On September 9th, 2021, British Columbia's Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism, Rachna Singh, launched a public engagement process, to gather feedback on legislation that will be introduced in 2022 to improve the Province’s ability to identify and address systemic racism in government policies, programs and services through data collection. The Inclusion Project invites community members to this webinar discussion to support this important process.

The session will be held on Zoom, facilitated by our CEO, Ruth Mojeed Ramirez.

Date: Friday, January 28, 2022. Time: 10:00am - 11:30am PST.

The B.C. Government (“Government”) is committed to tackling systemic racism in public sector policies, programs, and services. Data is needed to better understand how Government policies, programs and services have an impact on Indigenous, Black/People of African descent and other racialized communities. Members of Black/People of African descent, Indigenous and racialized communities have advocated for race-based data collection in support of this goal. Government will introduce legislation next year on race-based data collection. Race-based data collection is about better identifying where gaps and barriers exist for Black/People of African descent, Indigenous and other racialized communities, so Government can provide better services and ensure that services are delivered equitably.

Goals

1. To invite participants to share perspectives on different ways to categorize race, ethnicity, ancestry, and faith. This will help Government understand how people in B.C. prefer to identify or represent themselves before we start collecting race-based data.

2. To invite participants to share perspectives on how they would want to provide this information to Government. This will help to understand people’s comfort levels with race-based data collection in different situations.

3. To invite participants to share perspectives on how the information should be accessed and used so that Government can work towards racial equity in priority areas.

4. To invite participants to share perspectives on which Government services have the most inequities and require the greatest need for change.

Consent

• Your participation is voluntary and will be anonymous.

• You can decide not to participate at any time.

• Zoom session will be recorded for report development purposes only.