OPSEU SEFPO’s Coalition of Racialized Workers (CoRW Regions 3 and 5) is pleased to welcome Sunil Gurmukh for a virtual presentation in honor of 2025 Asian Heritage Month. The aim of this presentation is to highlight and address systemic anti-South Asian racism in Canada. South Asian immigrants are blamed for Canada’s affordability and housing crisis while being pushed into the low-wage gig economy. Secondly South Asians face a growing tide of hate, including online hate and hate crimes, amid the conflict in the Middle East, rising Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Regrettably, South Asians contend with the importation of casteism, a system of discriminationThis event aims to engage in conversation about these issues and walk away with practical tips, drawing on Sunil’s lived experiences and work as a human rights lawyer, professor, and community leader.
Biography: Sunil Gurmukh
Sunil Gurmukh is an Assistant Professor and the Assistant Dean (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization) at Western Law. He teaches courses on racial profiling in policing and hate speech. He is also leading the Hidden Racial Profiling Project and conducting research into hate crimes. He previously served as a Visiting Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at Western Law. Sunil has over 13 years of experience as a human rights lawyer. He has worked on significant human rights cases at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition to litigation, his human rights work has included: policy development, partnerships, advisory work, engagement of equity-deserving groups, presentations, publications, teaching and research across many prohibited grounds of discrimination.Sunil has received numerous awards for his human rights work, including Western University’s Young Alumni Award (2021) and Precedent Magazine’s Precedent Setter Award (2016). In 2019, he was named as one of the country’s top 25 most influential lawyers by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. He is currently on leave from his role of Counsel at the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC). Prior to joining the OHRC in 2011, he worked at the African Canadian Legal Clinic as a Staff Lawyer
