Discrimination in Canadian urban planning and infrastructure

In the twenty-first century, officials at all levels of government have become increasingly aware of how urban design, planning, and infrastructure function to benefit certain groups and not others. Experts have argued that such impacts extend into urban planning and infrastructure throughout Canada, resulting in various forms of racial, socioeconomic, and ableist discrimination in Canadian municipal systems.

Areas impacted by historical and contemporary forms of discrimination include housing policies, zoning bylaws, accessibility, and public transit and transportation infrastructure. Laws prohibiting such discrimination exist at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels of Canadian government, with anti-discrimination advocates generally sharing a belief that such standards must be broadly applied to urban planning and infrastructure policies to address and remove ongoing discriminatory legacies.

Background

Historically, Canada’s Indigenous, Black, and Asian communities have been the most vulnerable to racial discrimination. Canada’s traditionally dominant White majority exploited various laws and social and government institutions to establish policies that, in practice, functioned as unofficial tools to establish and enforce racial segregation. With respect to Canada’s Indigenous peoples, examples include the Indian Act, which was first introduced in 1876, substantially revised in 1951, and thoroughly updated in 1985. Various iterations of the Indian Act restricted Indigenous rights and, at the turn of the twentieth century, limited off-reserve freedom of movement through what was known as the “pass system.” Additional examples include the reserve system, which physically segregated Indigenous communities on underserved and frequently impoverished land reserves, and the residential school system.

In 1834, the British Empire abolished slavery in most of its colonial holdings, including its Canadian colonies. However, racist attitudes were continually leveraged to justify extensive anti-Black discrimination well into the twentieth century. With respect to urban planning and infrastructure, Black Canadians were most directly affected by discriminatory housing policies. During Canada’s late colonial period, Black Canadians were often disqualified from receiving land grants and residential housing solely because of their race. Black Loyalists of the British Crown who sought refuge in Canada during the American Civil War (1861–1865) were promised land grants, but many such offers were later rescinded. Black Loyalists who did receive land grants were often given small plots of inferior quality, which were physically separated from White communities. In post-Confederation Canada, people of Black origin faced restrictions on land ownership due to racist discrimination in land title covenants. In the twentieth century, Black Canadians were also frequently denied rental opportunities because of race in cities throughout Canada.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, immigrants of Chinese and Japanese origin faced stiff barriers to entry because of the Chinese Immigration Act (1885), the Chinese Exclusion Act(1923), and additional federal policies limiting the immigration opportunities of people of Japanese origin. Partially because of racism, Chinese and Japanese immigrant communities in Canada largely concentrated themselves into ethnic enclaves in Canadian cities. These areas often had depressed property values and other economic limitations that functioned as oppressive barriers to equality.

In the mid-twentieth century, activists successfully lobbied for policy reforms to address accessibility challenges and other types of discrimination faced by people with disabilities. These reforms were later codified in landmark legal documents including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsand the Canadian Human Rights Act. Despite the nominal legal equality of Canadians with disabilities, many impacted people continue to face accessibility challenges and other barriers. With respect to urban planning and infrastructure, such obstacles are arguably most visible in the public transit and transportation sectors.

Topic Today

In 2012, the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives published a report noting the continued legacy of race-based exclusionary policies in Canadian cities. The report singled out the zoning bylaws still used in some Canadian municipalities, which generally function to maintain elevated property values and reserve access to developed areas for higher-income individuals and families. Critics believe that zoning systems are being continuously exploited by propertied classes to impede the dwelling access of lower-income people to affluent areas. Observers, who have likened some such property developments to gated communities that lack physical gates, note that these forms of discrimination contain both racial and economic elements. As in the United States, racial minority groups in Canada including Indigenous and Black Canadians continue to struggle with income gaps relative to White populations.

In July 2020, the Ontario Professional Planners Institute published an excoriating review of the racist elements in Canadian urban planning policy. The article traced the development of Canadian urban centers from the country’s colonial era through the twentieth and into the early twenty-first centuries, noting a pattern of the systematic advancement of design elements and developmental policies that reflect historical notions of White supremacy. Cited examples include a long-term standard of divestment, common to both the public and private sectors, in transportation and housing developments. According to the article’s authors, this has resulted in the growth of isolated urban pockets beset with inadequate public transit connectivity and low property values. Given the relative economic disadvantages faced by many racial minority groups and immigrants to Canada, such communities have overwhelmingly become racialized and functionally segregated. Other observers note that the phenomenon has also served to disconnect these communities from equitable access to vital services, jobs, entrepreneurship, and educational opportunities.

Canadian transportation infrastructure continues to be highly dependent on private vehicle ownership or access, especially outside large urban centers. This feature functions to limit the mobility of those who cannot afford or do not own a car for other reasons. This primarily refers to lower-income Canadians and Canadians with disabilities. While many municipalities have made efforts to improve system accessibility, Canadian public transit infrastructure continues to pose access impediments to people with disabilities. Many localities have established separate paratransit systems, which are designed to function as an alternative to conventional public transit. However, as the Ontario Human Rights Commission notes, public authorities have a legal duty to develop inclusive systems that accommodate as many people as possible rather than simply continuing to support parallel systems for people with disabilities that are often fraught with significant to severe budget and service limitations.

Bibliography

Boron, Jonathan, Katherine Levett, and Myfannwy Pope. “Racial Inequities in Rural, Remote, and Northern Canadian Planning.” PlanCanada,vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 11–15.

Brant, Jennifer. “Racial Segregation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia,1 May 2020, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racial-segregation-of-indigenous-peoples-in-canada. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Eidelman, Gabriel and Neil Bradford. “The Case for a Canadian Urban Policy Observatory.” Canadian Urban Institute,2020, canurb.org/wp-content/uploads/Eidelman-Bradford-TheCaseforaCanadianUrbanPolicyObservatoryFINAL06-16-20.pdf. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Henry, Natasha. “Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia,8 Sept. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racial-segregation-of-black-people-in-canada. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Mohamud, Jamilla. “Anti-Black Racism and the Livable City in Canada.” Ontario Professional Planners Institute, 1 July 2020, ontarioplanners.ca/blog/planning-exchange/july-2020/anti-black-racism-in-the-liveable-city-and-canada. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“Transit and Human Rights.” Ontario Human Rights Commission,www.ohrc.on.ca/en/discussion-paper-accessible-transit-services-ontario/part-i-transit-and-human-rights. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Wright, Angela. “Yes, Remnants of Discriminatory Urban Planning Remain.” The Globe and Mail,25 May 2021, www.theglobeandmail.com/featured-reports/article-yes-remnants-of-discriminatory-urban-planning-remain/. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Yasin, Amina and Daniella Fergusson. “Towards Social and Racial Equity in Planning.” PlanCanada, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 6–7.