99% of B.C. Indigenous people face discrimination when presenting Status Card: survey
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Posted November 15, 2022 7:56 pm.
Last Updated November 15, 2022 8:05 pm.
A new survey commissioned by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs shows virtually every Indigenous person faces discrimination when presenting their Indian Status Card in British Columbia.
The report shows out of 1,000 Indigenous people polled, 99 per cent say they have experienced some form of discrimination when presenting their Status Card.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip on "Study reveals that more than 99% of Indigenous people surveyed in BC have faced discrimination when using their Indian status card" Read https://t.co/NFmmWPQSsk pic.twitter.com/EAwKneqPWj
— UBCIC (@UBCIC) November 16, 2022
President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, says he’s not surprised by the results of the survey.
“I suspect if you randomly phoned anyone that has a status card, they would all share with you a story where they were embarrassed, humiliated,” he told CityNews.
“Generally it takes like five, ten minutes for [employees] to sort it out. They talk to their managers and so on and so forth. Needless to say, the customers lined up behind the Indigenous person begin racist commentary because they’re frustrated they can’t move through.”
The report comes in response to the high-profile arrest of Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter in 2019 at a downtown Vancouver BMO branch, where the two were wrongfully detained after displaying their status cards to a teller.
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Phillip says that the incident, plus the numbers found in the UBCIC report show the need for better training in workplaces.
“We are presenting evidence to Canadians, to the banking community, that they need to train their people in [terms of] relations with customers and people of colour,” he said.
The Grand Chief fears that instances of racism against Indigenous peoples and people of colour are getting worse.
“I’ve experienced that myself, to the point where there are times I just forego the tax exemption. I don’t have time for that racist nonsense,” Phillip said.
Co-author of the UBCIC report, Harmony Johnson, says the findings show the need for Canadians to educate themselves on the challenges Indigenous peoples face.
“My hope would be that people listen and that as human beings, individual people say ‘there’s something I can do about this to educate myself about Status Cards and what I can do to support Indigenous peoples so they can have dignity in their day-to-day lives,” she said.
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“We’re in a period of illuminating the truths of our past and the last couple of years, I think, there’s a different environment for that. For us to be believed about the experiences that we’ve had and continue to have.”
The goal of the report, titled “They Sigh or Give You the Look: Discrimination and Status Card Usage,” is to inform recommendations for governments, businesses, and the media.
With files from Martin MacMahon