Environmental Discrimination in Canada

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Exploration of Environmental Racism and Justice
Types of Environmental Racism and Associated Health Hazards
Solutions and Challenges
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The race is frequently a more authentic indicator of propinquity to pollution than income alone for mixed-race nations such as Canada. Certainly, community wealth is fundamental in determining environmental guidelines, especially regarding public land use, zoning, issuance of construction permits, and enforcement of the laws. The result is that the poor citizens living in Canada are more exposed to pollution compared to their rich counterparts. The discussion of environmental racism is then an important matter, especially for those who are interested in social justice and ecological conservation. Environmental racism shows a relationship between race together with class and discrimination that causes untold suffering to marginalized Canadians. However, the problems can be mitigated by the proper implementation of environmental policies by government officials.

Exploration of Environmental Racism and Justice

Environmental racism and the pursuit of justice against it knit bionomics with topics of race and class. At the center of the prejudice are the poor racial minorities whose abodes are exposed to high levels of various toxicities, while being denied some important ecological benefits (Johansen 1). More precisely, the marginalized African Canadians are denied include clean water and air, in addition to the use of resources for a decent and dignified standard of living. According to an environmental activist, Benjamin Chavis, this kind of racism is racial prejudice in relation to surroundings’ policymaking and enforcement that are aimed at the minorities of color (Johansen 1). More generally, this specific racism can also be described as the transfer of polluting industries with their toxicity from affluent countries to developing nations (Coolsaet 196). Within the context of Canadian society, environmental racism is witnessed when the worst toxicants move from the industrialized areas of Quebec to Vancouver regions inhabited by some Latin Americans. In essence, racial segregation on ecosystem issues is a matter that places a barrier between different social classes within the Canadian nation.

More profoundly, environmental racism and justice that addresses the prejudice connect human and civil rights with immense ecological crises. Environmental discrimination is characterized by human suffering and even death (McGhee 206-207) in highly polluted areas of Saskatoon. The pain is inflicted by several types of cancer and many other sicknesses borne usually by South Asian Canadians who are already marginalized. However, research on environmental racism and justice can be traced back to the 1970s (Johansen 2). Therefore, it is the scholarly works on environmental justice that have provided the poor minority Canadians’ suffering great attention among the world communities.

Different scholars have given different definitions to environmental justice as it suits them. Nonetheless, the most outstanding meaning has been given by Robert Bullard. He defined environmental justice as the fair treatment of all people regardless of their race, nationalities, or social status in the development, implementation, and enforcement of ecological policies (Johansen 2). From the definition, fair treatment is explained in a manner that no single Canadian citizen is inflicted with a disproportionate share of any biospheric pollutant (Johansen 2). Accordingly, every Canadian is accorded a right to move away from ecological toxicants, sue any perpetrator of pollution, as well as make conscious of their surroundings’ liberties.

Types of Environmental Racism and Associated Health Hazards

Ecological unfairness encompasses abroad spectrum of damage to human wellbeing inflicted by industrial emissions, resulting in air and water pollution that limits many Canadian minorities’ access to clean resources. Across Canada, poor Black immigrants find themselves residing close to petrochemical industries, toxic waste dumps, and other sources of pollution (Mitchell and D’Onofrio 305). Also, discrimination includes prolonged periods of action in extremity response to natural calamities’ occurrences in areas dominated by the poor such as Nunavut, British Columbia, or Windsor (Johansen 6). Political inactivity as well features in ecological bigotry impeding comprehensive measures to every single problem (Johansen 6). Undoubtedly, the environmental discrimination which is perpetrated against Canadian Blacks exposes them to calamities than it does to their white counterparts.

The toxicity of air, water reservoirs, and soil in impecunious and minority Canadians imposes a catalog of health diseases on the individuals who live in such areas. Radiation poisoning has been associated with different types of cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects in Filipino and Chinese children born in the poor neighborhoods of Manitoba (Mitchell and D’Onofrio 323). Mercury from Lake Ontario and lead out of Regina areas have profound effects on the children’s growth rates, behavior, and intelligence, including learning disabilities, problems with attention, and fine motor coordination. (Mitchell and D’Onofrio 311-312). As an example, carcinogenic dioxin has caused immune systems changes, reproductive alterations, human developmental transformations, endocrine disruption, altered lipid metabolism, liver damage, and skin lesions (Johansen 10). Daily repercussions of many of these pollutants also include bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nervous disorders, and thyroid diseases. Other sicknesses that are suffered by inhabitants of the polluted areas of Hamilton include immune-deficiency diseases, liver and prostate cancers, reproductive abnormalities, cirrhosis, high blood pressure, hearing impairment, stroke, anemia, and other plasma disorders (Johansen 10). Accordingly, environmental discrimination remains an impediment to the fight against all forms of diseases, if the Canadian government was to win its combat against maladies in the country.

Moreover, there exists a harmful biotic pollutant, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) which contributes to environmental degradation. Like any other persistent organic toxicants, the effects of PCBs have been transferred from one Black Canadian generation to the next (Johansen 10). The contaminants also increase up a food chain in an exponential manner, causing more destruction at each step of the hierarchy (Johansen 10). For instance, a lactating Inuit mother is a stride higher in the toxic series from any seafood that she eats while her baby is another level above her. Clearly, the existence of the contaminants such as PCBs in the bodies of poor and racially discriminated mothers in Canada may tend to increase across generations.

Solutions and Challenges

Part of somewhat remedy to environmental discrimination will be to reorganize the movement of industrial effluence so that it is fairly shared across the boundaries of race and class. The broader solution is to decrease the quantity of waste that is flowing into the dumping grounds and other disposal areas all over Canada (Van Sant et al. 635). To completely reduce the quantity of toxic waste, especially from the affluent neighborhoods of Canada, a technological imperative can be applied (Johansen 18). As a matter of fact, redirection of the flow of waste acts simultaneously to decrease environmental pollution and avert discrimination.

Furthermore, Canadian society can be mobilized on the dangers of environmental racism, especially the health hazards that are associated with it. Citizens need to be educated on how improper waste disposal places a heavy burden on the poor and non-whites on matters of their wellbeing (Mitchell and D’Onofrio 312). Through such education programs, the notion that health risks are passive human suffering will be struck from people’s thoughts. With the training against environmental racism, more people will then be united for championing their fundamental rights to a cleaner and safer environment.

In as much as many solutions can be proposed to the resolution of environmental racism, there are numerous challenges to it. In Canada, the main challenge has been the unwillingness of government officials to implement existing ecological blueprints. Ecosystem guidelines, regulations, and policies are not applied evenly, resulting in some persons, neighborhoods, or races being subjected to health hazards (Johansen 22). It means that the laws are discriminately implemented by the people entrusted with such a mandate. Precisely, there exists a racial divide in the way in which the Canadian government cleans up toxic wastes and punishes the polluters (Johansen 22). Evidently, there are policies to ensure that racial discrimination is resolved, but the main challenge is the ineptness of some public servants.

Conclusion

In summary, the exploration of environmental discrimination helps an individual to understand the correlation between race and prejudice, and the associated health risks. Additionally, the importance of public officials in implementing ecological guidelines has to be recognized. At the epicenter of this specific racism are the poor, who not only reside near the polluted areas but are also, denied some important ecological benefits. Nonetheless, the surrounding chauvinism has ignited the fight for justice, which is also referred to as environmental equity. The most common form of bigotry is the inaction by relevant authorities in times of emergency, especially in the areas of poor individuals. Indeed, the problem of biospheric racism can be mitigated by redirecting the flow of all pollutants so it to be shared across all boundaries of races and economic classes. Undoubtedly, ecological inequity is a social problem that can be reduced by involving every citizen in a clean, safe, and cohesive country.

Works Cited

Coolsaet, Brendan, editor. Environmental Justice: Key Issues in Environment and Sustainability. Routledge Publishers, 2021.

Johansen, Bruce. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability. ABC-CLIO, 2020.

McGhee, Heather. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. One World Publishers, 2021.

Mitchell, Kaitlyn, and Zachary D’Onofrio. “Environmental Injustice and Racism in Canada: The first step is admitting we have a problem.” Journal of Environmental Law and Practice, vol. 29, 2016, pp. 304-345, Web.

Van Sant, Levi, et al. “Political Ecologies of Race: Settler Colonialism and Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada.” Antipode, vol. 53, no. 3, 2021, pp. 629-642.

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