Inclusivity - Reading Materials - Chapter 04: Race and Ethnicity

Chapter 01: Women and Gender and Chapter 02: Gender-Based Harassment and Violence are prerequisites to the review and implementation of the content of this unit.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has been focusing on advancing DEI goals for Black and racialized employees through committees, employee resource groups, recruitment and advancement policies, continuous learning resources, and responsible sourcing. Recognizing the importance of ongoing learning for an entire workforce, OPG provides employees access to resources from the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) and Blue Ocean Brain. OPG ensures its employees receive training on diversity fundamentals, unconscious bias, respect in the workplace, introductory and advanced human rights and harassment topics, bystander intervention, Indigenous cultural awareness, mental health first aid, and sexual and gender-based harassment and discrimination. After redesigning and expanding their employment equity workforce demographic census in 2021, OPG has improved educational and data collection functions, including new categories, improved analysis and reporting, and more significant insights into OPG’s workforce demographics that will inform tailored DEI approaches to programming, recruitment, and advancement. In the first six months, this census surpassed the number of responses provided in the previous ten years, signalling both a successful communications campaign and an increased willingness of employees to self-identify. OPG prides itself on its Supply Chain diversity program that aims to increase engagement with businesses owned by equity-deserving groups. In the program’s first six months, Supply Chain identified $45M in diverse spending. OPG is building sustainability into the diversification of our Supply Chain pipeline by assessing long-term projects and increasing the pool of potential business partners, for example, nuclear-qualifying Indigenous-owned businesses. Learn more

Canadian Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) has many recommended training programs and courses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Discovering the correct type of training that would meet the organization’s needs is vital to increasing diversity and inclusion initiatives. While CCDI offers several courses to equip organizations with specific tools to make the workplace more inclusive, a good baseline to start with is their diversity and inclusion fundamentals training. This is a foundational course everyone in the organization can take to begin their journey to understanding the basic principles needed to create an inclusive workplace. They also offer unconscious bias training, which helps employees understand the insidious ways bias, microaggressions, and racism are perpetuated and reinforced in society. It allows everyone to approach this work from a place of understanding rather than blame. Their anti-racism certificate program is open for groups or individuals and includes these courses:

• History of racism and colonization in Canada
• Race and racism in the Canadian workplace
• The intersections of race and other identities
• How to be an ally to racialized people
• Introduction to cultural competence

These courses equip individuals with the knowledge they need to advance their diversity and inclusion journey and make them effective promoters of anti-racism and inclusion in their teams. Learn more

The Deloitte (2016) “Black in Canada” report outlines practical strategies for creating and sustaining an anti-racist workspace. The four guiding principles of this model are summed up in the acronym L.E.A.D.: listen, engage, acknowledge and do. These practices are the basis for creating a workplace where employees trust the management, are authentic and can speak up. Listen: create spaces where Black employees can share their lived experiences. Believe them when they do, and ensure these voices are heard at the table. Engage: learn from Black employees, experts and community members and find and/or create opportunities to partner with them on projects and initiatives in the workplace and the community. Acknowledge that anti-Black racism exists in the workplace and re-evaluate any behaviours employers/employees exhibit that reinforce it. Reach out to Black colleagues and strengthen relationships with them. Do: actively follow through on actions to deconstruct oppressive systems that marginalize Black employees. Many of the strategies for sustaining anti-Black racism in the workplace must be woven into the operational fabric of the organization. This is not a linear process, as each organization is unique, with specific strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. What is being provided, as part of this toolkit, are actions based on promising practices, and these can be used to create an anti-racist workplace, one that puts the needs of marginalized groups at the center. When implemented, these strategies will support creating a just workplace that benefits the whole organization and its employees. Learn more

The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s policy and guidelines on race and racism advise organizations that practical training should include anti-racism terminology. It is imperative that for anti-racism training to be successful, there needs to be a thorough understanding of what racism is and how it can be challenged. Anti-racism training should consist of tools, techniques, and lessons that should change an individual’s attitudes and approach to societal and systemic instances of racism (OHRC, 7.3.1.). However, most organizations still tend to prefer terms such as “inclusion” and “diversity” instead of overt references to racism when completing anti-discrimination training. Learn more

Regional Diversity Roundtable (RDR) is a charitable non-profit organization committed to institutionalizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. They are equipped to provide training, coaching, and consultations to organizations looking to progress on their diversity and inclusion strategies and goals. RDR recommends that public sector and not-for-profit organizations develop a strategic plan and measurement tool to address and track the changing demographics of their workforce and the communities they serve. Having a combined approach to increase diversity and inclusion initiatives involves a plan to improve representation in the organization and a system of measurement to hold the organization accountable for their progress. The measurement tool should provide an analysis of where the organization is currently at with its diversity and inclusion practices and should highlight opportunities for improvement. Learn more

• Expand your current sourcing networks. Look at diversity-oriented job groups partnering with diversity organizations and educational partners to create awareness of pathways to employment.
• Allow flexibility around personal days for recognizing other religious and culturally significant holidays. Some jurisdictions may allow you to let employees work a traditional religious statutory holiday in exchange for taking a different day off that is culturally or religiously significant for them.
• Be aware of how your employees may observe their important dates and their potential impact at work. For example, fasting may affect employees doing physical labour more than at a desk job. Review any organization celebrations/gatherings dates to see if there are other days of significance before you schedule.
• Be aware of trauma mining in your quest to be inclusive.
• Create formal job postings and connect with local communities or specific employment agencies that often engage with racialized persons. This will ensure exposure for the organization to more individuals from these communities.
• Attend job or career fairs at high schools, colleges, universities, or industry events in places with a higher representation of racialized individuals.
• Remove “culture fit” questions from the interview process. This often leads to unconscious and confirmation biases rather than attaining the best candidate for the role.
• Conduct interviews with multiple interviewers and use preset questions directly related to the ability to perform the task at hand.
• Ensure interviewers have had training on the impacts of unconscious bias.
• Adopt skills-based criteria over degree-based or Canadian experience-based bars on job postings.
• Testing should only be administered after a conditional offer of employment is made. The employer should only use it if it can be demonstrated that it is a reasonable method of assessing the candidate’s abilities directly related to the tasks of the job.
• Employers should ensure that all employees know the professional development training available and how to access it, not only approving the professional development that certain employees request.
• Provide access to mentorship and sponsorship opportunities internally and/or externally, emphasizing encouraging senior racialized staff members to participate.
• Provide ongoing training to all staff, particularly supervisors and senior leaders, on human rights, bias, and anti-racism. Make it clear that such topics are integral to the organization’s culture.

• Performance reviews should be conducted for the entire organization at the same time of year and completed within a few weeks. All employees of the same level should be measured against the same criteria. Consider adding KPIs for senior leaders concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• The organization should have anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-racism policies, with outlined procedures for addressing circumstances that violate the guidelines.
• Encourage an employee resource group for people of colour and different ethnicities to gather and provide support, coaching, peer learning, and mentorship to one another. Ensure that this ERG is supported by a senior leader in the organization who can enact meaningful change when recommendations are brought to their attention.
• Appoint a senior leader or manager to develop an anti-racism action plan and ensure the organization provides the financial means and employee support to implement the critical measures in an agreed-upon timeline.
• The anti-racism action plan should have checkpoints involving consultation with relevant ERGs and progress updates with the entire organization to ensure accountability.
• Provide permanent work opportunities rather than contract positions where possible. Recognize that people of colour, primarily women, are often placed in precarious work positions that make them less likely to advance in the workplace.
• Pay transparency and compensation across the organization is a key factor in accountability for systemic change. There should be clear indications of how salary is measured, how raises are achieved, and what steps to take to receive a promotion.
• Consider a scholarship or bursary program for equity-deserving communities to indicate the organization’s financial investment in building a more diverse and equitable workplace.
• Sponsor initiatives, parades, and/or celebration days tailored to diverse cultures and representations where possible.
• Consider contracting equipment, food services, training programs, and/or event space from minority-owned businesses where possible.
• Consider holiday swapping as an organizational policy. In Canada, major Christian holidays are treated as days off in the workplace; however, not all workplace employees celebrate Christian holidays and may prefer to work during these days in favour of their own cultural or religious holidays.
• Consider lunch and learns as an educational and social training tool. The organization can bring speakers from diverse community organizations, watch a film, or learn from a willing coworker.
• Consider including paid days off for diverse religious and cultural holidays.

• The Canadian Race Relations Foundation is a Crown corporation committed to fighting racism in Canada.
• Quake Lab – equality and justice agency focused on structural change.
• Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy provides many resources for organizations to learn about wage gaps, victimization, policy, and guidelines.
• Anti-Racism Learning Series – Government of Canada resources for individuals to further their learning on different aspects of systemic and cultural racism.

• Experiences Canada – National registered charity that supports youth in Canada to learn about today’s relevant topics such as reconciliation, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, climate change, and career planning.
• Canadian Women’s Foundation – An organization dedicated to improving the lives of girls through an intersectional lens.
• Equity in the Center is an organization dedicated to building race equity in the workplace.

January 27 
International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

February
Black History Month

June 27
Canadian Multiculturalism Day

August 1
Emancipation Day

August 31
International Day for People of African Descent

October
Islamic History Month Canada
Latin American Heritage Month 

November
Hindu Heritage Month 

May
Asian Heritage Month
Jewish Heritage Month 

May 5 
African World Heritage Day

May 21
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and for Development