What Should a Commissioner on Systemic Racism Do in New Brunswick?

President of Black Lives Matter New Brunswick, Matthew Martin, and Dr. Timothy Christie discuss the appointment of the new Commissioner on Systemic Racism in New Brunswick on NBWA: New Brunswickers Want Action on CHCO Television. Dr. Manju Varma was recently appointed by the province to be the first Systemic Racism Commissioner in New Brunswick five months after the government announced the creation of the new position and sought out nominations across the province. 

"What a lot of people are going to be interested in finding out what a commissioner on systemic racism does. There will also still be a lot of people who want to believe systemic racism still doesn't exist," said Dr. Christie. "The province put out a press release outlining what the commissioner's position will entail." 

"In that press release, the government said the commissioner's position would be focused on three main themes: the first will be performing public consultations," said Martin. "Second, they will be focused on compiling qualitative and quantitative data. The third and final piece will be preparing a final report that will be made publicly with recommendations as well as an action plan for the province to address systemic racism."

"Public consultations are an interesting approach," responded Christie. "I imagine they will probably approach Indigenous groups, multicultural associations and Black Lives Matter New Brunswick. But what are these consultations supposed to do? People are going to tell their stories of systemic racism, but what practically is the commissioner supposed to do? With racism, I don't see that public consultation is supposed to do. They are obviously not consulting with the racists, so what is supposed to be happening with these public consultations?"

"Nothing new is going to be said," said Martin. "Over the past year and a half, many individuals have been sharing their experiences of systemic racism on a multitude of platforms. Having these public consultations is just going to repeat these processes in order to check a box on a list of what needs to be done. The public consultations need to be had, but these stories have already been made available."

"If the government is saying we need public consultations in order to establish that there is systemic racism in New Brunswick, I would say they are wrong," said Dr. Christie. "We have already established that there is systemic racism in New Brunswick. We need the job of the commissioner to take meaningful steps forward, and we want her to succeed, but we already know racism exists. So what do we do about it? That's what her job needs to be."

Martin and Christie hope to welcome Dr. Varma as a guest on NBWA. An invitation for Dr. Varma to be a guest on the show has been sent to her office and the hosts are awaiting her reply.