Chenai Kadungure, executive director of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario (BPAO), said when doing cauterization rounds, a medical procedure that uses heat or chemicals to burn tissue, many people still say things like Black don’t bleed.

Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024-2028 will give particular attention to addressing how anti-Black racism and the unequal treatment of Black people is entrenched and normalized within our society.

It reported that in Canada, about four in ten (41 per cent) of Black Canadians said they experienced discrimination based on their race or skin colour. This is about 15 times higher than the proportion among the non-Indigenous, non-racialized population (3 per cent). 

“When you are studying to become a doctor, there still isn’t as much health equity and information on working with diverse communities. Everything is pretty much modelled on what I would say is healthy, higher income, predominantly white patients,” Kadungure said.

“Often, we have community patients talking to us about almost being denied access to different types of screening, even in a case where there’s family history, just because of physician bias,” she said.

Kadungure said BPAO has many exciting outputs including the Black health plan, a resource for Black patients to have patient navigators and community ambassadors make a huge difference in increasing health literacy for racialized patients.

American Progress reported in 2018 that racism against the Black community in many aspects of life including the health care system are contributors to the Black-white wealth gap. 

Josephine Etowa, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said historical and institutional racism, rooted in slavery and segregation, persists today in practices like discriminatory healthcare and financial policies, such as redlining, which affect access to services and housing.

“Health literacy plays a role in the disproportionate disease burden that Black Canadians carry,” Etowa said.

Science Direct reported that those with limited health literacy are less likely to part-take in preventative searches such as cancer screening which ultimately can put them at a greater risk for poor health conditions, a reduced access to quality health care, a shorter lifespan and a greater financial burden.

“The other part is the underrepresentation of Black healthcare providers, especially in leadership and in the healthcare workforce, as physicians, as nurses, in leadership roles,” Etowa said.

“All of these pieces play a role in health. Educational inequalities intersect with employment situation, environmental situations where they live and find themselves, to impact on access to care,” she said.

Melissa Enmore, principal consultant at ME Consulting, said from a mental health standpoint, it’s so stigmatized that people, especially those of colour, don’t even go for help because they try to figure it out themselves or they can’t afford it because their income or their education may not allow them to.

“With the pandemic, more and more people are talking about it more openly and more and more people are raising awareness. It is something that I think people are more open to nowadays, not to say it takes away the stigma in certain communities,” Enmore said.

The Government of Canada reported in March 2024 that the COVID-19 pandemic increased health inequities worldwide as Black populations were disproportionately exposed to COVID-19 and more likely than other ethnoracial groups to be infected and hospitalized. 

“Believing us when we say we have different symptoms or things may show up differently for us and people may not connect the dots. Instead of going to a primary care provider, we may end up having to go to the emergency room unnecessarily just because we’re not taken as seriously or we’re not believed,” Enmore said.

A CBC article emphasized that even when it comes to domestic abuse, the stigma and mistrust in society and the law along with not feeling seen or heard keeps many Black women silent.

Lauren Parcher (they/them), a registered social worker with the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) said additionally, there is no data for Black survivors of economic abuse.

“I’ve worked in the shelter system for probably the past eight years and economic abuse was never discussed. I think because of the lack of resources that you can refer survivors to and then specifically for Black survivors there’s that added level of systemic racism and systemic colonialism that is built into a lot of our systems,” Parcher said.

“Services like the legal system, even the shelter system, erase a lot of survivors’ experiences because those systems they’re built on a colonial and racist history, so a lot of times, survivors don’t want to engage with those systems because they know there’s going to be more harm,” they said.

Parcher suggested that social workers can bridge gaps by partnering with services targeting other demographics, like CCFWE, which researches economic abuse due to its lack of existing studies.

“Speaking for myself, as a white settler, it’s unethical if we just go into communities, take this data and leave like we have to be creating these relationships and maintaining these relationships. We want to gather this data to be able to support these communities, involving them in all aspects of the research process is really important,” they said.

Meseret Haileyesus, CEO of CCFWE, said the intersection of systemic racism and economic abuse creates profound barriers for Black women, leaving many trapped in cycles of financial hardship and vulnerability.

“At CCFWE, we recognize that financial security is a critical component of overall well-being, yet Black survivors of economic abuse remain largely invisible in research, policy and service provision. Without targeted interventions, Black women will continue to be disproportionately impacted by financial exclusion, workplace discrimination and limited access to equitable financial resources,” Haileyesus said.

“It’s time to address these gaps with culturally responsive solutions that empower and uplift Black communities,” she said.

Article Written By: Julia Vellucci