The COVID-19 pandemic has showcased the cracks in our systems. In some ways, inequity has never been so visible. One of these cracks can be seen in our health-based research and data collection practices. Race-based health data, which exposes the inequities that health crises like COVID-19 produce, is vitally important during this changing climate to ensure better outcomes for vulnerable and marginalized communities in Canada.

Join us for a conversation about the importance of the collection and integration of race-based health data in Canada. Our special guests and witnesses will include public health professionals, researchers, community members and politicians. They will help us to understand questions like these:

• Why is race-based data an integral part of the COVID-19 response?
• How do we, as research and health organizations and as individuals, promote decolonizing anti-racist approaches in our data collection, analysis and use?
• What do data policies and processes need to incorporate in order to have the potential to address the impacts of racism? 
• How do we implement these policies and processes to best drive the development of race-based data and navigate barriers in our institutions?
• How can race-based data be used to support accountability and action that improve the health and well-being of Black, Indigenous and other racialized folks?

Speakers

• Giovanni Dappa Hosang has recently worked with Vancouver city councillors to pass motions on collecting race-based data in BC, has a long history of being a student organizer at SFU, and more recently is an organizer of the Black in BC Community Support Fund.
• Sana Shahram is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Development at UBC Okanagan, and an embedded health equity scholar with Interior Health’s Population and Public Health department.
• Sané Dube is the policy and government relations lead with the Alliance for Healthier Communities.
• Shannon McDonald is the chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority.