Why is Collecting Race-Based Data Important in COVID?

What is race-based data?

The purpose of collecting race-based data is to highlight inequalities between racialized communities in healthcare and problems through a more colour-blind approach.Without this data collection, it is difficult to address disparities between racialized people, identify problems, target risk factors and improve quality of care.

Role in healthcare

Due to a scarcity of race-based data in the health sector in Canada, measuring health disparities and identifying imbalances that may be caused by racism and discrimination is challenging.

Lately, a growing number of advocates have stressed the importance of race-based statistics in health care. Race-based data, according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), could be beneficial in enforcing the province's human rights act. Citizens may assume that having the data essential to properly combat racism is just not a priority if there are no real procedural reasons why governments in Canada haven't been collecting race data. In order to clear the widespread notion that racism isn't a problem in Canada, data on race is especially necessary.

To achieve healthcare fairness, Canada's healthcare systems must be able to detect and respond to racialized groups' health inequities.

Image is courtesy of StaticOnecms.

Role in COVID

“Discrimination is not necessarily about what you do. It’s often about what you don’t do,”

-Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute and a professor of psychiatry at

the University of Toronto.

It will be much more difficult for Canadians to dismiss or excuse ignorance when it comes to debating the inequalities that exist between different racial groups if race-based data is collected on COVID-19 and other topics. Quality for the data is important to ensure accuracy.

Inconsistencies like Indigenous Service Canada reporting 175 cases of COVID when community-sourced data shows it was three times that amount shows how Canada has failed these communities by failing to provide differentiated statistics by race, appropriate data collection coordination between provincial and federal administrations, and failing to account for the many Indigenous people who do not live on reserves.

BIPOC communities in Canada demonstrate that poor housing and hazardous working conditions as vital workers make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Dissecting pre-existing inequalities preteen demographics is vital when considering public health and safety.

Article Author: Idil Gure

Article Editors; Stephanie Sahadeo, Sherilyn Wen