Racism not rare

Some people will be amazed by the editorial board’s suggestion that “racism, sexism and homophobia have become rare in Canadian public life.”

That is clearly not the experience of young black men or aboriginal people, or of women who are fired when they get pregnant or of LGBT youth bullied at school. This editorial declines to mention the daily experiences of people with physical and mental disabilities; more than half of all complaints at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario involve discrimination in the workplace against people with disabilities. Describing these people, and others who are denied good jobs or housing or services simply because of who they are or where they came from, as “cranks with fringe complaints” is unfair and untrue.