By Fareed Khan
(OTTAWA CITIZEN) Other than the COVID-19 pandemic, only one issue has dominated public discourse in Canada this year: Racism.
The murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in May, 2020, set off anti-racism protests and calls for racial justice across North America. The resulting discussion about the pervasiveness of racism, and demands that governments do something about it, makes an election the ideal setting for political parties to demonstrate their commitment to anti-racism.
It seemed that racism would become a major issue during the 2019 federal election campaign, following photographic evidence that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had dressed in blackface and brownface in the past. But after a few days of scrutiny, discussions about racism fell by the wayside, and addressing it was completely forgotten after the election. It did not become a major political issue again until national Black Lives Matter protests made it one.
