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By Dylana Kneeshaw

anti-racism data act

“We can see inequities as they’re happening”: Advocates welcome introduction of B.C.’s Anti-Racism Data Act

May 3, 2022 | 4:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — This week the province introduced a new act that aims to paint a better picture of how people in B.C. experience the legal system, healthcare, education and society.

The Anti-Racism Data Act comes after consulting with thousands of British Columbians and BIPOC groups who feel collecting more in-depth demographic data such as ethnic origin, faith, race, ability and gender identity could bring positive changes to future laws and systems.

The introduction is welcome news to the Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations. Terry Teegee feels that being able to collect more expansive data about people is necessary to create informed legislation in the future.

“It’ll inform us and the province of B.C. of the racism legislation that is scheduled for next year. That is quite important to get proper data (for). And this is why this is to integral and important many Black, Indigenous, people of colour.”

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The goal is to shine a more definitive light on systemic racism and discrimination in B.C. within the legal system, government institutions, health care and in society.

Especially in regards to social issues such as high incarceration rates of Indigenous peoples, high death rate in custody, the issue of racism within the success of students in school.

Graham Specht works with Kamloops Immigrant Services and is the organization’s representative with Resilience BC — which took part in consultations leading up to the Act’s implementation. He says this change has been a long time coming.

“A year from now, if we’re standing here, what we hope to see is that we’re seeing information differently.”

Shifting away from general data to sub-categorized data could point to systemic occurences that weren’t previously tracked. Specht expects a large focus on this data collection will centre around health care, education and the justice system.

“Disaggregated data analyzes and collects the data in a way such as, ‘Okay, this is how much people of colour experienced the healthcare system in this period, here is how many Indigenous people came through the hospital system with this or that’,” explains Specht. “And if we track that, then we can see inequities as they’re happening.”

Kamloops Immigrant Services says it’s a step in the right direction, but notes that it will take time to gather enough data to pinpoint trends.

“We’re not going to see a very immediate result. It’s going to be over the course of a year or years. What does the data tell us when we analyze it, and then what do we do about it?” says Specht.