Little mainstream media attention has been given to the tragic outcome of Ghanaian native Alfred Okyere, who was brutally attacked while on his job at Sandvik, in the province of Saskatchewan, in Canada.
The young gentleman has been described by many to be a peaceful, hardworking, young man who was excited to begin his new life in Canada, not knowing that in Canada, his life would be cut tragically short.
As broadcast on the African Diaspora News Channel, the slaughtering of Alfred has been described by the police as an altercation between two employees; however, for someone to wield a knife and plummet that knife into another person 17 times is the clear definition of a crime of passion, and that passion was fuelled by nothing more than hate!
We have seen Canada re-write legislation to target other marginalized groups of people who stand out such as the First Nations People, the LGBTQ Community, and the Jewish Community; yet, although the Black Community has faced countless atrocities in North America since the 1700s, Canada has never implemented laws to free our community from discrimination, hate crimes, or even sanction those who minimize the trauma we have lived through for hundreds of years.
While hate crimes are against the law in Canada, no law specifically says that behaviors such as hate speech or hate crimes that represent being anti-black in this country are against the law.
Of all the 4 main groups who have lived through years of marginalization, exclusion, hate crimes, hate speech, and unusual and unfair punishment in Canada, the black population is the only group of all 4 sets of the marginalized that has yet to see Canadian policymakers implement laws to protect us from being targeted.
Just as there are laws to protect the Jewish community from antisemitism, there should be a law to protect the black population from being accused of pulling the race card when we speak about systemic racism in Canada.
The black population in Canada should no longer continue to live in a country that promotes equality and inclusion; yet, excludes our population from reparation, while the Canadian government does not see the severity of not implementing these laws to combat anti-black hate in Canada.
We as a people must stand united as one and petition the Canadian government to rewrite the Human Rights Act and acknowledge the struggle of our people for hundreds of years in Canada.
A young man, who is a black African man from Africa, took the voyage across the sea with the belief that he would start a new life in a country where his ethnicity would not be a barrier for him to live a prosperous life; however, the sad reality for black people in Canada is that we are not now; nor have we ever been given full protection from the Human Rights Act in Canada.
Sign our petition and let us unite as one to lobby for change in this country.
May Alfred Okyere rest in peace, and may his death remind the government of how many dreams for black people have turned into a nightmare in Canada.