Pervasive Racism???

This is an important article in the Financial Post today. Martin Loney looks at the Ontario Human Rights Commission and it's persistent belief that racism is pervasive.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is a powerful organization whose investigative and prosecutorial powers can result in the imposition of substantial legal costs and penalties on the province's employers. Unfortunately, the commission's zeal is not backed by any understanding of how labour markets work, or how discrimination should be measured.

The commission's new statement for employers, Policy and Guidelines on Racism and Racial Disadvantage, is a remarkable document, a vivid testament to how far politically correct orthodoxy has taken the place of intellectual inquiry. The OHRC takes at face value the claims of radical feminists and their academic allies that racism is endemic in Canada. It is assumed in the turgid prose, which on the first page speaks of "racialized" persons, claiming victim status for a group that comprises more than 43% of the city of Toronto and some 50% of the city of Vancouver. What characterizes this group? Rampant discrimination, which leaves them disproportionately impoverished, imprisoned, denied access to upper-management positions, facing barriers to accessing health care, housing and employment.

If there's any relief to this gloomy picture, the OHRC is unaware of it. The fact that statistics conclusively show that visible minorities born in Canada earn just as much as other Canadians with similar age, gender, educational and occupational profiles provides an obvious refutation. Visible minorities born in Canada are the only group with whom a reasonable comparison can be made since they share common language, education and qualification characteristics. If racism is widespread, then obviously it affects this group, who must, in consequence, experience markedly less success than their white counterparts. There are indications that far from such disadvantage, visible minorities are more successful, 50% more likely to graduate from university and 40% more likely to be in professional occupations. What little data is available suggests incarceration rates are above average for black Canadians and substantially below average for South Asian and Chinese Canadians. How is this consistent with the commission's instruction that "racial discrimination and racism must be acknowledged as a pervasive and continuing reality?" How is it possible that the commission's policy is based, as it claims, on extensive research? For the commission research consists of quoting race industry "experts" such as Carol Tator and Frances Henry, and cases where it has persuaded the courts of its own expansive views.