{"id":56527,"date":"2021-08-13T16:59:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T20:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=56527"},"modified":"2021-08-13T17:08:23","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T21:08:23","slug":"carleton-phd-students-find-that-311-calls-made-during-pandemic-targeted-minority-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/carleton-phd-students-find-that-311-calls-made-during-pandemic-targeted-minority-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton PhD students find that 311 calls made during pandemic targeted minority communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent research conducted by two PhD students from Carleton University found that the majority of 311 calls made in municipalities during the pandemic have come from predominantly white communities to report minority communities that were breaking COVID-19 protocols.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 311 call line is a municipal telephone number that residents can call in many Canadian cities for information, to make complaints or to report problems, such as a broken traffic light or potholes on the road.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But over the course of the pandemic, the 311 call line has been encouraged by the government to be used as what Alexandra Wishart and Asif Hameed who researched the topic call, \u201ca snitch line.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Residents were encouraged to call their city to report any behaviour they witnessed that didn\u2019t adhere to COVID-19 regulations, such as breaking social distancing or a business owner not wearing a mask.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through analyzing open source data offered through different municipalities, Wishart and Hameed were quickly able to observe patterns emerging in who placed the calls. In a number of different cities, the majority of 311 calls were from predominantly white communities that lived near or adjacent to predominantly minority communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Wishart and Hameed are quick to assert that this does not suggest that minority communities break pandemic protocols anymore than anyone else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What it suggests instead, Wishart says, is that white people feel comfortable with policing minorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at here is how police are used as a substitute for racial bias,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the pandemic, you don\u2019t necessarily have the removal of minorities. But you do have this pressure on minorities to either perform, or leave. It\u2019s the prejudices and\u00a0 unconscious biases that get magnified and get put into use when you make policies such as snitch lines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Their research also points to the fact that minority and immigrant communities often aren\u2019t able to socially distance in the same way as other communities, as they are more likely to live in high density housing or have a frontline worker job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we were seeing was blaming of immigrant communities and BIPOC communities for being lower income or living in congregate with their families,\u201d Wishart said. \u201cBut also, them having to go out if they were grocery store workers, ride share drivers, people who work in fast food restaurants - they don\u2019t get to do that from home.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wishart and Hameed believe that there is a use for 311 call lines, but that police should not necessarily be involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are lots of reasons why it is reasonable for citizen\u2019s to try and communicate with their government,\u201d Wishart said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you should have a police officer respond to all of these calls. Because that\u2019s what we were seeing with these 311 calls is an officer was being dispatched.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the interview below with Alexndra Wishart and Asif Hameed to learn more about their research.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Disclaimer: Throughout the interview, the term \u201c311 call line\u201d was used interchangeably with \u201c411 call line.\u201d The 411 call line is a different service in Canada than 311. We apologize for any confusion.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent research conducted by two PhD students from Carleton University found that the majority of 311 calls made in municipalities during the pandemic have come from predominantly white communities to report minority communities that were breaking COVID-19 protocols.\u00a0 The 311 call line is a municipal telephone number that residents can call in many Canadian cities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":56536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218,3265],"tags":[8782,8783,284,8785,8784],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56527"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=56527"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=56527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}