This column is an opinion by Bianca Mugyenyi, the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. For more information about CBC’s Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson labelled Canada’s recent COVID-19 measures directed at southern Africa “racist“. Unfortunately, Canada’s policy toward Africa has long been that way. 

After the Conservative public safety critic called on the government to act against the “African variant,” Canada banned travel from the southern part of the continent. This was Ottawa’s way of “rewarding” South Africa for alerting the world to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. 

The federal government subsequently added Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt to an Africa-only no-fly