On February 26, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario will release a landmark best-practice guideline on anti-Black racism in nursing at its annual Queen's Park Day. Timed to close out Black History Month, the event brings together more than 150 nurses, practitioners, and students to push for systemic change across Ontario's health, social, and educational systems — with concrete, evidence-based tools to back it up.
Tomorrow morning, more than 150 registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students will gather in Toronto to mark the close of Black History Month in a way that goes well beyond ceremony. At 10:30 a.m. on February 26, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) holds its 26th annual Queen's Park Day — and this year, the centrepiece is something the nursing profession in Ontario has never had before: a formal, evidence-based best practice guideline dedicated entirely to addressing anti-Black racism in nursing.
The release arrives at a moment when equity and diversity initiatives face active dismantling in some jurisdictions, and when hate-based rhetoric has grown louder in public life. The RNAO's message, in that context, is clear and deliberate: this organization is not backing down.
A guideline built from lived experience
The new guideline, titled Addressing Anti-Black Racism in Nursing, is the result of years of sustained advocacy, research, and community listening. It builds directly on the foundational work of RNAO's Black Nurses Task Force, which surveyed 205 Black nurses in Ontario and published a groundbreaking 2022 report outlining 19 recommendations to tackle structural racism within nursing organizations, regulatory bodies, and the broader health system. That report laid the foundation. Tomorrow's guideline is the architecture.
Developed by a 19-member expert panel of Black nursing professionals and students, and co-chaired by Dr. Bukola Salami and Dr. LaRon Nelson, the guideline translates years of evidence and lived experience into actionable direction for health and social service organizations and academic institutions. It asks them to do more than acknowledge the problem. It gives them the tools to address it.
What to expect
The day unfolds in two parts. The morning media conference at Queen's Park media studio (Room 148, 111 Wellesley St. W) begins at 10:30 a.m. ET and will officially release the guideline to the public. The afternoon panel discussion takes place at RNAO's home office at 4211 Yonge Street, Suite 500, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET. Both sessions are available via live stream for those unable to attend in person.
Leading the media conference is RNAO President NP Lhamo Dolkar, alongside a powerful roster of speakers:
- Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite, RNAO past-president and co-chair of the Black Nurses Task Force
- Dr. Bukola Salami, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized Peoples Health, University of Calgary
- Dr. Stephanie Buchanan, guideline development manager and co-lead of the new guideline
The afternoon panel brings in additional voices from across the sector, including Anuradha Lokre of the Ontario Nurses' Association, Sandra Porteous from the College of Nurses of Ontario, Safeyyah Raji of the Canadian Black Nurses Alliance, and Damilola Iduye, president of the Pan-Canadian Association of Nurses of African Descent.
The four things the guideline calls for
RNAO President NP Lhamo Dolkar has been direct about the stakes: service organizations and academic institutions need to move beyond statements. The guideline provides the framework to do exactly that, centring four key areas of action:
- Interactive anti-racism education, embedded meaningfully throughout institutional training programs
- Zero-tolerance policies with real accountability for racist behaviour and discriminatory practices
- Formal mentorship programs designed specifically to support the retention and advancement of Black nurses
- Leadership-level accountability tied to measurable outcomes in representation, workplace safety, and staff retention
These are targeted, structural interventions. None of them are new concepts in isolation, but bringing them together within a nationally recognized, evidence-based framework gives institutions something they have lacked: a clear, credible, and hard-to-ignore roadmap.
When the system fails Black nurses, it fails Black patients too
Anti-Black racism in health care touches everyone who moves through the system — as a patient, a family member, or a professional. For Black Canadians, the health system has too often been a site of inequity: harder to access, less trusting, and shaped by structures that were not built with Black lives at the centre. When Black nurses face discrimination inside the institutions meant to heal people, the effects extend far beyond the nursing unit.
The RNAO's Black Nurses Leading Change Interest Group has continued to build on the task force's 2022 recommendations, with many of those 19 recommendations now implemented across provincial and federal policy submissions. RNAO's guideline represents the next phase of that progress — moving from advocacy and awareness into enforceable, institution-level practice change.
RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun has described anti-Black racism as "embedded in systems that shape hiring, promotion, leadership opportunities and patient care," adding that it "compromises safety, violates human rights and weakens our society." The association, representing more than 57,250 registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students across Ontario, is calling for coordinated accountability from governments, regulators, professional associations, unions, employers, and academic institutions.
How to follow
If you want to be part of what happens tomorrow, both sessions are open via live stream. See the panel discussion YouTube stream (1:30 p.m. ET) below:
The work ahead is just beginning
The release of a guideline is a beginning, not a finish line. Black nurses across Canada have been naming these problems for decades. What has been missing is institutional will — the kind that transforms acknowledgement into action, and statements into policy. Tomorrow's event will not solve everything in an instant. But it marks a significant moment: Ontario's nursing profession, speaking with collective authority, insisting that the health system must do better for the people who work within it and the communities it serves.
The nurses gathering tomorrow at Queen's Park are carrying that demand forward. And they are bringing the evidence with them.
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