Over the past week there have been numerous instances of violence against people of African descent by police in the news, both in the United States and Canada. This news has been deeply heartbreaking and angering and has prompted large-scale protests across the US, Canada, and here in HRM.
This violence, and these Black deaths, comes in the midst of a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted communities of colour, including Black communities. As the Justice for Regis Nova Scotia Coalition said in a statement over the weekend “Across Canada and in the United States, we have seen during this crisis that Black and Indigenous lives are not only disproportionately affected by COVID-19 due to racism, marginalization, and historical deprivation, but that our communities are also targeted by police for enforcement.”
Dartmouth North is home to a historical and significant population of African Nova Scotian people, and I want to send a message of compassionate solidarity to the community. Racist acts and systemic racism is not an American problem: many Black people do not feel safe in streets, green spaces, institutions and in neighbourhoods and homes, here in Nova Scotia. Just last month anti-Black graffiti was spray-painted on a rock near Shelburne. And last year the Wortley report on street checks echoed what the African Nova Scotian community has been telling us for decades, Black people in Halifax are six times more likely to be street checked by police.
As a white person, a legislator, and African Nova Scotian affairs spokesperson for the NSNDP, I take seriously my role in addressing and taking action on this problem. It is up to us to call out racist acts and work to address the systemic racism that is at play in many of our government systems. I recommit myself to working with members of African Nova Scotian/Black community in this province to enact legislation that will make life better, safer, equitable for people of African descent.
If you are looking for a way to support the local African Nova Scotian community I encourage you to donate Black Lives Matter Solidarity Fund NS, which gives $100 grants to African Nova Scotian people during this pandemic. My office has directed constituents from Dartmouth North to this fund, and they need help finishing their payments to all of the people who have applied: https://us17.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/show?id=747588
In Solidarity. Black lives matter.
Susan Leblanc, MLA Dartmouth North
[Image by Tomahawk Greyeyes for the Akonadi Foundation]