Environmental racism occurs when racialised communities are targeted for the establishment of environmentally hazardous sites and the subsequent neglect of those communities in relation to the cleanup of those sites, especially where this happens with respect to environmental policy-making by any level of government.
A private member's bill that aims to address environmental racism is headed for debate in the House of Commons this month.
According to a CBC news article: "Introduced by Nova Scotia MP Lenore Zann, Bill C-230 is seeking a national strategy to examine the link between race, socio-economic status and environmental risk, as well as the connection between hazardous sites and negative health outcomes in communities where Black and Indigenous people and people of colour live." Read the full article here: Bill that aims to address environmental racism heads for debate in House of Commons.
The bill was inspired by Ingrid Waldron, associate professor in the faculty of health at Dalhousie University in Halifax and author of "There's Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities", which in turn inspired the 2019 Netflix documentary featuring actors Elliot Page and Ian Daniel.
If you have Netflix, do yourself a favour and watch this documentary, "There's Something In the Water."