Addressing Racism & Religious Discrimination

Ontario boasts a multicultural post-secondary education community. However, these diverse communities are subjected to racism and religious discrimination on their campuses. Despite raised awareness in 2020, systemic improvements have yet to come to fruition, and hate-motivated incidents on campus have increased. All students of all identities deserve the ability to pursue their education without additional fear of additional hardships or adverse experiences based on their identity. Students have shared ways that provincial and institutional shortfalls have created unsafe campus environments and a lack of appropriate measures to curb harmful behaviours. The post-secondary sector needs to take concerted action to establish policies to protect students and foster more inclusive environments. This paper aims to address the ongoing and evolving concerns of racialized and religious students and provide recommendations on fostering more equitable post-secondary campuses through robust policy.