Hon. Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard: Honourable senators, I speak today from the traditional unceded territory of the Mississaugas.

Tomorrow, December 10, is Human Rights Day, a time to commemorate the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a time to renew our commitment to the rights and dignity of all people.

I rise today to share a food sovereignty initiative in the Black community of Toronto, the Afri-Can FoodBasket. Established in 1995 for the purpose of reducing food insecurity in the Black community, the non-profit organization has supplied over 15,000 households with food during the pandemic alone.

Afri-Can FoodBasket donates approximately 450 boxes of food per week to people in Toronto. They have an online waitlist of over 6,000 applicants, including many people outside the Greater Toronto Area. This alone highlights the necessity of this organization.

A recent study conducted by PROOF and FoodShare found that Black communities are 3.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity compared to White Canadians, even after adjusting for factors like immigration status, education level and home ownership.

Black children were also 34% more likely to be food insecure compared to 10% of White children. This disparity has been linked to the increased likelihood of developing chronic diseases, like diabetes, asthma and depression, and to poor educational and health outcomes, like learning challenges, low graduation rates and low self-esteem.

Understanding and addressing food insecurity in the Black community is about more than alleviating hunger. It is about combating systemic anti-Black racism and intergenerational poverty through a multi-faceted approach from all levels of government supported by the notion of food security as a basic human right.

Honourable senators, please join me in thanking all the staff, volunteers and partners of the Afri-Can FoodBasket for their dedication and commitment to food justice and food sovereignty, especially during the pandemic.

Asante. Thank you.

Hon. Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard: Honourable senators, I speak today from the traditional unceded territory of the Mississaugas. I stand in support of Bill S-212, An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts and to repeal a regulation. I thank Senator Pate for reintroducing this bill.

The current state of the criminal record expiry application process is prohibitive. For many prisoners who have completed their sentence, re-entering society is challenging enough as it is. Those who cannot participate in this process are consequently punished for the rest of their lives. The record expiry process is clearly not about justice. It is an outdated process that benefits no one. It is harmful to people attempting to get their life back together during a very challenging transition.

The process of requiring people to apply for a record expiry is unjust because it is inaccessible and unnecessary. Accessibility is about equity; it is about ensuring that people who face structural barriers such as racism, poverty and ableism are able to take part. Contrary to popular belief, many people leaving prison are vulnerable. This includes but is not limited to Black and Indigenous people, and people living with mental illnesses and addiction.

The first accessibility issue is the availability of resources needed to apply. People must invest time and resources into the application, including the daunting fee of $657.77. The fee increased by $481 in 2012, and according to the stats from 2017-18, 40% fewer people applied.

The decrease in applications shows that the fee presents a significant financial barrier, given that most former prisoners are not able to find meaningful employment with a criminal record.

Black people and women are two groups that experience more difficulty gaining employment with a criminal record. The combination of unemployment rates and such a high fee are unreasonable. Access to this process should not be a privilege reserved for the wealthy.

The second accessibility issue I identify is the ease of understanding the process. Many people are not aware of how to apply for record expiry. In addition to understanding the process, they need to be aware of how their criminal record, left as is, could impact their life long term.

Many people may not know the full impact of a lingering criminal record. For example, it can impact finding employment, securing housing and the ability to travel. It can influence child custody decisions and can impact accessing financial aid or credit.

The third accessibility issue is literacy. How many of us can relate to the struggle of filling out an application form full of legal terminology that we do not understand, only to become frustrated enough to give up? Many people do not have the literacy skills to be able to follow through with this process, or the confidence or ability to seek help with their application. The solution is simple. Criminal record expiry should be automatic with no fee.

Honourable senators, some time ago I was the victim of a crime and found myself at the police station to report it. The officer showed me a lineup of mug shots of men who matched the general description of the suspect we were looking for. As I looked through the mug shots, I recognized one of the young Black men in the lineup, not as the person I was supposed to be identifying but as the son of a close friend of mine. I knew his story. I remembered that when he was a young man, just barely past the age of majority, he was charged as an adult for a crime he had committed. He served his time and had since moved on from that chapter in his life. He has since experienced success in post-secondary education and employment in his chosen field.

Despite having moved on from that time in his life, a photo of his face was still actively being shown in a lineup, meaning he could be brought in at any point in time as a suspect for a future crime.

You can imagine my dismay when I saw his face when asked to identify someone related to a crime that he clearly was not connected to. Why should his face appear as an option for a future crime, despite the fact that after some time has passed a formerly convicted person is no more likely to commit a crime than someone without a former conviction?

I decided to let his mother know what I had seen so she could inform him. He was able to apply to have his record cleared, which would also remove his image from lineups in the future.

I think about this man and what would have happened if he had not applied to have his record expunged. What would have happened if someone else had looked at that same photo lineup for a future crime and mistakenly chosen his face, despite his innocence? What if someone who viewed that lineup was his employer, a colleague or a client? How would that impact his career and reputation? What about the next time he gets pulled over for a traffic check? As a Black man, he is already at risk of racial profiling.

According to the Halifax Wortley report on street checks, Black men in Halifax are 9.2 times more likely to be stopped in a street check than the rest of the population.

What if the police officer recognizes him as one of the men in the lineup and has his mind made up that he must be up to no good? These scenarios may seem hypothetical but are unfortunately all too familiar for Black men.

The fact that he could continue to be punished for the rest of his life is unjust. Situations like these that discriminate against former prisoners are avoidable altogether by making record expiry for certain charges automatic.

Honourable senators, the criminal records expiry process serves no purpose other than to keep punishing vulnerable people for a crime they already atoned for. Amending the Criminal Records Act would be the bare minimum to ensure equitable treatment of vulnerable Indigenous, Black and racialized Canadians who are being unjustly held back by the current state of the record expiry process.

I will be supporting this bill. I encourage my colleagues to understand how beneficial this change could be to so many individuals working hard to get their lives back on track.

Asante. Thank you.

Senator Bernard: Yes.

[Translation]

Senator Bernard: When an individual has committed an offence, has been found guilty of that offence and has been punished for that offence, they have indeed been punished and have atoned for that offence. Why should the punishment continue through a lack of access to opportunities to rebuild one’s life and lack of opportunity for reintegration in society?

For some people, it may not be reintegration. It may be integration into a society which already had them on the margins in some way.

(On motion of Senator Woo, for Senator Duncan, debate adjourned.)

Senator Bernard: Yes, certainly.

[Translation]

Senator Bernard: Senator, thank you for the question. The reality is that there are certainly some charges for which an automatic record suspension would not be considered the best course of action. We’re arguing in this bill for creating conditions for those for whom it is the best course of action.

There are many vulnerable people who end up on the wrong side of the law. They do their time and have every right to be able to get their lives back on track and to return to society without barriers. It is our responsibility, I do believe, to remove barriers so that people have an opportunity for rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

[Translation]