LETTER: Sault working to be more welcoming

SooToday received the following letter to the editor from Charles Cirtwill, president and CEO of Northern Policy Institute, in response to 'LETTER: NPI survey about racism in Sault has many gaps' published March 20. 

I read with interest a letter to the editor of SooToday from local resident Jeff Arbus.

Arbus is correct. From the perspective of racism, discrimination, and social justice, things have gotten worse globally. An OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) study in 2019 reported that “with the onset of the economic and financial crisis, social justice has deteriorated – on average – in the OECD and EU countries surveyed by the OECD’s Social Justice Index (SJI).”

But, as with the Northern Policy Institute (NPI) survey on which Arbus was commenting, things are not quite that simple. Things are worse than they were before 2014, but they have been getting consistently better since then. In fact, since 2014, “the OECD’s Social Justice Index shows a slight but ongoing upward trend” even though “the overall score remains below the pre-crisis level.”

Furthermore, the slippage is not across the board. It is driven by declines, in some cases significant declines, in particular countries. As the OECD authors very correctly point out, “there are still striking discrepancies regarding available opportunities to participate in society” that can be found in the countries surveyed.

Fortunately, Canada is not one of those cited by the OECD as problematic. The country ranked 12th out of 41 countries in 2019 on the SJI. On integration, the OECD said, “Canada maintained its strong record in integration and continues to set an example for others.” The United States, however, has fallen significantly. Its integration score, once equal to Canada’s, has now fallen by half, placing the US 24th out of 41 countries on this score. Overall, the US dropped to 36th out of 41. Things are not good south of the border.

But south of the border is not where we live. Canada ranked fourth in equitable education, 10th in labour market access and sixth in social inclusion and non-discrimination. That doesn’t mean things are perfect. On poverty prevention, Canada was 25th out of those 41 rich countries. Inter-generational justice was another dismal showing at 25th, and health care, while not as dire, was still worse than our overall score.

The point from the OECD analysis is that, overall, Canada is in pretty good shape. But there are still lots of areas in need of work. Which, unsurprisingly, is exactly what the respondents to the recent NPI survey had to say.

Let’s have a look at some of the results for Sault Ste. Marie, in particular.

First, a significant majority of respondents felt Sault Ste, Marie, overall, was a welcoming place. When looking at subsets of respondents, most of those who self-identified as Indigenous or as a visible minority also felt the community was largely welcoming.

Clearly, the work cited by Arbus of the municipal council, municipal staff, and local advocates is having an impact. Sault Ste. Marie should be proud of those efforts and pleased that they appear to work. Advocates should also be encouraged that respondents are clearly in this for the long hall. Similar majorities, across the board, felt that Sault Ste. Marie would become more welcoming over the next ten years.

But again, not everything is sweetness and light. Two trends in the responses should be extremely concerning to the people of Sault Ste Marie. Indeed they should be of concern to residents in all five of Northern Ontario’s largest urban centres because the trends appeared in all five communities.

First, the respondents highlighted a clear and observable gap between how welcoming we are to visible minorities versus how welcoming we are to Indigenous peoples. The legal system was cited as one area where survey respondents noted higher rates of institutional and systemic bias against people of Indigenous descent. Reconciliation (social, economic, and societal) is clearly one area where increased efforts need to be made.

Second, respondents highlighted an extremely concerning variance between the growing welcomingness of our systems and institutions and the lack of growth in welcomingness of us as individuals. It was individual racism, the day-to-day interaction between people, that was consistently highlighted as being more problematic than barriers at work or in education. This is a challenge that each member of the Sault Ste Marie community should take to heart.

In closing, let me cite the executive summary of the recent survey released by NPI: the findings from the online and telephone survey conducted in February 2022 indicated that “most respondents felt Sault Ste. Marie is welcoming and that people of different backgrounds generally get along.” Recognizing we still have a long way to go to eliminate racism and discrimination, this is a pretty good place to start the next leg of our journey.

Charles Cirtwill, President and CEO of Northern Policy Institute