Our Work at CAPE and Systemic Racism in Canada

The statement argues that systemic racism and colonialism are foundational to Canada and manifest within the environmental and medical systems. It critiques environmentalism for historically erasing Indigenous rights and calls for CAPE to ensure its work is actively anti-racist, equating racism and Islamophobia with health threats like climate change.

• The author argues that environmentalism as a movement has a poor history of engaging with Indigenous peoples, often operating on the assumption that non-Indigenous people should decide the fate of Indigenous lands, which risks participating in "Indigenous erasure".
• The document states that conservation efforts globally have led to the forced relocation of Indigenous peoples and damage to sacred sites, while in Canada, environmental campaigns have sometimes inadvertently sacrificed Indigenous health and rights.
• The author asserts that systemic racism, Islamophobia, and colonialism are not anomalies but are "part of the systems that created Canada", stemming from the violence of its founding as a settler country.

APA

Anjali (2021). Our Work at CAPE and Systemic Racism in Canada. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. https://cape.ca/our-work-at-cape-and-systemic-racism-in-canada/

Chicago

Anjali. Our Work at CAPE and Systemic Racism in Canada. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, 2021. https://cape.ca/our-work-at-cape-and-systemic-racism-in-canada/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Anjali |title=Our Work at CAPE and Systemic Racism in Canada |publisher=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |date=22 June 2021 |url=https://cape.ca/our-work-at-cape-and-systemic-racism-in-canada/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{anjali2021our, author = {Anjali}, title = {{Our Work at CAPE and Systemic Racism in Canada}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://cape.ca/our-work-at-cape-and-systemic-racism-in-canada/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }