Loraine Centeno The Star Sat., July 9, 2022
Like most other regions in Canada, Waterloo Region isn’t immune to racism and discrimination.
These are “very present here,” Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership executive director, Tara Bedard, said in an interview with the Cambridge Times.
Beddard and her team regularly work with immigrants who come to the region.
“When we ask immigrants about their experiences living here, we consistently hear about discrimination and the impacts of racism,” she said.
Many of the people who report experiencing racism in the region say they’ve seen it happen or experience it almost everywhere, in different situations. “It happens to people at work or when applying for jobs or promotions. It happens in community spaces and services like banks, restaurants and stores.”
Schools and universities in Waterloo Region aren’t immune to it either and many newcomers have also reported experiencing discrimination while trying to find housing in the region.
“It happens everywhere.”
Racism, Bedard says, is there in the structure of society as well as in the systems that serve people and in all of us.
And in response to reports from the people they work with in Waterloo Region, Bedard and her team at Immigration Partnership are now calling community members to join this year’s racial equity campaign.
“This campaign aims to help keep the importance of doing this work in focus,” she said.
A web page dedicated to it serves as a hub for anti-racism resources. “It provides residents of the region with tools to learn about racism and lean into personal growth,” Bedard explained.
Residents can pick up their own racial equity lawn sign for free from Idea Exchange branches in Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener library branches, the Region of Waterloo Library branches in New Hamburg, Elmira, and Wellesley, and the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery.
“Racism and discrimination cause real harm to real people – immigrants and others,” Bedard said.
“We need to act for that to change.”