This week is Black Mental Health Week in Toronto.

To quote blackmentalhealthweek.ca: “TAIBU Community Health Centre, in partnership with the city of Toronto, hosted the inaugural Black Mental Health Day in March 2020, citing the Toronto Black community’s demand to end 400 years of oppression and the ongoing mental health impact of persistent, systemic anti-Black racism in all settings....

“This year, Tropicana Community Services, Strides Toronto, Delta Family Resource Centre, Black Health Alliance and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands are joining TAIBU Community Health Centre to ensure more voices are heard.”

Heal in Colour, the Mental Health Benefits of Representation; Painting as Therapy: Black Student Engagement Wellness Night; Breaking Down Barriers to Mental Health in Black Communities; Mental Health Law 101, Managing through Grieving and Loss; Tools to Help Black Families Navigate the Complexities of Social Services; Social Connections for Senior Mental Health; Black Men’s Mental Health Panel; and Black Survivors: the Intersection of Race and Human Trafficking are just a few of the courageous conversations programmed for this week.

On Saturday night, you can check out When Sisters Speak, a spoken word showcase, at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallett Theatre.

Black Mental Health Week will have its closing ceremony in my community of Toronto–St. Paul’s at the Toronto Archives at 255 Spadina Road, and I invite all of you to join us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the city of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism unit. Thank you, Kemba, your team, community partners and advisers for your community “heart work.”

It is my hope this Legislature will follow suit and declare this week formally as Black Mental Health Week across the province of Ontario as so many of us have asked the Legislature to do.

Anti-Black racism wreaks havoc on the souls of Black people—400 years and counting. Health care workers, among others, have long called for this government to recognize anti-Black racism as a public health emergency detrimental to our physical and mental health. RNAO’s Black Nurses Task Force study surveyed 205 Black nurses and nursing students across Ontario and found 88% had reported experiencing anti-Black racism and discrimination at work.

My question is to the Premier: Will you join several cities across the province and take a solid step towards recognizing the impact of anti-Black racism on Black Ontarians by declaring today, the first Monday in March, annually as Black Mental Health Day?

For far too many Black children and adults, walking while Black, shopping while Black, driving while Black, learning while Black or having a mental health crisis while Black means experiencing racial profiling, harassment, discrimination, disproportionate use of force and sometimes, sadly, death by law enforcement. Both the target—if they survive—and their families and the larger communities are left fraught with confusion, fear, anxiety and depression. Anti-Black racism is a structural and social determinant of physical and mental health.

Premier, can you share with us what your government is doing, along with your 2023 budget allocation, to specifically address Black mental health in Ontario—specifically, Black mental health in Ontario?