Web posted on Thursday, September 11, 1997

Racism allegations widen

By Meg Murphy, Varsity Staff

The University of Toronto is too busy defending its reputation to respond to burgeoning community concern about alleged systemic racism in its law faculty.

This is the latest criticism being lobbed at the university amidst growing tensions between administrators and community members about the university's employment equity record.

"This is an open invitation for them to look at their system—it is up to them to take the opportunity or not. It is a call for those in power to look at the system and recognize there is a real problem and that they are contravening the law of the land," said accomplished black lawyer April Burey.

With the exception of one man hired last year, there are no full-time law faculty who are black.

Burey recently wrote an open letter to the law dean alleging systemic racism within the faculty after discovering a white lawyer had been hired for a post in race and gender issues.

"Obviously there is a systemic problem if they can't find a woman of colour anywhere in Canada to qualify for a post about the intersection of race and gender," she said. "It is ridiculous."

In her letter, Burey used herself as an example of one of the qualified black women who should have been interviewed for the job. She holds a masters in law from Harvard University and recently argued the first racially-based case before the Supreme Court of Canada.

But she says her advocacy was not fueled by personal ambition, but rather a refusal to be silent in the face of injustice.

"It is not really about me. It was a race position. It wasn't a general position for which they can always find an excuse."

But law dean Ronald Daniels says the appointments committee was unmoved by this view. "We put forward the candidate in whom we had the greatest confidence for the cross-appointment," he said.

Daniels has sent Burey a letter detailing why she was not chosen for the post. "I am confident that in the application process in respect to the joint appointment there was no scope for assessment of Ms. Burey's file on non-academic grounds," he said.

Last week, U of T president Robert Prichard told U of T governors and national media that after a preliminary review he saw no evidence Burey has been discriminated against.

But Burey says adminstrators' focus on procedure in her particular case avoids the real issue.

"I am just one seed in a vast field—just trying to personalize in terms of one person and one process is to miss the point entirely. As long as they are allowed to focus on the personal and the process in individual cases they can avoid the broader and central issue of systemic racism. I don't want them to sidestep the issue."

However, Daniels defends the faculty's efforts at altering their primarily white composition.

"We are working on it," he said, adding a great deal of time has been devoted to recruitment of faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.

"But have we succeeded to the extent we would like in terms of ensuring the faculty is as accessible as we would like it to be?

"We worry about this as an institution. I think as a university and at the divisional level there is an understanding we cannot be complacent on this issue," he said.

Only a handful of black law students have graduated from U of T law in recent years.

"We will, of course, think of other ways we can increase our profile in the black community and beyond," he added.

However, the faculty is currently generating quite a profile indeed. The Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, the Jamaican Canadian Association and the African Canadian Legal Clinic have all taken an interest in the issues raised by Burey.

"This cries out for some kind of explanation at the very least," said Roger Rowe, executive member of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. "It is broader than just Ms. Burey's case—it is a systemic issue. We are certainly concerned."

Anti-racism activists on campus are also stressing that the administration must take a broader look at this issue.

"I think we are going to begin addressing not just particular cases but the whole notion of systemic racism," said Chris Ramsaroop, chair of the Arts and Science Students' Union's anti-racism committee.