The tragic death of George Floyd and the events that have ensued cast a light on something that we have ignored for too long. We understand that racism is real, but we have not always reflected on the structures that govern how we live and work — how we interact with each other — and how institutional factors can perpetuate discrimination.

As our society has evolved, we have developed laws, policies, regulations, procedures, rules, bureaucracies, and programs of all kinds, private and public, to manage our complex economic and social relationships. These frameworks have built up over decades and centuries. They form our institutional reality, the subtle "system" that governs us without our necessarily thinking much about it.

Our institutions are human-made. They are thus by definition imperfect. As a liberal I believe we must constantly view our institutions, and our way of doing things, with a critical eye toward reforming and improving them.

The watershed moment that is the cruel and senseless death of George Floyd has brought our attention to systemic bias in our institutions. By that we mean the way our institutions have evolved to benefit those who have shaped them and to leave out, and even work fatally against, those who were not at the drawing board.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been clear that there is no denying the existence of systemic racism in all Canadian institutions, including the RCMP.

At a recent news conference, the Prime Minister said: “Systemic racism is an issue right across the country, in all of our institutions, including in all of our police forces, including in the RCMP. As much as we admire and support the RCMP, we know we need to do better. It is not just the individual examples we have seen, it’s the issues faced by Canadians of diverse backgrounds over years, decades and generations.” 

We Canadians are good people, but our country is not perfect. We do not thrive on polarization. We want to come together. When it becomes evident that something is terribly wrong, we want solutions that are concrete, fair and just.