ABSTRACT
This chapter examines three aspects of the 2016 anti-racism community process leading to the 2017 Anti-Racism state strategy: civil society dynamics leading to new state intervention; the civil/political engagement process undertaken; an analysis of the state appeasement output. Participatory democracy in Canada exposes the best and worst of Canadian social relations and political processes. This is particularly so with regards to social eruptions followed by political containment occasioned by the persistence of systemic and other forms of racism. Racialized groups in Canada invest tirelessly in harnessing their entitlements through civil society anti-racism strategies. Black Lives Matter has become perhaps one of the defining phrases of the twenty-first century. Black Lives Matter Toronto's philosophical link to events in the United States locates them as part of the current wave of populism sweeping North America. In 2016 the Province of Ontario reintroduced political protocol for addressing racism and embedded an Anti-Racism Directorate in the Cabinet Office.
