Environmental justice advocates are celebrating Bill C-226’s reception of royal assent on June 20, 2024. First introduced by former MP Lenore Zann as, Bill C-226 – now known as the National Strategy of Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act – represents the Government of Canada’s commitment to offering “affected communities with the opportunity to participate in… finding solutions to address harm caused by environmental racism.”
The Act requires the government to develop a national strategy within the next two years that includes a study on the link between race, socioeconomic status and environmental risk. The government must also investigate ways to address environmental racism including amendments to laws and policies, compensation for affected groups and allowing communities to participate in environmental decision-making.
© Marilyn Nieves
What Is Environmental Racism?
Environmental racism is a form of systemic racism where Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities are disproportionately affected by environmentally hazardous projects and industrial sites. A 2020 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights revealed a “pattern in Canada where marginalized groups, and Indigenous peoples in particular, find themselves on the wrong side of a toxic divide, subject to conditions that would not be acceptable elsewhere in Canada.”
Examples of affected communities include:
Africville, an African Nova Scotian community where Black Canadians were forcibly displaced from their homes by the City Council of Halifax to build polluting industries like a tar factory and a fertilizer plant;
Aamjiwnaang First Nation – located in what is known as Canada’s Chemical Valley in Sarnia, Ontario – where the community declared a state of emergency on April 25, 2024, due to the dangerously high levels of benzene in the air; and
Grassy Narrows First Nation, whose members continue to fight for access to equitable healthcare after decades of mercury contamination in the English-Wabigoon River.
Humber River © Michael CC_BY_2.0
Marginalized groups often do not have equitable access to healthcare and affordable housing. They also bear the brunt of climate emergencies like intense heat waves and pollution.
Professor Ingrid Waldron, founder of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities & Community Health Project (the ENRICH Project), notes that environmental racism does not only refer to the physical exposure of pollutants and contamination but “the lack of political power these communities have to fight back against the placement of these industries” within their proximity.
In Pursuit of Environmental Justice
The passage of this Act speaks to the larger context of the already-existing environmental justice movement in Canada. Grassroots organizing has been a crucial component of sparking national concern over hazardous sites impeding Indigenous, Black and racialized people’s right to healthy lives. Groups like the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice, Black Environmental Initiative and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment have been advocating for the Canadian government to recognize the reality of environmental racism and act to address this injustice.
© Kali9
A Call to Action
Environmental racism impacts both people and nature. Diversifying the conservation movement is essential for finding solutions to the most pressing issues our communities and environment face today.
Ontario Nature recognizes that protecting wild species and wild spaces cannot be accomplished without the important contributions of Indigenous, Black and other racialized peoples. The people of Ontario must recognize the unequal impacts of pollution on marginalized communities and find ways to support progressive legislation, like Bill C-226.
You can become an Advocate for Nature today to be a part of a community dedicated to making everyone’s voices heard.
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