Backgrounder: Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028

TORONTO, June 8, 2024

To shape Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028, the Government led multiple engagement activities between 2019 and early 2023. The federal government engaged people from coast to coast to coast through:

• 15 town halls;
• 2 national summits on antisemitism and Islamophobia;
• 1 national youth forum on anti-Black racism;
• 21 roundtables; and
• an online questionnaire on racism and discrimination, open to everyone in Canada.

To enhance accountability and deliver results on this Strategy, the government will:

• establish systems and explore legislation to boost accountability and make systems more inclusive;
• prioritize and support communities as experts in combatting racism by placing their voices at the centre of decision-making and providing necessary resources; and,
• strengthen relationships between different orders of government, with national and international partners, to drive progress and create positive change in Canada.

The Strategy prioritizes action in the following four priority areas:

• promoting economic, social and cultural empowerment;
• advancing racial equity in immigration, health and housing systems;
• driving justice, law enforcement, intelligence and public safety systems reform; and
• using international engagement to inform advancement on racial equity and inclusion at home.

The Strategy also acknowledges the complexity of intersectionality, by addressing the ways in which multiple forms of racism are compounded by other forms of oppression, including but not limited to sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, caste discrimination, ableism and language-based discrimination.

For more information, consult the full Strategy.

Associated Link

• The Government of Canada launches Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028