In Canada, “looks like me” still determines where you sleep and who will come to your immediate rescue.
Learning
In the summer of 2023, Toronto experienced a refugee funding crisis that disproportionately affected Black African asylum seekers. I volunteered at the growing refugee camp in the heart of Toronto’s entertainment district. The city’s nightclub crowd is a multicoloured mix, but the bodies sleeping outside Shelter Intake Centre were all one skin colour: Black. The response to the crisis also fell along racial lines. From federal policy to local church practice, who Canadians “welcome” strongly correlated with who the asylum seekers looked like.
The crisis came to a head on June 1, when Toronto declared they would begin referring asylum seekers to the federal government rather than offering them city shelter beds. Hundreds of newcomers with no place to go began sleeping outside in front of shelters across the greater Toronto area. Every one of them, that I saw, was Black.
As one refugee put it, “At Pearson Airport I was with people from different countries, with many different skin tones, all of us applying for asylum. When I came to Shelter Intake Centre the newcomers sleeping outside where all Black Africans. Where did the others go?” Settlement agencies have advocated for years for a federally funded refugee reception centre at the airport to provide guidance and support to all asylum seekers. Last year, the federal government funded a reception centre. It’s only for Ukrainians.
Canada has been criticized before for the way its asylum process treats individuals from the Global South differently. Canada placed a welcome limit on some countries, like Syria and Afghanistan, but there are no such limits for Ukrainians. To date, Canada has welcomed 44,420 Syrians since 2015 and 36,000 Afghans since 2021. By comparison, over 181,00 Ukrainians have been welcomed since 2022 through a unique emergency travel program (CUAET).
In the summer of 2023, outreach workers, refugee advocates, and Black-led organizations drew attention to the alarming treatment of Black refugees in Toronto. The Moderator of The United Church of Canada expressed concern in a letter to Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. About a dozen United Church clergy and lay people attended the first refugee press conference. In early July, I wrote to 200 faith leaders requesting help. Many responded with prayer, spoke about the crisis from the pulpit, and even donated funds. One pastor, a racialized woman, reached out in answer to my request for room inside the church to shelter those sleeping rough on our streets.
When the news broke, a coalition of Black community leaders descended on the refugee encampment. Some of them stayed 10‒14 hours per day, phoning city officials and holding press conferences that decried the blatant racism and demanded dignity and shelter for these asylum seekers. Finally, six weeks into the funding standoff, four Black churches opened their doors to shelter over 400 Black refugees. A coalition of Black-led organizations and businesses called Our African Champions rallied to support them.
That first week, I volunteered at the RevivalTime Tabernacle, which was housing 200 people. Except for camera crews, I was the only White person I saw volunteering inside that building on that first day. I felt awkward and conspicuous. When White neighbours dropped by with donations, their eyes passed over dozens of Black staff, volunteers, and refugees before settling on me. “You the pastor?” they asked. I also counted about a half-dozen pastors who came by to offer support that day. All of them were Black.
As the weeks went on, more White volunteers and congregations got involved and I began to wonder how race factored into our response to this crisis.
When asked why a coalition of Black leaders, Black churches, and Black-serving organizations mobilized so quickly to provide shelter for hundreds of people, the co-chair for Black Community Housing Advisory Table, Diane Walters, said, “These are folks that look like us.”
I have three adopted children. They have the same biological mother but different dads. Two of my children share similar features—round faces, button noses, and eyebrows that furrow in the identical adorable way—but people almost never say they look alike. One is White, the other Brown. “Looks like me” is code for skin tone.
We preach Christ’s call to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31). To show mercy to the stranger as the Samaritan did (Luke 10:25‒37). Jesus explicitly forbids us to tack on “but only if they look like me” to his teachings. And yet, we do. In Canada “looks like me” still determines where you sleep and who will come to your immediate rescue.
Lord have mercy, beloveds, but we still have much work to do.
Faith Reflection
Please pray with me:
Creator God, you made us in your image, but we fail to accept one another the way you accept us. We name racism as sin. We see how Canada privileges White bodies while racializing and oppressing your beloved Black and Brown children. This is not the way of Jesus. Holy Spirit, bring justice to the oppressed and lead the privilege to repentance, that we might live as one human family in harmony with all creation.
Living It Out
Advocating for fair treatment and welcome is something we can do individually and as a church. This may take the form of calling, writing to, or meeting with your elected officials to discuss and ask for a change in policies that unfairly privilege some newcomers over others. Understanding how our own biases affect us is part of the healing journey. Reaching past the boundaries of the culture we grew up in makes us more likely to see siblings instead of strangers.
—Alexa Gilmour (she/her) is a White fifth-generation settler living in Toronto. She is a community organizer, activist, and ordained United Church of Canada minister who works at the intersection of various issues including refugee welcome, racial and gender justice, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and advocates for the alleviation of poverty and homelessness.
Sources
Government of Canada, “#WelcomeRefugees:Key figures” (October 31, 2020).
Government of Canada, “#WelcomeAfghans:Key figures” (August 18, 2023).
Government of Canada, “Canada-Ukraineauthorization for emergency travel: Key figures” (August 19, 2023).
The United Church of Canada, “ModeratorLansdowne Urges Government to Address Lack of Housing for Refugees,” E-ssentials (July 18, 2023).
CP24 News, “Howpeople came together to help refugee claimants and asylum seekers sleeping outside Toronto’s shelter referral centre” (July 28, 2023).