DEI, Woke, Critical Race Theory -- Canada's Identity Politics

"Some of the pilot data that has been collected tells us that food security, along with access to culturally preferred food items, continues to be problematic for this population."

"There is a lot of work to be done to strengthen marginalized voices and collectively dismantle barriers being experienced by BAC [Black, African, Caribbean] groups." 

"We want to better understand what is impacting the availability, accessibility and utilization of food for this community."

"The ultimate goal is to use what we learn to inform equitable food programs and policies that meet the needs of all people."

Cayley Velazquez, Canada Research Chair in Race, Food and Health, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia 

 

"When we're talking about food insecurity a lot of the time the narrative is you've got at least something that should be good enough."

"You should have the availability of food that would be appropriate for your culture and as well as your body and your health."

"Black and Indigenous households have a higher rate of food insecurity. Specifically, they are 3.5 times more likely to be food insecure."

"When we're talking about food insecurity, a lot of the time the narrative is you've got at least something that should be good enough. But there's dignity in your food and access to nutritious and cultural food is, and should be, a right." 

Anna Spyker, Kwantlen's 'Race, Food and Health' program

A grocery store in North Surrey, where many culturally specific food items for African and Caribbean communities are sold. (Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)

 

A press statement announcing that a Vancouver-area researcher had been given a federal grant worth $600,000 to determine how to ensure greater accessibility to African food becomes available in major cities in Canada to serve a growing population of African immigrants, as Black and Caribbean immigrants are migrating to urban centres in Canada, discovering that it is difficult for them to secure 'culturally preferred food', such as cassava and yams.

 

In Surrey, British Columbia, Kwantlen Polytechnic University has inaugurated a position for the study of "cultural, social economic and environmental factors" to determine why this shortage of African-appropriate-diet exists. There is a relatively small Black population in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia, compared to Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal or Ottawa. The most recent census reveals that 41,870 people of African descent represents the total in the entire Lower Mainland of B.C. Of that total, 12,870 were resident of Surrey, where the study is taking place. 

 

A group of volunteers from Surrey are taking on a project to research a lack of cultural foods, an initiative to understand and address food insecurity among Surrey's Black immigrant population.

 

A recent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report noted a thriving district of African grocery stores located in North Surrey (Greater Vancouver). In the immediate vicinity of Surrey's Gateway SkyTrain station alone, at least eight retail locations offer Caribbean and African foods. It is the fact that these stores are concentrated in one specific area of Metro Vancouver (which is where, incidentally, the African immigrants are themselves concentrated) is seen by researchers as a 'barrier' to be studied by the Kwantlen program.

 

The definition of 'food insecurity', it was noted in the CBC report, should not be interpreted of necessity that a lack of food exists; it can in fact, refer to food that is unfamiliar. Health Canada refers to food insecurity as "the inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways"; perhaps that means poking about for discarded food in dumpsters. 

 

In most places where immigrants from abroad enter to live, they learn to use the food staples in the current markets. In time when sufficient numbers from any given foreign location appear, local food marketers notice and begin importing immigrant-culture foods.

 

The Kwantlen research saw a federal government write-up, noting a lack of inexpensive, readily acquired African and Caribbean food as a net drain on health and success achievable within Black communities. "Their findings will fill critical gaps in race-based data and reveal how systemic structures create or intensify inequities", it concluded. 

 

The Canada Research Chair program is the funding body for these selected research areas. The CRC program is among the largest sources of federal funding into the Canadian university system. While the recently released 2025 federal budget proposed broad cuts across federal government operations, the elimination of tens of thousands of civil service positions, the CRC program saw no decrease in its funding. And so the distribution of $311 million annually goes out to 2,000 full-time researchers at Canadian universities.  

 

Members of Seeds of Change Surrey's Black, African and Caribbean advisory group visit a local grocery store as part of their research into access to culturally specific foods. (Sohrab Sandhu/CBC)

 

The Canada Research Chairs program is subject to a series of federally mandated quotas on race and ethnicity where recipients of Canada Research Chair funding are expected to meet strict guidelines of race and identity of research appointees. "Equity targets" must see 33.2 percent of Canada Research Chairs 'racialized'; 53.1 percent must be women or a member of a 'gender equity-seeking group'.

 

The result can be seen in Canadian universities publishing job positions limiting candidates based on race or sex. For example, University of British Columbia advertised a Canada Research Chair in Medical Physics; the posting excludes white, able-bodied male applicants. The post advertisement reads: "UBC is currently restricted in the recruitment, selection, and nomination of [Canada Research Chairs]".