The official style policy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is to capitalize the names of non-white racial groups, such as “Indigenous” people, “Asian” people and “Black” people, but to refer to “white” people with a lowercase “w”. This policy is a degrading insult which establishes a clear racial hierarchy in the minds of the public.
In response to the policy, beginning in September of 2020, with much resistance and obstruction from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, SWC filed a racial discrimination complaint against the CBC. See the announcement video here.
In September of 2021 we received the final decision from the CHRC that our complaint would be dismissed. See here for a video analysis of that decision. Based on a misrepresentation of our complaint as one of “colour-based” discrimination, and ignoring the race-based component, Commissioner Geneviève Chabot dismissed our complaint, in part, by appealing to the false position that the CBC’s policy accords with the rules of grammar (“The Respondent’s policy does not single out or target the Complainant for adverse treatment. Rather, the policy speaks to grammatical rules as they apply to the words used to refer to a racial group”).
Now, on February 4th, 2022, we have received word from the Federal Court that our attempt to appeal the decision would also not be entertained. Despite the obvious flaws in the CHRC’s handling of the case, Justice Russel W. Zinn dismissed our request by taking the position that “a read of the decision shows it to be thorough and attentive to the facts and law”.
We will not give up the fight against this racially dehumanizing policy and are currently reviewing other legal options.