UN expert Gay McDougall evaluates Canada

The United Nations’ independent expert on minority issues has said there is “limited discussion” in Canada about the impact of race. Gay McDougall is visiting Canada this month to examine this country’s human-rights laws and policies. In an interview at the Georgia Straight offices, McDougall said part of her work will focus on “what the reality is like on the ground” for ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities.

“There are few countries I’ve been to that seem to have as little discussion as I’ve found so far in Canada,” McDougall said. “It’s perplexing, especially when I look at the figures. Now, I’m hoping to be convinced that—as some in government have said to me—that this is not the line that divides people. But given the openness of the multicultural debate, I find it very interesting that there is so limited a discussion about race as a factor.”

McDougall, a Yale-educated American lawyer who was appointed to her position in 2005, said that her examinations of countries cover four broad areas: violence against minority communities; whether there is an “enabling environment” for minorities’ cultures, languages, traditions, and religions; discrimination issues involving such factors as poverty, education, and employment; and political participation of minorities and their inclusion in decision-making bodies.

She said she has “questions” about the limited responsibility taken by the federal government for the enforcement of fundamental rights. “I look at policies and institutions, and the strength and viability of institutions to enforce and guarantee rights,” McDougall stated. She expects to present a report about Canada to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2010.

McDougall said her work is guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which Canada ratified in 1970. She suggested that “significant differentials in income, income security, [and] net worth” would attract her attention if the divide was along racial, ethnic, or religious lines.

In 2007, SFU economist Krishna Pendakur told the Straight that 2001 census information revealed that Canadian-born Caucasian males earned 14 percent more than Canadian-born visible-minority males of a similar age, educational background, family type, and city of residence. Visible-minority females earned, on average, four percent less than their female Caucasian counterparts.

UBC geographer Daniel Hiebert recently published a paper noting that Canadian-born males had an average income of $50,461 in 2005, whereas immigrant males earned an average of $37,242. Immigrant females earned an average of $24,431 in 2005, compared with $32,408 for Canadian-born women. “Studies conducted at the national level have documented a steep decline in the initial earnings of immigrants over the period 1980 to 2005 and have reported that a large proportion of immigrants fall into the low-income category, as defined by Statistics Canada,” Hiebert wrote.

McDougall also said that signatories to the UN treaty must help minority groups perpetuate their languages and cultures. “So language education—mother-tongue education at the lower levels of schooling—is very important,” she said. “It’s a right that others have, beyond French-language speakers.”

She closed the interview by saying she will issue a preliminary statement on Friday (October 23).

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