In Summer 2021, my son was disqualified from applying for a free computer programming course because of his race. With my curiosity sparked by his frustration, I have experienced an ongoing series of bureaucratic burlesques while arguing against such obvious racial discrimination.
“SummerUP” is a summer program funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education (and hence by taxpayers of all races) offering free courses to high school students on topics ranging from computer programming to photography to yoga.
My son was interested in learning Java programming through SummerUP. But when we got to the online application process, it requested he confirm his identity as black. It turns out the entire program is only available to black students.
After confirming this overt act of discrimination with his school principal and not getting any answers from my MPP or minister of education, I filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario alleging a breach of the provincial human rights code.
This application resulted in a Kafkaesque descent into a baffling bureaucracy that has dwarfed my experiences in Cold War-era Soviet Union.
A year after my initial submission, the tribunal told me they were ready to look into my complaint. But they needed Form 4A to indicate that I was filing a complaint on behalf of a minor. Why would I need the consent of my son to defend him? I replied that I was the applicant, using my son’s experience as an example of obvious racism.
A few months later the tribunal said it intended to dismiss my complaint due to “failing to identify any specific acts of discrimination.” I explained once more that SummerUP courses are explicitly limited to students of only one race. Surely there is no clearer example of racial discrimination.
Racial discrimination of this sort happens to be perfectly legal in Canada, provided it’s done in the name of ameliorating historical disadvantages for certain identified groups. Such “special programs” are protected from claims they violate other provisions of the human rights code in order that blacks and other identified groups can close gaps with the rest of society and “achieve substantive equality.” But how exactly do free yoga classes contribute to achieving substantive equality?
Two months later, the tribunal was true to its word and dismissed my case. Not only did I not have standing to officially complain (that dreaded Form 4A again!), but I was also white, which disqualified me from applying to begin with.
And according to adjudicator Eva Nichols, while racial discrimination is illegal, the definition of race used by the tribunal has no concrete or reliable meaning.
Race, it was explained to me, entails “socially constructed differences among people based on characteristics such as accent or manner of speech, name, clothing, diet, beliefs and practices, leisure preferences, places of origin and so forth.” It seems racial stereotypes, the use of which were once considered inappropriately racist, have now come to define the very essence of race.
But even if race has no clear definition, there is one thing, Nichols said, that racial discrimination cannot be: “An allegation of racial discrimination or discrimination on the grounds of colour is not one that can be or has been successfully claimed by persons who are white and non-racialized.”
So, however vaguely race is defined, we do know that white people (however defined) cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their whiteness.
With all this in mind, I promptly updated the race of my son and I to Asian. I was born in Siberian Far Eastern District, which is deeply inside Asia. Plus, our family diet, practices, and leisure preferences are all Asian. (We enjoy eating at Mandarin restaurants, drive Japanese cars, my son plays ping pong, etc.)
Then I officially filed a “Request for Reconsideration,” noting the above. In February, the tribunal rejected my request. Adjudicator Nichols explained: “I must note that he does not cite any new facts or evidence.” She also insisted that “his son did not apply for the SummerUP program” and hence no service denial took place. But we were prevented from applying by the very rules of the program. That is, my son is not black.
I’m now attempting to clear up the “no new facts” confusion through judicial review at the Divisional Court. If a judicial review does not work, there are other avenues, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
If someone offered me a free photography course because I grew up in Russia and thus suffer from intergenerational trauma arising from 240 years of subjugation by the Mongol Horde, I would consider it patronizing and humiliating. I wish blacks and other “racialized minorities” would stand up against the same condescending attitudes and open discrimination that mark Canada’s current human rights bureaucracy.
