The theme acknowledges the diversity of Black Canadians, underscoring the importance of Black leadership and the legacy being built for future generations.
Sheridan College is celebrating Black History Month with the theme of “Celebrating the Mosaic: Black is Limitless” where people explore the richness of Black people and cultures.
However, despite the Multiculturalism Act and Black History Month being established, racism has continued to exist at both an individual and structural levels in Canadian society.
In 2017, about 43 percent of hate crimes were motivated by hatred of race or ethnicity, and from 2018 to 2022, over 6,900 related hate crimes motivated by race were reported by police in Canada, with 2022 reporting over 28 percent of hate crimes that year.
“So anyone can be racist towards anybody, even if they’re the same race. So like two brown people can be racist like towards you or someone else can say that to you like your food stinks it’s like anybody, everybody is racist, technically in some way,” said, Riya Rana, a second year Architectural technician student at Sheridan College.
Racism, racial profiling, and stereotyping can be extremely negative towards people of other ethnic groups, especially towards post secondary students. In fact, Indigenous college students in Canada have been found to experience more racism than African or Latino American students in the U.S. and one study of First Nations adults across Canada found that 99 per cent of participants experienced at least one instance of discrimination in the last year.
According to a 2016 Census, there are approximately 1.2 million African Canadians, which accounts for 3.5 percent of the population in Canada. Because of the global prevalence of anti-Black racism, Black individuals have various difficulties like racial profiling, carding, heightened encounters with law enforcement, and socioeconomic disadvantages.
Canada has yet to provide a national database for use of force and subsequent deaths by police. In fact, Canada doesn’t collect race-based statistics for police-reported crime stats. A study of 50 African Canadian women living in Nova Scotia provided evidence for racial trauma, as participants reported experiencing various types of racism throughout every factor of their daily life.
“One day I had a white customer at my store, I work at Metro, and she gave me a really hard time just because I was brown and then she talked to some other white girl and she was so nice to her and I was like okay I treated her so nice but she was mean to me because I’m brown,” said Harsimran Dulay, a second year Architectural technician student at Sheridan College.
To this day, racism still affects many people not just in Canada but all across the world. This includes students in public and post secondary education. This is why Black History Month exists, so people can both address the culture of the black community but also educate people to stop the spread of racist ideas.