The COVID-19 pandemic hit home a distressing fact: there are major inequities in health care in Canada. Even though Black and other racialized people constitute only half of Toronto’s population, for example, they accounted for more than 80 per cent of the city’s reported COVID cases.

This problem is seen across the board in health care among racialized communities in Canada. Why? And what’s the solution?

Join Notisha Massaquoi, a professor in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough, and Onye Nnorom, a family doctor and public health specialist –and the Black Health Theme Lead for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – as they discuss how social factors such as poverty and racism affect health, the need for more race-based data in Canada, why representation among health-care professionals is important and how U of T’s planned Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health will make a difference.

Dr. Notisha Massaquoi is a professor in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough, with a cross-appointment to U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. In 1988, she established the Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre in Toronto – the first and only such centre in North America to provide specialized primary health care for Black and racialized women – and served for two decades as its executive director.

Dr. Onye Nnorom is a family doctor and public health specialist. Dr. Nnorom is the Associate Program Director of the Public Health & Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the University of Toronto, Black Health Theme Lead for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead within the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, host of the podcast Race, Health and Happiness, and is the Past President of the Black Physicians' Association of Ontario.