fabulous so first of all hello and welcome everyone to ehrc’s final webinar of our
series taking care of your employees today’s session which is promoting allyship and
solidarity in the workplace will introduce my very special guest today humberto corolla of white ribbon
so just to start off i’m marie mold and i’m the manager of stakeholder engagement here at ehrc
before we begin i do want to acknowledge that the national office of electricity human resources canada is located within
the traditional unseated and unsurrendered territory of the algonquin
anishinaabe people ehrc honors sorry honors peoples and lance of the
algonquin and anishinaabe nation and all first nations inuit and metis peoples
and their valuable past present and future contributions to this land so just before we get started i just
wanted to provide a few housekeeping notes as you know this webinar will be recorded and it will be available on our
website afterwards as well as our youtube channel you can use the chat feature at any time
to ask questions of our guest speaker and we highly encourage it so now it gives me great pleasure to
introduce humberto corolla carollo i should say executive director and co-chair
of global men engage alliance humberto will present the white ribbon model of intersectional solidarity and allyship
and it’s used to promote gender equality diversity and inclusion and healthy
masculinities in the workplace white ribbons initiatives include how to engage men and boys as gender equality
allies in the community and the workplace i also want to mention today that if
you’re currently an ehrc member white ribbon is part of our roster of partners for members only
so now let’s get started humberto i’m going to hand it over to you thank you so much marie and uh and thank
you for the kind invitation and white ribbon is uh proud to be a member of uh
ehrc and uh we’re here to support you and your members in uh with anything
that we can help with uh when it comes to addressing gender equality in the workplace preventing sexual harassment
and sexual violence gender-based violence and promoting healthy masculinities and so
this is part of what employees should be thinking about and doing in order to uh taking better care
of employees everywhere so i’m going to share a brief
introduction to white ribbon and some of our campaigns and then i would
love to leave some time um at the end for questions and answers conversation
dialogue so but feel free to uh raise your hand or
participate in the chat at any point and let me know if there’s anything that i can explain further throughout the
presentation so here we go i’m going to share my um [Music]
my screen so just give me one second and i think we are there now
yeah so um as as marie uh mentioned i’m uh with uh
white ribbon uh i’m based uh in toronto and canada and i’ve been with the
organization for uh 17 years and white ribbon is is a not-for-profit community-based organization that works
with men and boys to promote gender equality and to end gender-based violence and all forms of
discrimination one of the first things that i share in terms of
my own background is often people ask me what brings me to this work
you know what what interests me in this work and and my answer is
um that you know this is an issue that i care about uh at a professional uh level but
also at a personal level uh professional because i’ve dedicated my life to promoting social justice and human
rights and addressing inequities but personal because i grew up in uh in with violence
in in my home as as a young boy something that i witnessed i experienced
myself and i witnessed the women that i love in my family and my community uh
experienced that violence and that discrimination and and it’s something that i
grew up with and that i promised myself and once i became an adult that i would
work to address this and to help new generations of young people women
everyone really to live lives free from from violence from
discrimination from harassment so i’ve dedicated my my personal professional life to addressing this issue so it’s
something that i’m really passionate about and it’s something that i encourage all participants of our sessions to think
about why are they connected to this issue for men in particular because for too long
gender-based violence sexual harassment violence against women has been viewed as a women’s issue and for too long
women have been on the forefronts of this work often uh with with little support or little involvement from men
so we ask men to step up and consider their their role that they need to play
and must play and to think about why this is uh their issue too so that we get rid of this stereotype or this
misconception that gender-based violence is only a women’s issue or that gender equality is a women’s issue as if men
don’t have gender ourselves right so a little bit about white ribbon created
two years after december 6 1989 montreal massacre where 14 women lost their lives
at the hands of a young man with a gun who entered the called polytechnic
proceeded to one of the first year classrooms asked the men to live to leave and then
killed 14 women and injured so many others because he didn’t think that women
belonged in engineering because he hated women and because he blamed blamed women for all the challenges in
his life so although this happened uh 30 years ago we know that these
issues are still at the forefront today it wasn’t too long ago when a young man with similar
attitudes um got behind the wheel of a van and jumped
a sidewalk in in the streets of toronto and killed 11 people many of them women
and and for similar reasons because he blamed women for his his challenges in his life
so here are their names and their pictures and we do this work in their in their honor and
remembering and and also in in in recognition of of uh survivors of
gender-based violence and with the hopes that we can change uh culture that we can change
our communities and our workplaces so that these kinds of inequities these forms of violence don’t continue to to
happen and that women girls people of all genders have a meaningful opportunity to
uh to work to live play socialize without the fear the risk or the
experience of violence of uh sexual harassment and so many other
forms of discrimination so a group of three men in toronto came together and
they created the white ribbon as a symbol as a pledge to never commit condone or remain silent about men’s
violence against women and they invited men and boys all over the world to join the movement uh and take on this pledge
so that women didn’t have to do that work alone that they didn’t feel um that didn’t have to feel like men were not
supporting their efforts so we do this work collectively together in support of women’s organizations um and
and we lend our our voice and our allyship and our solidarity and we call on all men everywhere all men and boys
in our homes in our communities our workplaces in our institutions to join us in that effort so
we do that and particularly in in male-dominated workplaces where historically traditionally
women have not joined at the same rates women haven’t been given the opportunity to
join leadership positions or management positions so we call on men especially in those workplaces to
to lend their allyship and their solidarity and to do their part
take on the responsibility of changing that male-dominated culture so that more women can join
more women can advance and have the opportunities as they have to become leaders to manage to um and and to to
contribute uh equally to our workplaces everywhere
so our vision is one that has no future um uh that uh sorry a vision of a future
with no gender-based violence and um our mission is to engage men and boys in preventing all forms of gender-based
violence including sexual harassment sexual violence and we do this because we believe that every man and boy has a
promise and the potential to be part of the solution here are some of our partners we work in diverse settings
from sports to government to hospitality travel industry to teachers
unions to the extractive sector and community-based organizations to the
military to post-secondary institutions we do this at various levels
local provincial national we work with the united nations just this morning i
delivered a similar presentation to an hr group at the world trade
organization and we do this because we call for culture change sustainable culture
change so that employers find meaningful ways to create safe inclusive welcoming work
environments and and that they look towards strong
deep solutions that are more than just superficial time uh um uh time-oriented uh
initiatives like just let’s hire more women although hiring more women is
certainly part of the um of the solution um if we hire women into existing
cultures of uh harassment and discrimination and exclusion then we may
be doing more harm than good so we have to also uh focus on culture change and changing
around those those factors those root causes those conditions that lead to women being excluded
experiencing high rates of harassment and homophobia and racism and
colonialism and so forth so why is gender equality a workplace
issue in north america in particular this includes canada women make up a slight
majority of degree holders yet they are in the minority when it comes to leadership positions and they’re uh over
represented in care work both at home and in professional settings as well so if you think about
who makes up the nursing profession or the elementary teachers profession
or who does most of the service work in in the community in in the workplace in
our homes women have traditionally been the child care givers the
family the leads for family household chores and so forth so
while men have been encouraged and celebrated for their leadership positions
so there’s a significant gender divide and pay gap in professional roles uh in
legal roles healthcare higher roles and so forth and there are
high rates of sexual harassment workplace bias and violence experienced by women and members of the lgbti
communities and this is where intersectional allyship is really important because not only do we have to
promote gender equality we also have to promote workplaces communities and institutions that are inclusive
of marginalized traditionally underrepresented or excluded groups like
racialized women like trans and like lgbtq community members like indigenous
women younger employees and so forth so as we consider our allyship and
solidarity it’s important that we consider those um
principles those important principles in an intersectional way that
we have to speak out against misogyny we have to speak out against racism and
homophobia and transphobia and colonialism because those forms of oppression
disproportionately impact communities and
and and so it’s not enough for us to speak out against misogyny we have to speak out against all forms of
discrimination really um the root causes of of this problem um
gender inequality and patriarchy we’re talking about um decades centuries now of of this
inequality and it continues and and we must accelerate change we must
see and experience the urgency of this issue and put in place necessary changes
culture change policy representation in our workplaces and communities it’s also
about social learning so as as employees and leaders we have an opportunity to
also uh advocate for change in the community and we have to be good role
models for the young people in our lives and we have to bring these elements into our personal
relationships in our homes in the community as well this is not just about changing the workplace this is about
being a whole individual uh from from our personal individual behaviors
all the way to the way that we influence and and uh advocate for for for change
at a systemic level this is uh also as i mentioned earlier connected to racism
homophobia and discrimination in general and a lot of this has to do with harmful
gender norms and and uh and and harmful aspects of masculinity
that men and boys grow up with such as the idea that we should be always in control we should always dominate that
we should never take no for an answer that we should always strive to be
decision makers and and that anger is the only emotion that we can uh exhibits
that any signs of vulnerability or feelings or discussion of our feelings or of our emotions is viewed as as a
weakness and something that’s not part of what it means to be a real man
um so we know that the metoo and the time’s up movement have uh those
movements have asked us to step up to accelerate change they’ve asked us to
help change the the stereotypes and those harmful norms do away with those
from our lives from our families from our communities and workplaces and institutions it’s
time it’s it’s overdue and uh it can’t come soon enough and uh
just uh today one of the participants of my um workshop expressed is is
impatience at how how long it’s taking for this change to happen and and i
celebrated that impatience i i said right on you know we have we have to be impatient yes we have to work harder and
faster for towards change and i’m so glad to hear that coming from from men as well
so we are seeing change we are seeing more men and boys stepping up to become allies and and and working side by side
with women and people of all genders and saying enough is enough you know we we
want change because this is good for us as well and similarly from indigenous
communities uh the the colonialism the historical marginalization the
generational trauma that the community has experienced we must do better there too we must extend our solidarity and
allyship to indigenous communities and peoples we must look at our own workplace practices and inclusion
efforts to make sure that indigenous peoples are given the opportunities the representation that they uh rightly
deserve and we need to make sure that as institutions and organizations we do our own internal work and then we work
together in solidarity with indigenous organizations to call for change for sustainable culture change
similarly those calls have come from the black lives matter movement in terms of
needing and calling on us to advocate for systemic change so that black folks can be included can be
live work play socialize free from racism from police brutality from violence from
exclusion and we must work hard as well to redress those historical um
[Music] experiences of of racism of extreme violence of discrimination of bias and
so much um i want to take a little bit of a break here and give you a chance to uh
contribute um and uh and visit uh mentee.com so enter
that in your desktop or in your um
in your mobile enter that codes 1947-1492
and and share with us what you think or what you feel is an ally what is an ally and
let me just switch to my other screen so you have access to it just a
second
okay so mentee.com and enter the code that will appear on
the screen right there i hope you see that um
there we go leader champion and the mentor so feel free to add more to those what
is an ally or what are the principles of an ally what are the
characteristics of an effective ally so an advocate someone who’s an
advocate what else
someone who’s compassionate non-complacent who’s understanding absolutely compassion
um someone non-complacent so someone who who steps up who intervenes who doesn’t
stand on the sidelines who understands their role the important responsibility
of of working towards change um someone who’s courageous yes it takes
courage and bravery sometimes for us to step outside of these expected you know uh gender stereotypes
and norms you know it takes courage to open up and talk about our feelings and and express vulnerability that is so
important for men because for too long we’ve held back we’ve been told that you know doing that is a sign of weakness
that we’re not real men if we cry if we um talk openly about our emotions our
stresses and and recall that you know the few ways in which we’re able to do
that is often through the expression of anger and that anger leads to conflict and conflict is often
takes in the form of violence so that explains the high rates of violence in
in family and family life during the pandemic as an example because so many
men lost their jobs or became underemployed or experienced those stresses from
having to work from home and without that ability to demonstrate emotional intelligence to talk about
feelings and and ways in which this pandemic has impacted our own well-being
and mental health uh well-being so many men have resorted to result resolving their
conflicts through violence through through violence in the home and in the
community so an ally means being a leader a champion being passionate
being a patient and being cooperative and empathetic and being vocal and so
much more so thank you for contributing with uh with with that and um
and i wanted to um give you an example of uh
um on a second of uh of allyship and um so let me just
reach in the screen again um
great
so in in the context of of the workplace being an ally means understanding our
privilege as well and understanding that for too long women
in particular have experienced these obstacles these barriers along the way
and that although we’re all trying to achieve the same kind of result we want to be successful
in what we do we want uh to to achieve impact we want to progress in our
careers that our paths often take different routes because of the
types of discrimination of biases of harassment and violence that exist along
the way and women because of their gender and how historically and traditionally they’ve been viewed in the
workplace and in the in the community in the family they experience those obstacles at much much far
greater rates than than men sure men have some challenges along the way absolutely but
for women we’re talking about sexism sexual harassment we’re talking about racism and uh cultural biases and the
expectation that women should be at home caring for their kids and that women should take their full time off when
kids are born and and put their careers on hold and and so so much more um
so that is a first step in our realization in our work towards um
allyship and and that is to um to know our place as as privileged
individuals and therefore to be aware of it and um and and to to work on those and and to
therefore have empathy and compassion and work towards change so that those barriers are are removed and
uh folks who haven’t had access to um to the same kinds of privileges that
we’ve had finally have access to those so an ally is someone who supports
survivors who believes survivors who doesn’t stand in the way of them seeking justice
and and talking about their experiences and wanting to heal from it
it’s someone who helps to build a consent culture in in their own private life with their own
behaviors in the home by teaching their kids especially boys about the importance of consent and
healthy relationships but also in the workplace to understand that consent also plays a significant role in how we
interact with each other that hugs and touching and so forth is not always
welcomed in fact it’s not appropriate for the workplace so we need to consider
our role in promoting consent within the workplace as well to be an active
bystander so to know how to effectively intervene when we see hear
and experience others being targeted with racism or sexism or
homophobia and so being able to step in there and intervene and and
there’s a whole range of training that can be provided to help employees become better um
and more impactful bystanders to be good role models for everybody but especially
for young people in our lives who are looking up to us adults to
demonstrate how to have those healthy relationships how to treat others with respect as equals and so forth so
there’s a significant opportunity for us to be good role models everywhere as allies to practice intersectionality
don’t cherry pick what you stand for you need to stand
against racism and homophobia and transphobia and misogyny and colonialism
it’s not sufficient to just speak out against one form of oppression because they’re all interlinked and many folks
experience those forms of oppressions in multiple ways so being an intersectional
ally and then be accountable for for your own behaviors if there’s a past
past history of of harm of discrimination of harassment of violence
take steps to make amends be accountable uh and be accountable presently you
can’t uh be one person uh in the workplace and then be someone different
at home practice those values equally across your whole life
and you know be an ally uh not just when you’re in front of those who are uh
one needing allyship but also when they’re not around we often tell athletes be an ally on the field off the
field and in the locker room when nobody’s watching when you’re amongst your peers be an ally there too because
for too often men have uh offered their allyship in public
ways only to behave very differently in private ways so be an ally wherever you
are at any time at all times um i want to
in the spirit of sharing with you some of our newer campaigns i want to share with you uncompose which is a a psa that
promotes emotional literacy uh amongst men because that is one of the key
key solutions to challenging harmful gender norms to
encourage men to be better allies but also encourage men to be better to themselves and and to be more
open more in touch with their emotions so they don’t have to resort to violence and control and dominance when they feel
stressed so here is uncomposed and i hope you
like it and i would love to hear your feedback and whether it’s
whether it resonated with you so here we go again
you should hear sound right from the get go let me let me know if you don’t
society looks at men that show a lot of emotion as a weakness
the idea of a man showing vulnerability is difficult to do because it’s not accepted
[Music]
[Music]
music definitely has the power to unlock our emotions
to help us to process it it is something essential because it has those immediate
effects on our soul and heart [Applause] [Music]
neurobiologically the men and women are not that different in how they react emotionally to music due to social
influences men become socialized to show less of the emotions
i think the track very clearly sits in the low arousal negative valence part of
the space the track is bittersweet and it takes us on this emotional journey
that might include tears and chills i grew up around a really strong father
figure in my dad he built a lot of that toughness into all of us at home i didn’t have a father growing up i taught
myself how to be a man my sister needs me my mother needs me my grandmother needs me i try to keep my emotions to
myself i know what i need to do as a man some of the things i think i have to teach my my boys
they got to be strong assertive [Music] decisive
[Music]
it’s tough this headache of gonna be tough tough guy walking down the street
we’re afraid to show emotion because we’re we’re worried about for going to be seen as a real man
sitting there in total silence and just having the band play for me my body went
in shivers i got shivers in seconds i was not expecting that [Music]
[Music]
it helped me create that dialogue the self-reflection it gave me a tool to take back to my
boys i think it’s been a long journey for myself to feel like it’s okay to express
emotions you just can’t deny the things that you feel in my mind i think i’m staying strong
right maybe in reality i’m weak for not showing vulnerability that short
journey that i’ve been on has changed my life already i’m going to continue to be more true to who i am i’d like i’d like
to think i’ve become a better man through this process if acknowledging sensitivity and vulnerability is
strength then i guess i have become a better man yeah
wow
[Music]
so that’s part of what we ask men to do to open up to share emotions to be good role models in in
sharing vulnerability because we need to create um raise new generations of of young men
who are more emotionally literate who um who can
relate to others in more equitable uh safer inclusive uh
respectful uh ways um and so the the other campaign that i want to
leave you with is our men of quality campaign with the toronto maple leafs by the way we’re about to launch a new
one of this so stay stay tuned as as we work as we launch a new men of quality
psa leading up to father’s day in in a couple of weeks so
here you go and let’s look at
our men of quality uh campaign which is a really example of of uh of allyship and
in particular allyship from athletes who um [Music]
who for too long have stood on the sidelines perhaps even engaged in
in some of these misogynistic behaviors in sports in the community in their own personal lives but it’s time
that we change culture there as well and we call on athletes in particular male identified athletes to do their part so
this is a great example of how that can be done
[Music]
do [Music]
a quality player is not just fast skilled or determined on the toronto maple leafs we measure quality by more
than just hockey ability true men of quality strive to be great role models mentors fathers husbands and sons
that’s why we’re proud to be partnered with white ribbon the world’s largest movement of men and boys working
together to end violence against women because this is not just a woman’s issue it’s a problem for all of us to solve
men of quality oppose words or actions that perpetuate gender inequality we’re
making a commitment to all women to end violence and discrimination in all of its forms
for all women i’ll always stand up for gender equality for our community i’ll challenge racism homophobia transphobia
and sexism for my mother judy i’ll teach my children about healthy relationships and consent for my wife alana i’ll
encourage men to support gender equality at home and in the community for all women i’ll set a good example for young
men [Music]
for all women for all women i’ll set a good example for young men i’ll set a good example for young men
join the toronto maple leafs in a pledge to end violence against women working together we will help achieve gender
equality for all the women in our lives and in our communities [Music]
wonderful so um i would like to turn it over to to you and i see that um
there’s a comment on the chat box and i’m happy to take questions and comments and insights let me know if this has
uh resonated with you and uh happy to to take um to to engage in a few moments of
of dialogue so thank you so much thank you humberto and yes we will open
it up to questions um i’ll actually start off with one the first question
um and by the way that video was very good both of them uh you’ve always had some great powerful videos
uh so uh the question that i had is um in regards to male allyship and that
type of a program within an organization are there any organizations besides the maple leafs but is there any other
organizations that you can think of right off the top that are doing a great job
yeah we’ve been working with some of them sun wing as an example uh in the travel industry
they’ve really used a holistic approach so this is not a
simple matter of just bringing together a group of male-identified employees and created in male allies it is certainly
one of the one of the steps but you we need to take a a more cultural change
approach to addressing this issue we need to look at our policies our practices we need to look at at training
for employees and engagement of creating spaces brave spaces for men in
particular to come together and to sit and and watch a campaign like
uncomposed and then engage in a debrief afterwards about what it means to be
emotionally literate what it means to talk about feelings and emotions rather
than resorting to control and dominance and aggression and fear and anger
in whether it be in the workplace or in at home or in the community to address their their conflicts so um there are
some organizations doing great work in this respect i had an opportunity to work with valley the the mining uh giant
as well um and we put together we use the men of quality uh campaign and we
adapted it to their workplace they created their own allies of quality they called it allies
of quality campaign profiling their employees in similar kind of roles talking about what it means for them to
to be allies um you know we’re starting to do some some really great work with the canadian military which desperately
needs culture change and there too there is no simple solution this is what i
encourage employers and hr leads to think through this is this requires you
know deep uh work uh the work that takes time and
and and be careful about engaging in in quick you know
solutions like just hiring more women um and because they can do more harm than
goods and and many very often those women don’t stand a chance don’t stay too long and it’s
it’s very harmful for for everybody if the culture is not changed so great
examples out there i’m happy to um you know share more in depth uh if anybody’s
interested in engaging in that kind of culture change you know reach out we’ll help you through it and uh
we can even invite some of our colleagues and some of our partners who’ve gone through that kind of process
and share their story with you as well and you’re absolutely right i mean um
you know a lot of organizations tend to check off you know that check box and
and you know think of it as a process like that and actually i had i heard about a great example because you talked
a little bit about the moving barriers um so one example that i heard about was an
organization and i don’t i think it was in the aviation industry where they actually built a daycare center right
across the street from their building um you know to help remove some of those barriers for women
um can you think of any other example of removing a specific barrier
yeah um any sometimes benefits uh for example um
and this is interesting because it it addresses the expectation that women need to take time off work in
order to raise their young kids right encourage male employees to do that too
so that women on the other end have a chance to remain longer in their in
their jobs continue to progress in their careers so even even in a in a policy
like that that is you know traditionally considered to benefit women
look a little bit deeper from the surface and and look for opportunities to strengthen it and and
maybe together with a kind of benefit that’s provided to new moms um you can
think of of of encouraging your male employees to take time off for to be
with their families um so that the burden isn’t only on uh on on women and
and on on moms and do that whether it be for
birth parents or adoptive parents make it equal for everybody that’s that’s
another another example perhaps not as as like direct and concrete as you know creating
a daycare center but something that if all employers were to do collectively we
would be able to change around this expectation that women are the caregivers that they must sacrifice
their careers and take time off work in order to raise their their uh their kids
that’s okay that that is obviously some great hints there for sure thank you um there’s also a comment
excuse me honestly the best ally chef presentation i have seen kudos to you and your organization for doing this
work and continuing to push through with paid impatience um i also have another question
what is the best way to start to help managers to acknowledge that white men have great advantages compared to women
and minorities into most workplaces you know for me it’s it’s a it’s a
personal question it’s a you know let’s look at at the ways in which we
experience privilege let’s list those let’s compare it um to one another let’s
look at differences you know how about those of us who experience racism or
homophobia you know how may our lived experiences be different than those who haven’t
and it’s by engaging in that kind of frank honest open
non-judgmental you know brave and safe kind of of of discussion
where you know we can have a real conversation about these issues in ways that don’t uh
raise uh resistance or backlash or defensiveness i believe it’s it’s
possible to do that and to even in within that conversation acknowledge people’s experiences past
traumas and so forth i found in doing uh work with with men that often the sight
of resistance comes from a past wound or or unresolved pain
or trauma or maybe something that you know someone has never had a chance to talk
about or share with another person and they’ve never received or experienced compassion or
empathy and that is so important to provide those kinds of spaces especially for men who are
resisting who are not on board with change and and it’s amazing to see the kind of
transformation that happens when you provide those spaces so um it’s it’s challenging because i think
our instinct uh often is to just you know shut it down like i don’t want to
hear it we have policies you know this is not acceptable uh but we have to
instead take on a more uh curious type of intervention and use curiosity
and provide the space and the opportunity for people to debrief through their own
present attitudes and misconceptions and so forth and it’s uh it’s important work it’s deep work it’s
going beyond the surface and it’s really needed if we’re to move forward
so first of all humberto thank you so much and i really do appreciate the fact that you did talk a little bit about
your personal experience so thanks once again i also want to uh
thank all the participants today and if you’d like to receive more information
from us you can contact us through our website or my last name mold mould
electricity hr.ca i hope you enjoyed today’s session and uh i want to
as we’re recording this the full series will be available on our website as well as the youtube channel
so that said i want to say enjoy the rest of your day everybody and your summer and hopefully we’ll see you in
the fall thanks bye for now