BLAC Statement on Policing and Anti-Black Racism
Over the past weeks, Canadians have witnessed what members of the Black community have experienced for generations: the horrific mistreatment of Black people by the police. Our communities have long been hyper-surveilled and over policed; our minds and bodies have long been subjected to inhumanity, cruelty, violence and even death. Our experiences of violence have […]
BLAC Submissions on Bill 161
BLAC is concerned that Bill 161, Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2020 proposes to change LAO’s core mandate of promoting access to justice for low-income Ontario residents. At this critical time, BLAC believes that this will have a negative impact on the Black community and will create a further crisis of access to justice that […]
BLAC Statement on the Education System and the Peel District School Board Review
BLAC’s work over the past year has confirmed for us that educational institutions continue to be spaces for the perpetuation of horrendous anti-Black racism. Like others in our community who have worked on these issues for years, we also understand that reports, investigations into or reviews of the school system or boards, whether they be […]
An Open Letter to Ontario Mayors and Police Chiefs re: Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act
BLAC calls on provincial and municipal governments to be proactive during this challenging time and commit to ensuring that the emergency measures are not misused and/or applied in a discriminatory manner. We strongly urge all levels of government to ensure that any measures taken are in accordance with Canada’s international human rights obligations and domestic […]
An Open Letter to the University of Windsor
BLAC is deeply concerned about the ongoing anti-Black racism1 and racial profiling occurring on the University of Windsor campus and in the wider community. Since BLAC opened its doors to the public in March of 2019, we have become acutely aware, through work with our community, and affirmed through recent media reports2, that many school […]
An Open Letter to Ministers re: Laval Immigration Holding Centre & Hunger Strike
The Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is a not-for-profit corporation incorporated under the laws of Ontario to combat individual and systemic anti-Black racism by providing legal services to members of Ontario’s diverse Black communities. We are writing this Open Letter to you to voice our support for the migrants in detention, who were on hunger […]
An Open Letter from BLAC on the state of human rights in Ontario
On January 14, 2020, Premier Doug Ford seemingly circumvented the provincial appointment process to appoint two people to sit as Commissioners with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC). A Commissioner’s role is to govern the OHRC and to provide it with strategic direction. The OHRC is supposed to be an independent and impartial organization that […]
Feigned Outrage
When images of Prime Minister Trudeau in blackface, appeared several weeks ago, there was tremendous shock, and a frantic public and very political discussion about his racist and offensive behaviour. Blackface is a very troubling legacy of the slavery that existed in Canada1 and the United States. Its true purpose, outside of the amusement of […]
Statement by The Black Legal Action Centre on Emancipation Day
The Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) was created to challenge and eradicate individual and systemic anti-Black racism. BLAC, and all those who we work with and learn from, have much work to do to make this vision a reality. Today, on Emancipation Day, we are especially cognizant of the work that remains to be done. […]
Submissions to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy Bill 108
BLAC was born out of the needs of the Black community, specifically as it relates to the disproportionate and troubling ways in which Black people are mistreated, scrutinized and brutalized by legal institutions and systems of power. The experiences of Black Canadians today are rooted in our country’s history of colonialism, slavery and segregation. Even […]
