Tackle racism with school changes, provincial task force told in Ottawa

Like many before him, Gurdeep Singh Jagpal stepped to the microphone at a long anti-racism meeting in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon and shared an example of the prejudice he's faced.

"When I was younger I was going tobogganing and I saw a kid fall over, so I wanted to help him. The kid [says,] 'Don't come close to me, my father taught me that Indians ruined Christmas," he said.

"I was like, 'How did Indians ruin Christmas? What?'"

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Then, like many before him,Jagpalsaid Ontario's education system should be changed to fight racism that it's the best way to fight prejudicedperspectives.

"Our public school system is way too watered down, it's way too nice, it's way too kind we didn't even learn about residential school systems until university. We should have been taught that earlier," he said.

"We have to be able to teach all the negative things in our history so that we can step forward, so that we can be forgiving, so that we can learnfrom each other."

Singh and about 200 others came to Ottawa's RA Centre Saturday to talk about their ideas and experiences with MichaelCoteau, the MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario's minister responsible for anti-racism.

Since July,Coteauhas been touring Ontarioas part ofthe province's Anti-Racism Directorate, created earlier this year to fight systemic racism which shows itself in organizations, structures and rules rather than one person.

"Racism is not an issue just for people of colour, it's an issue for everyone in Canada," Coteau said after Saturday's meeting.

"If we want to build the best country possible we've got to maximize our full potential, and racism is just something that's there that holds us from reaching our potential."

Focus on schools and youth

Coteau said a focus on education was the number one idea he's heard during his tour, saying youngpeople play a "vital role"in changing society.

Emeka Ndukwe was another who lined up to share his thoughts on educationat a microphone on Saturday, saying the curriculum focuses too much on European history and should be redone.

"If the curriculum is teaching kids that only European history is important and every other history is less important it's in the subconscious. They aren't taught to be racist, they're just taught that[their] history is more important," he said.

Elementary school teacherAmira Boutalebsaid Ontario needs to have more teachers from different backgrounds so more students feel included.

"If that's not happening you're going to have students with behavioural issues, you're going to have students who feel left out, you're going to have students who feel marginalized until there's actual meaningful connections within the education system for minority students in particular," she said.

Coteau said he's heard from a few thousand people during the tour and now, the focus is on turning what they've heard into an anti-racism strategy that's expected in the spring.

Listen to Micheal Coteautalk about his experience as a "black ambassador" at a rural gas station.