Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples and Politics

L09(a) - Tensions between Anti-Racism and Democratic Rule in Canada and in Canadian Foreign Policy

Date: Jun 4 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Emerson Murray (NorthWestern University)

The political discussion of Islamophobia in Canada: Ahmed Al-Rawi (Simon Fraser University)
Abstract: Due to its fluid nature, Islamophobia cannot be confined to a single universally agreed definition because of the fact that its manifestations across the globe widely vary in scope and variety (Ganesh et al., 2023, p.902). The most recent conceptualization of Islamophobia as a political and in some cases legal notion in geo-culturally different contexts as well as academic debates over defining the term has further complicated scholarly endeavors to provide a monolithic definition (Lean, 2019, p. 11). Further diversifying the definitions of Islamophobia are attempts around the world, including in Canada, to provide a theoretically and practically comprehensive definition in a bid to counteract cases of Islamophobia targeting Muslim communities locally. This study offers a detailed understanding of the Canadian Parliament’s discussion of the terms “Islamophobia” and “Islamophobic”. The results show 450 speeches were made by different political parties since 2011 mostly by the Liberal Party (51%) followed by the NDP (23%). The goal of the study is twofold: First, it attempts to show the understanding and use or even possible abuse of these terms. Second, it offers a contextualization of when and how the terms are used as it is often mentioned when racist or terrorist attacks are committed against Canadian Muslims to better understand the nature of polarized political discussions in Canada.

The politics of antiracism and Canada’s response to the Israel-Hamas War: Yasmeen Abu-Laban (University of Alberta), Abigail Bakan (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Canada and other Western countries have seen a disturbing trend over the past few years where multiple forms of racism are on the rise. This includes anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Asian racisms, as well as antisemitism and Islamophobia. The Liberal government of Canada adopted a comprehensive anti-racism strategy across all federal government departments -- originally in 2019, and updated again in 2024, this time in the context of what has widely been seen as a genocide in Gaza resulting from the Israel’s response after the events of October 7, 2023. However, some civil society concerns that were addressed in public consultations remain unaddressed, particularly regarding antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism, reflected in two key questions: Why has the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism (which includes examples of antisemitism where 7 of 11 focus on the state of Israel) been retained in the 2024 plan, since it is highly controversial? Why is anti-Palestinian racism not included, given the Palestinian diaspora in Canada and the current Israel-Hamas war? Drawing on media accounts, NGO statements and reports, and government documents, in this paper we examine these debates at the federal level to illuminate divergent positions and understandings. We argue that the Liberal government’s response to antiracism is a domestic manifestation of its foreign policy stance in relation to Israel/Palestine. We further argue that the failure to address antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism simultaneously represents a fundamental challenge to dealing with rising white nationalism in Canada and other Western polities.

The Rise and Fall of "Visible Minority" in Canada: Debra Thompson (McGill University), Erin Tolley (Carleton University), Fan Lu (Queen's University)
Abstract: In 2007, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted a paucity of available racially disaggregated data and requested that the Canadian government reflect on the use of the term “visible minority,” which refers to “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” Now, over fifteen years later, the Canadian government has initiated a review of the “visible minority concept” and has slowly begun to heed numerous calls for better and more robust racial data collection practices. What explains the rise and fall of the once-dominant, uniquely and officially Canadian terminology of visible minority, and the demise of decades of institutional resistance to the collection of racial data? This paper argues that these shifts reveal a surprising story about the institutional facilitation, obstruction, and infiltration of evolving social norms, the pitfalls of a centralized statistical system within a federal state, and, ultimately, the unresolved tension between the realities of systemic racism and the color-blind commitments of democratic rule.

L’intersectionnalité à l’ère de la datafication et du technocolonialisme: Geneviève de Breyne-Gagnon (Université du Québec à Montréal), Geneviève Pagé (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Abstract: Au sein de la fonction publique québécoise et chez plusieurs organismes qui sont conviés dans l’exercice de la gouvernance nationale, l’intersectionnalité est fréquemment associée à l’analyse différenciée entre les sexes plus. Elle devient principalement un outil de production de données désagrégées qui visent, selon les instances qui le développent, à prévenir les inégalités. Cependant, cette approche repose sur la multiplication de données quantitatives, effaçant progressivement les dimensions militantes et critiques de l’intersectionnalité, analytique et praxis développées par des militantes afroféministes et chicanas pour analyser les rapports de pouvoir et d’oppression (Collins 1990, Combahee River Collective 1977). Dans ce contexte, comment se fait-il que la réalisation d’une société égalitaire soit principalement perçue comme dépendante de la production et la multiplication d’un vaste ensemble de données désagrégées? Dans le cadre de cette communication, je propose de partager une analyse discursive d’un corpus de textes de la fonction publique québécoise et d’entretiens réalisés dans le cadre de ma thèse. J’explorerai notamment l’association courante de l’intersectionnalité à l’intensification de la production de données désagrégées dans des espaces de gouvernance. M’inspirant du champ émergeant de l’étude critique des données (Minocher et Randall, 2020, Crooks 2022), je cherche à développer une compréhension pratique et théorique du blanchiment de l’intersectionnalité (Bilge 2015) en analysant les formes de technocratisation de l’intersectionnalité au prisme du technocolonialisme (Madianou 2019). Je ferai un bref retour sur l’évolution des usages des données en politiques publiques, en passant du développement des statistiques aux Big datas, de manière à mieux comprendre comment les changements d’usage de l’intersectionnalité sont liés au phénomène désormais bien connu de la datafication (Mejias et Couldry 2019) et au régime qui le sous-tend, c’est-à-dire le technocolonialisme.