Last night I attended an excellent panel discussion on the case for reparations to Black communities in Nova Scotia. It’s hard to write about these kinds of things, here is just some of what I heard.
“Like in law enforcement, criminal justice, housing, employment, education racism also plays a role in the healthcare system. How could it not be,” writes Raymond Sheppard. “To address disparities in healthcare, those involved in the delivery of healthcare must first acknowledge that discrimination and anti-Black racism in the system are real.”
After reading about Dr. Lynn Jones’ negative experience with staff in the QEII Emergency Department, Carol Millett wrote this letter to the Premier listing seven concrete actions that will begin to address the systemic racism many Black people face when accessing our health care system
Long time trade union and anti-racism activist Dr. Lynn Jones is upset about the way she was treated by several staff members during a recent visit to the QEII emergency department in Halifax.
Over and over Black people tell of racism in Nova Scotia, and then there are the stats, but still the message isn’t getting through. Historian Jill Campbell-Miller on the origin of this reluctance to accept that racism is for real, and how a knowledge of history can counteract this disbelief.
A broad and sweeping joint effort to repair relations between the Town of Truro and the African Nova Scotian community in that town is lauded as a historical event, not just for Truro or Nova Scotia, but perhaps even for Canada.
Press release: Recently, Dr. Lynn Jones and two elders of the Black community in Truro were racially profiled when they were approached and questioned by police while watching deer on the side of the road near Jones’ home.
This incident demonstrates the problem of racial profiling and the negative relationship that exists between police and the black community is a provincial wide issue.
Dr. Lynn Jones was questioned by Truro police when she stopped to watch deer, right in the historic African Nova Scotian Truro neighborhood where her family has lived for many generations. “Please add me to the list of African Nova Scotians who are constantly being racially profiled in this province for no valid reason and while you’re at it, give your constituents in Truro and your Town police a lesson in white privilege , anti Black racism and the history of the founding people of our province and Truro,” she writes in an open letter to Truro’s mayor.
Join us at Saint Mary’s University Halifax for this #AfricanHeritageMonth panel discussion. Speakers Dr. Lynn Jones, Delvina Bernard and Francesca Ekwuyasi will look at Nova Scotia and South Africa to explore overlaps, intersections and variations in Black freedom struggles, apartheid and institutionalized racism
With Nova Scotia now officially the province with the lowest minimum wage in the country, some 100 folks gathered at Dalhousie University’s Killam Library this afternoon to demand a raise in the minimum wage, better working conditions altogether, as well as higher social assistance rates. Here is what community activist Lynn Jones told the protesters.