Bathgate Park
Ottawa Passed an Anti-Racism Strategy. But is it Working?
Three years in, the City has plenty to say about activities completed and almost nothing to say about results.
In June 2022, Ottawa City Council approved a five-year Anti-Racism Strategy with seven priority areas, 28 recommendations, 132 actions, and a dedicated Anti-Racism Secretariat. Phase 1 (2023–2025) focused on internal awareness, training, and race-based data collection. That is a reasonable starting point. The problem is the absence of any published evaluation framework that shows whether the strategy is changing the outcomes it was meant to improve.
What the City Can Point To
A Secretariat was created and staffed. Consultation occurred with the Community Anti-Racism Advisory Table and racialized residents. Institutional infrastructure exists. Infrastructure, however, is not evidence of impact. Three years later, “we built a data process” remains the main answer to “what changed,” and that process has yet to yield public trend reports.
Hate-Crime Numbers Are the Wrong Metric
Ottawa Police hate-crime reports are the default proxy. They show a sharp rise followed by a recent drop:
| Year | Ottawa Reports |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 116 |
| 2020 | 181 |
| 2021 | 340 |
| 2022 | 377 |
| 2023 | 487 |
| 2024 | 467 |
| 2025 | 358 |
The 2023 peak aligned with the Israel-Gaza conflict and national spikes in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents. Online reporting (2017) and a dedicated hate-crime unit (2020) also increased reporting independent of underlying trends. National figures followed a similar pattern:
| Year | Canada Reports |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,355 |
| 2022 | 3,612 |
| 2023 | 4,828 |
| 2024 | 4,841 |
| 2025 | 4,708 |
Ottawa’s 2024 rate (27.7 per 100,000) remained well above peer cities and the national average (Toronto 20.1, Vancouver 14.9, Montréal 10.9, Canada 11.9). These counts cannot answer whether the strategy is working; the City has not supplied a better instrument.
Better Data Shows a Persistent Gap
National surveys paint a clearer, mixed picture. The Canadian Race Relations Foundation / Environics series (2019–2024) finds improved perceptions: 68 % of Canadians now describe race relations as generally good. Yet the share who report personally experiencing racial discrimination has stayed roughly constant at about one in four since 2019.
Statistics Canada data are consistent: 45 % of racialized Canadians reported racism or discrimination in the past five years; 81 % of those experienced it more than once. Attitudes have softened; lived experience has not. An evaluation framework is supposed to surface exactly this gap. “We launched a strategy” does not.
Ownership Is Clear
Councillor Rawlson King (Ward 13) has been Council Liaison for Anti-Racism and Ethnocultural Relations since 2020. His biography states he was responsible for creating the Anti-Racism Secretariat and “currently leads the implementation” of the strategy. Claiming credit for standing it up is fair. Ownership of the missing evaluation framework is equally clear.
What Needs to Happen Before Phase 2
- Publish the evaluation framework immediately, with defined outcome metrics.
- Separate activity counts (trainings, data points collected) from outcome measures (changes in self-reported discrimination and priority-area results) in every public report.
- Commission independent third-party evaluation.
- Tie Phase 2/3 funding to published results.
If the City spends public money and claims progress, residents are owed a transparent way to check the claim. That standard applies throughout City Hall. It applies especially when the councillor leading the file seeks re-election on its strength.
Sources
Ottawa Police Service annual hate-crime releases (2019–2025); Statistics Canada police-reported hate-crime tables and Daily releases; Canadian Race Relations Foundation / Environics Race Relations in Canada 2024 (and prior waves); Statistics Canada Survey Series on People and their Communities (2023–2024); City of Ottawa Anti-Racism Strategy documents and progress updates.
Statistics Canada Canadian Social Survey
Experiences of Discrimination or Unfair Treatment (Past 5 Years)
Source: Canadian Social Survey (pooled waves collected 2021–early 2024). Target population: non-institutionalized persons aged 15+ living off-reserve in the 10 provinces. Data are self-reported and national-level (not Ottawa-specific).
Discrimination is defined as being treated unfairly due to Indigenous identity, ethnicity/culture, race/skin colour, physical appearance, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, language, sex, accent, or other reasons, across various settings.
Overall Prevalence
| Group | Percentage |
|---|---|
| All people aged 15+ | 36% |
| Racialized people | 51% |
| Non-racialized people | 27% |
By Specific Population Groups
| Group | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Canadian-born racialized | 57% |
| Racialized recent immigrants | 48% |
| Racialized established immigrants (>10 years) | 49% |
| Canadian-born Black people | 71% |
| Recent Black immigrants | 51% |
| Established Black immigrants | 59% |
| Indigenous (First Nations off-reserve, Métis, Inuit) | 46% |
| Non-Indigenous | 33% |
| 2SLGBTQ+ | 61% |
| Non-2SLGBTQ+ | 32% |
| People with a disability | 44% |
| People without a disability | 32% |
| Women | 37% |
| Men | 30% |
Most Common Settings Where Discrimination Occurred
| Setting | Overall % | Notes by Group |
|---|---|---|
| At work / applying for job or promotion | 41% | Black: 48%; other racialized: 39%; non-racialized: 41% |
| In a store, bank, or restaurant | 33% | — |
| Using public areas (e.g., parks, sidewalks) | 29% | — |
| Attending social gatherings / friends or family | 22% | — |
| On the Internet / social media | 18% | — |
| Attending school or classes | 17% | Higher among some racialized groups |
| Using public transit | 15% | — |
| Seeing a medical professional / healthcare | 13% | — |
| Seeking or applying for housing | 10% | Black: 13%; other racialized/non-racialized: 6% |
| Crossing the border into Canada | 6% | — |
Perceived Reasons for Discrimination (Selected)
- For racialized people: Race or skin colour (66%), ethnicity or culture (49%), accent (28%), language (27%)
- Other common reasons overall include physical appearance, age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, etc. (varying by demographic group)
Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily (16 May 2024), based on the Canadian Social Survey (survey 5354). Data reflect self-reported experiences and have remained relatively stable since 2021. A later 2023/2024 analysis reported approximately 45% of racialized Canadians experienced race/ethnicity-based discrimination in the prior five years.
Full tables, charts, and methodological notes are available on the Statistics Canada website under the referenced Daily release. No detailed city-level (Ottawa) breakdown of this survey data was identified in official releases.
Personal observation from nearly a full day spent in the area near Bathgate Park, Den Haag, and Carson Road found roughly 80% of the people encountered were Black. That local experience raises a legitimate equity question: if the court is used by young Black men or Black residents more broadly, its removal reduces a recreational space for that group without an obvious nearby replacement. Other Ottawa projects continue to add or upgrade basketball courts elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMore and better data please.
More, better and different assessments please.
Ford just announced that the next round of applications is open for the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, which offers money for sport and recreation upgrades, repairs or new builds.
ReplyDelete