Of Five Major Canadian Cities -- Halifax Worst for Fed Minorities

If you have problems related to race in the Federal Civil Service of Canada we want to hear from you, you may email me or leave a comment. Either way get rid of the problem that keeps you bottled up, write. See letter below this article as the writer reacts to an article in the Montreal Gazette of February 24, 2006. Below that is a newspaper item on the Atlantic forum of the National Council of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service called: "A State of Urgency."

Canada.com News Monday September 5, 2005

Visible minority workers face most obstacles in fed offices in Halifax: study

Dean Beeby Canadian Press

Monday, September O5, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Federal government offices in Halifax treat their visible minority workers the worst, suggests a study that looked at workplace prejudice in six major cities across Canada.

The draft study, commissioned by a federal agency, was based on focus-group sessions with dozens of visible minority workers employed in the federal public service.

The sessions - held in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax last March - were conducted by Environics Research Group.

In a report on the findings, Environics said participants in the Nova Scotia capital reported a much tougher time in the workplace than did groups in any other centre.

"Visible minority persons working in the civil service in Halifax were much more likely than their counterparts in any other region to feel that being a visible minority is a negative factor in the workplace," says the March 31 report, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"Many in Halifax felt that 'it is just the way it is here,' that the issue is part of being in Halifax, and not systemic to the public service across Canada."

The focus groups each involved between six and eight people who had been in the public service for at least four years and some for as long as 35 years. The study did not indicate which visible minorities were represented.

A few visible minority participants reported problems in Edmonton, but most of the complaints were about Halifax.

"Many working in Halifax felt that the process for moving people into supervisory roles or into management is stacked against visible minority applicants," Environics was told during its March 18 session in the city.

"Participants in Halifax were the most vocal about the slow acceptance - or even lack of acceptance - by employers in the region of visible minority employees based on skills-credentials. "

Said one black participant in the city: "When I started in this job, I found that people were surprised I could do it. I think they thought because I'm black, I was going to be 'lazy and shiftless and full of slang'. "

The $56,000 study also drew on comments from parallel focus groups in each city, also made up of visible minority workers but who were not employed by the federal
government. Here, too, Halifax was singled out.

"In Halifax in particular, participants felt that it would be easier and more comfortable for most visible minority people to find meaningful and successful careers outside the civil service."

Environics cautioned that the results are only "exploratory," designed to provide insight into the range of opinions, unlike a poll that provides harder, quantitative data.

The study is part of a larger project on employment equity being carried out by the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency, which handles workplace issues for the federal government.

Spokesman Pierre Marquis stressed the study was only preliminary, designed to assess perceptions.

"This is just one small step in terms of raw data in order to know what people think about employment equity," he said in an interview. "It has its limitations."

Other studies are under way to provide baseline information that will be used to develop policies and strategies for making federal workplaces inclusive and welcoming, Marquis said.

The federal government has policies to ensure its workplaces better represent four disadvantaged groups - women, aboriginals, the disabled and visible minorities.

The study found that visible minorities across the country reported few obstacles to getting hired. The Halifax group, though, said that once hired, visible minorities are denied opportunities available to others.

The Nova Scotia capital has come under national scrutiny in recent years after critics complained of institutional prejudice against blacks.

The city made headlines in 2003, for example, when heavyweight boxer Kirk Johnson won a $10,000 award after an inquiry by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission ruled that he had been targeted by Halifax police because he was black.

From 1993 to 1998, Johnson was stopped by police 28 times in an apparent case of racial profiling.

Nova Scotia boasts one of the oldest black populations in Canada, dating from more than 200 years ago as American slaves who supported the British in the American
Revolution were given refuge and freedom in the province. .

However, blacks were confined to their own settlements, given small unproductive plots of land, and they earned wages lower than whites.

@ The Canadian Press 2005

For more on Kirk Johnson see

http://www.canadastarboxing.com/Fighters/Kirk-Johnson-Profile.htm

Here's a letter from Montreal's Sharon Grant that can be found in at www.canada.com


Monday, February 27, 2006

Letter

Re: "Workplace wake-up call" (Gazette, Feb. 24). As an accomplished professional with over 15 years' experience in generating profits for several companies, I view every day as a battle. I am a visible minority, born in the West Indies, but educated in Canada. Yet my chances of succeeding remain a silent problem, one that is shared by many.

We do not speak in slang or embody booty-shaking, hip-hop culture. We are Canadians, conducting ourselves in a professional manner, and always seeking to strive higher and survive in the marketplace.

Many of us are overqualified for our positions. My own slogan has always been, "They don't have to like me, but they must hire me because I have what they need." That's only worked to my detriment. To be hired but not respected does not make for a peaceful workplace.

While this study is not conclusive, it addresses a significant issue. In order for Canada to be competitive in the global market, prejudice and discrimination need to be addressed. The problem requires not only validation that it exists but an equal effort to diminish prejudicial behavior among employers, co-workers and clients.

Sharon Grant

Montreal

Publisher's note: Added to this is the meeting last month of the National Council of Visible Minorities of the Public Service of Canada with every level of the Federal Government present. Interest in the forum was so high organizers had to turn people away. The forum was called: A State of Urgency and here is a news item carried by the Chronicle Herald on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 and the text follows:


Senator: Too few jobs for minorities
Federal public service in hot seat over record

By STEVE BRUCE Staff Reporter

The federal public service is doing a "disgraceful" job of hiring and promoting people from visible minorities, a Halifax conference was told Monday.

"The public service of Canada is in trouble," said Senator Don Oliver, the keynote speaker at the Atlantic forum of the National Council of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service.

"It is not doing enough to advance visible minorities. The current plans are not working. The time for talk is over. The time for action is now."

A 2000 report titled Embracing Change in the Federal Public Service recommended that one in every five new recruits by 2003 be a member of a visible minority qualified for the job.

The task force report urged government use the same "1 in 5" benchmark when filling executive positions by 2005.

The government endorsed the report and promised to make the public service more reflective of the nation’s diversity.

But Mr. Oliver said federal statistics from 2003-04 show only 10.1 per cent of new hires in the public service were visible minorities and only 7.9 per cent of promotions went to visible minorities.

The numbers were worse at federal offices in Nova Scotia, he said, with visible minorities accounting for 6.4 per cent of new hires and 4.9 per cent of promotions.

"Leaders in the federal public service must . . . tear down the substantive barriers that stand in the way of people of colour," Mr. Oliver told the 200 delegates at the forum.

"Most of all, they must recognize that racism — an ugly, stubborn and damaging brand of racism — remains a fundamental problem within the public service of Canada today.

"Denying that fact won’t make it go away. Pretending that it’s not here won’t work. Wishing it weren’t true won’t make it disappear. Whitewashing it won’t make it any easier to deal with."

"The intricate and difficult problems of racism in the public service will not go away and cannot be mitigated until white senior managers are willing to acknowledge that racism exists."

Mr. Oliver, a black lawyer and businessman who was named to the Senate by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1990, pointed to three areas of the public service in Atlantic Canada where he would like to see action taken this year. He wants at least three visible minorities appointed assistant deputy ministers; regional managers and executives to become mentors to talented visible minority employees; and a concerted effort to fill executive feeder groups with visible minorities.

The Nova Scotia senator said he has already asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a fellow Tory, to talk about the importance of diversity in the government workforce.

"As the largest employer in Canada, the federal public service can and should be on the leading edge," Mr. Oliver said. "It should be a shining example to all Canadian organizations, public and private, of the many advantages of building a diverse, inclusive workplace."

Lynn Jones, Atlantic director of the National Council of Visible Minorities, said interest in the forum, called A State of Urgency, was so high that organizers had to turn some people away.

"We have almost every (level) of the federal government represented here," Ms. Jones said.

"We have middle managers, upper managers, directors, employment equity co-ordinators, visible minority employees, community people and some of our board (members) from across the country."

"What we want people to take away from this conference is the urgent need to change our numbers within the federal public service."

We’re looking at representation, upward mobility and promotion of visible minorities because, as Senator Oliver said, "The statistics are dismal."

(sbruce@herald.ca)