#COVID-19: Comparing provinces with other countries 16 December Update

2020/12/17 Leave a comment

Main news continues to be with respect ongoing sharp spike in infections in most provinces and countries along with consequentdeath rate increases:

 

 
Weekly:
 
Infections per million: California ahead of New York, Sweden ahead of Italy (the Swedish model keeps on looking worse by the week)
 
Deaths per million: USA ahead of Quebec, Prairies ahead of Canada less Quebec
 
 
 
And Sun Media’s Brian Lilley painting a slightly more positive picture of Ontario than warranted (Ontario’s relative position within Canada reflects the upsurge in Western Canada):

If you listened to much of the media and the opposition parties, you’d think that Ontario was handling the COVID-19 crisis worse than anywhere in the country — perhaps worse than much of the world.

Despite all the problems that Ontario has faced, and I have written extensively about those, compared to our neighbours and similar jurisdictions, the province continues to perform well in the face of a horrific virus. This thought was brought to mind as I watched the first vaccines being administered. In Ontario, it was a nurse at the University Health Network giving a shot to a personal support worker from a long-term care centre.

Premier Doug Ford was nowhere to be found.

In neighbouring New York State, Gov. Andrew Cuomo actually conducted a live video conference with the nurse getting the first shot, inserting himself into the story in a way that only Cuomo can. The New York governor continues to receive praise for his handling of COVID and recently received an Emmy for his press conferences during the pandemic.

The media and the American establishment love Cuomo and his handling of the pandemic; it’s a shame his record is so abysmal. More on that in a moment.

Listening to opposition leaders here, you would think Ontario was in far worse shape than neighbouring New York.

“Today’s exploding COVID cases should be a wake-up call for Mr. Ford,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath tweeted.

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said that Ford’s priorities this fall were not looking after the people.

“He was focused on helping his buddies and forgot about the rest of us,” Del Duca said Tuesday.

When it comes to critiquing Ford’s handling of the pandemic, I’ll take a back seat to no one. I’ve been critical of his handling of long-term care, the length and style of his lockdowns and the collateral damage they have wrought, but criticism needs to be based in some kind of reality.

Could Ontario have done better in dealing with long-term care in the first wave? Absolutely. The province though made decisions based on the information before them. After watching emergency rooms be overwhelmed in China, Italy, in New York City, the province put scarce resources into hospitals. COVID-19 hit differently here than elsewhere: the general population was ready, a small portion of our long-term care homes were not.

The majority of homes still have not had an outbreak.

Now, back to that comparison.

On Tuesday, Ontario, with a population of 14.7 million reported 2,275 cases. This was the highest ever, due in part to a change in how cases are counted, but let’s take the number at face value. There were also 921 people in hospital and 20 deaths. New York State, with a population of 19.4 million, reported 10,353 new cases, 5,982 people in hospital and 128 deaths on Tuesday.

Deaths from COVID-19 would be the stat that matters most and while Ontario has 27 deaths per 100,000 of population, New York State has 183 per 100,000.

Within Canada, Quebec is the only province the comes close to Ontario in terms of population, international travel, urban density and other factors. With a population of about 8.5 million, Quebec has recorded 89 deaths per 100,000 of population or 3.3 times the rate of Ontario.

Other neighbours with similar populations fare no better.

Ohio is at 84 per 100,000, Pennsylvania at 98, and Michigan at 113.

In fact, were Ontario an American state, we would be the 45th lowest state in terms of COVID deaths per 100,000 and were we an independent country, we would be below most of the industrialized world. Only Japan would be among the G7 nations that would be lower than Ontario.

The province can always do better, and it must.

That requires targeted and constructive criticisms rather than what the opposition is offering up.

Source: LILLEY: Ontario outperforms much of the world in dealing with COVID

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Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked By Canadian Philanthropy

2020/12/16 Leave a comment

While revealing, hard to assess given the absence of comparative data with respect to other visible minority and Indigenous groups. A missed opportunity, IMO, one that weakens their arguments and case:

The COVID-19 pandemic and contemporary anti-Black racism movements have shone further light on the systemic racism and hardships faced by Black people in Canada. The experience of Black people in Canada points to the inadequacy of public policy in addressing the concerns of Black communities. It also suggests that Canadian philanthropy has not sufficiently invested in the well-being of Black communities and Black community organizations.

This research report provides the first systematic, empirical examination of the extent to which Canadian philanthropy has responded to the unique and intersectional challenges facing Black communities. In establishing the social context and lived experience of Black community members, the report makes apparent that the needs of Black people in Canada are both specific and urgent. Despite the clear case for investment, Canadian philanthropy has largely been absent in supporting Black people in Canada. Evidence that illustrates how Canadian philanthropy has failed to meet the needs of Black people in Canada is drawn from the analysis of two sets of original data:

1) Semi-structured qualitative interviews with ten Black and non-Black philanthropic leaders from across the Canadian philanthropic sector; and 2) a review of the funding portfolios of 40 Canadian foundations.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Our research and analysis suggest that the Canadian philanthropic sector has failed to support the urgent and specific needs of Black communities in Canada. As the philanthropic sector stands, it lacks the tools and knowledge to support Black communities effectively. Our key findings are:

  • Both public and private foundations underfund Black-serving and Black-led community organizations. Only six of the 40 public and private foundations we reviewed funded Black-serving organizations over the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, and only two foundations funded Black-led organizations in the same timeframe.
  • Compared to private and other public foundations, community foundations have a better record of funding Black-serving organizations, but both Black-serving and Black-led organizations remain under-funded.All but one of the community foundations we reviewed funded Black-serving organizations over the 2017
    and 2018 fiscal years, but only six funded Black-led organizations in the same timeframe. Across all community foundations we reviewed, grants to Black-serving organizations represented a meagre 0.7 percent of total grants during the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years. Grants to Black-led organizations were only 0.07 percent of total grants made in the same period.
  • The total amount of grant funding going to Black-serving and Black-led organizations is miniscule. Moreover, grant funding is sporadic, unsustained, and does not invest in the long-term capabilities of Black community organizations.
  • Philanthropic and nonprofit leaders see the need for and the potential of a Black-led philanthropic foundation. Such a foundation would allow for the self-determination of Black communities, build the capacity of Black community organizations, ensure collaboration with other foundations to share resources and networks, and challenge the current philanthropic paradigm that wields ‘power over’ people with a top-down flow of resources. They assert that inadequate data, a lack of representation of Black communities in philanthropy, and systemic barriers, including anti-Black racism, have led to a severe underfunding of Black communities in Canada. This has resulted in the philanthropic sector not understanding the needs of Black communities, nor the extent to which they are being supported by the sector.

Source: https://www.forblackcommunities.org/

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Nicolas: Manque de vision (Quebec anti-racism strategy)

2020/12/16 Leave a comment

Good dissection of the weaknesses and lack of concrete action:

Des actions concrètes. Une approche pragmatique. À partir des constats déjà connus. C’est ce que nous avait promis le premier ministre François Legault en lançant en juin son Groupe d’action contre le racisme. On pourrait traduire : pas le temps de niaiser. Pas le temps de poser le problème auquel on s’attaque, d’expliquer comment il opère dans la société, et comment les mesures proposées pourront altérer positivement cet état de fait.

François Legault, Nadine Girault et Lionel Carmant nous disent qu’ils ne veulent pas parler de racisme systémique. Mais ils ne disent pas non plus de quoi ils veulent parler, eux.

Sur les 25 « actions concrètes » du rapport du Groupe d’action, une douzaine peut se résumer à des campagnes d’information et d’éducation. On veut former les policiers, les enseignants, les employés de l’État et les jeunes en âge scolaire, sensibiliser les ordres professionnels, informer les propriétaires et les locateurs et développer une campagne de sensibilisation qui ne vise rien de moins que l’ensemble de la population — et même, de manière étrangement spécifique, l’industrie de la construction, et cette industrie seulement. Les former, les sensibiliser à quoi ? Le racisme, c’est mal ? Le racisme, tolérance zéro ? Mais encore ?

Est-ce qu’on formera à l’impact des biais cognitifs sur les processus décisionnels, ou est-ce que les recherches en psychologie menées de front notamment par l’Université Harvard seront aussi considérées comme dangereuses pour le « consensus » québécois ? Est-ce qu’on formera à la réalité des Premières Nations et des Inuits en parlant de la colonisation des territoires autochtones notamment par le gouvernement du Québec, ou est-ce que ce serait aussi faire le « procès » de la majorité francophone ? Il semble qu’on a balayé en avant, avec ce rapport, tout le débat qu’on souhaitait éviter. On réalisera bien, en tentant de le mettre en œuvre, qu’il est impossible de lutter contre le racisme sans poser d’abord ce qu’il est.

Par exemple, les auteurs du rapport souhaitent s’en prendre au profilage racial des corps policiers en interdisant une fois pour toutes les interpellations policières aléatoires. Il faudra désormais que les policiers interpellent un citoyen en se basant sur des « soupçons raisonnables » et des « faits observables ». Très bien. Alors, si un agent scanne les plaques d’immatriculation des hommes noirs qu’il croise au volant et interpelle tous ceux qui conduisent une voiture enregistrée au nom de leur conjointe ou de leur mère (comme c’est parfois le cas), s’agit-il là d’un « soupçon raisonnable » de vol ou d’une pratique raciste ? Si un corps de police se met à pratiquer plutôt le « profilage criminel » en associant la criminalité à des traits et à des comportements qui sont plus communs parmi les Noirs, les Autochtones et les Arabes, est-ce là du racisme, du profilage racial, une interpellation non aléatoire ?

Les questions posées ne relèvent pas de la conjecture: c’est déjà souvent ainsi qu’on opère le déni de profilage racial au sein des corps policiers, malgré tous les rapports qui condamnent de telles pratiques. Une action efficace contre le racisme dans les corps policiers est une mesure qui anticipe le naturel qui revient au galop au fil des réformes, enveloppé dans de nouveaux prétextes politiquement corrects, et qui prévoit comment contrecarrer ces pièges.

Avec ce rapport, on est loin du compte. On déclare que l’on veut « rendre l’évaluation des compétences par les ordres professionnels plus rapide et flexible », ce qui est répété par tous les partis politiques au pouvoir depuis des décennies. On n’explique pas comment, cette fois, on réussira. On veut « augmenter, d’ici cinq ans, le taux de présence des membres des minorités visibles au sein de l’effectif de la fonction publique ». On ne précise même pas quel taux on souhaite atteindre, d’ici ces cinq années, ni avec quelles mesures.

C’est avec la comparaison qu’on voit le mieux le peu de substance qui nous est présenté cette semaine. Imaginons un plan d’action contre les changements climatiques dont près de la moitié des mesures pourraient être résumées à de la sensibilisation et à de l’information des individus, où l’autre moitié ne contiendrait aucun objectif chiffré, où le gouvernement du Québec parlerait simplement « d’inciter » certaines entreprises à agir et où on ne définirait même pas les changements climatiques, sous prétexte que chaque environnementaliste que l’on a rencontré a défini la notion en ses propres mots, que les climatosceptiques existent et qu’il y a donc absence de consensus social sur ce dont on parle. Pourrait-on aussi imaginer, en 2020, un plan de lutte contre le sexisme et la violence faite aux femmes où l’on garderait secrète la liste des organismes et des expertes rencontrés, et qui n’annoncerait aucuns fonds publics pour les organismes qui mènent la lutte sur le terrain depuis des décennies ?

Pour plusieurs observateurs mal avisés, le rapport ne semblera pas si mal, au premier coup d’œil. Ce sera parce que nos standards en matière de lutte contre le racisme sont extrêmement bas — ce qui n’est pas nécessairement la faute de la CAQ. Le rapport Racisme au Québec : tolérance zéron’est pas particulièrement plus faible que les documents fades auxquels les gouvernements libéraux qui ont précédé à M. Legault nous avaient habitués. C’est notamment que ceux-ci n’avaient rien à gagner, politiquement, à poser la question du racisme trop sérieusement : Montréal, où vit la majorité des personnes racisées, était considérée comme acquise, et on courtisait le vote francophone des régions.

Une CAQ plus ambitieuse pourrait chercher à convaincre des électeurs à l’extérieur de sa base actuelle. Ce n’est pas le choix qu’on a fait avec la stratégie annoncée cette semaine.

Source: https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/chroniques/591727/manque-de-vision?utm_source=infolettre-2020-12-15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=infolettre-quotidienne

The more neutral news article:

A task force of three ministers and four Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) backbenchers is calling for action by the province to crack down on racial profiling, and on discrimination in hiring and housing affecting Quebecers of colour, Indigenous peoples and other minority groups.

The province will pursue 25 anti-racism goals, which the CAQ task force detailed in a report released on Monday.

The first target is racial profiling by police, who have been known to stop minority young people in parks or to pull over cars driven by racial minorities without legal cause.

Junior Health Minister Lionel Carment explained that police will now be required to give someone stopped the reason why they are being stopped, and this will allow someone who has been stopped to make a complaint if a reason is not given.

Quebec’s government also plans to train teachers and other public sector employees about racism and how to correct it.

Immigration Minister Nadine Girault said the proposed goals are ‘’measured’’ and there will be follow-ups on their progress.

‘’We’re an action-oriented government,’’ Girault said, adding that the Quebec government has not had a campaign against racism in 20 years.

To ensure their report, commissioned by Premier François Legault in June, would live up to its commitments, Girault called for designating a minister responsible for its implementation.

Legault named the task force at a time when when the Black Lives Matter movement was vocal in Quebec, following police abuses in the United States, notably the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer after Floyd had allegedly tried to use a counterfeit bill. The premier insisted then there was no parallel between racism in the United States and the situation in Quebec.

But in September, when Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw mother of seven died in a Joliette, Que., hospital, she was called by many “Quebec’s George Floyd.”

Echaquan’s suffering in hospital, and racial insults she received from hospital staff, were recorded because her cell phone was on and broadcasting her treatment on Facebook.

Legault refused in naming the task force to accept the term “systemic racism” and he did not change his mind when there was an outcry in reaction of Echaquan’s death.

The premier did say the treatment she received was “unacceptable” and changed his Aboriginal affairs minister at the time, replacing Sylvie d’Amours with Ian Lafrenière, a former Montreal police force spokesman.

Legault has said applying the term “systemic” could suggest Quebecers are racist, which he rejects.

The premier says instead that there is racism in Quebec and naming the task force was his way of indicating he wants the problem to be dealt with.

Fabrice Vil, a lawyer from Montreal’s Black community, said proposals by the task force to raise awareness about racism are essential, but expressed dismay that the term “systemic racism” was avoided.

“We should call a cat a cat,” Vil said. “Words are important.”

Ghislain Picard, Assembly of First Nations chief for Quebec and Labrador, was also disappointed.

“They haven’t identified the causes and dealt with the causes,” Picard said.

At the news conference on Monday, Lafrenière said he is moving to implement the Viens report, sparked by reports of abusive treatment of Indigenous women in Val d’Or, a northern Quebec mining town. Justice Jacques Viens concluded there was “systemic discrimination” affecting Indigenous peoples in the province.

Lafrenière has announced funding for better training for Indigenous police and with the City of Montreal, a program to house homeless First Nations and Inuit people living in Montreal.

Girault said the approach of the task force was to avoid victimization, without downplaying the real consequences of racism in the province.

Asked about avoidance of the “systemic’’ label by the task force, Girault, who is Black and says she has faced racial discrimination in Quebec, said that in discussions with Quebec’s minorities the same themes came up. She noted that Quebec’s public sector will be recruiting more minorities.

As well, starting in 2022, the ethics and culture program taught in Quebec schools will also deal with racism.

The task force also recommended that professional corporations establish equivalencies to make it easier for doctors and other professionals to practise in Quebec. Immigrants to the province who qualified in their home countries in medicine, engineering and other professions currently face hurdles seeking access to the same professions in Quebec.

Source: Quebec task force sets markers for ‘significant impact’ fighting racism

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Denmark to classify immigrants from Muslim countries separately in crime statistics

2020/12/16 Leave a comment

If it covered more groups than just Muslims, it would both be more useful as well as less identity politics based (Canada would benefit from regularized breakdowns by visible minority groups for crime, health and other statistics):

Immigration and integration minister Mattias Tesfaye has signalled his support for the statistical differentiation of people in Denmark with Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

Categorising people according to region is beneficial in understanding patterns of crime and employment in people in Denmark with foreign heritage (indvandrere og efterkommere), the minister said in an interview with newspaper Berlingske.

“We need more honest numbers and I think it will benefit and qualify the integration debate if we get these figures out in the open, because fundamentally, they show that we in Denmark don’t really have problems with people from Latin America and the Far East. We have problems with people from the Middle East and North Africa,” Tesfaye said to the newspaper.

Under the current system, Denmark differentiates between ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ heritage in official statistics on immigrants and their children.

All EU countries, along with Andorra, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Vatican are considered ‘Western’. Everywhere else is ‘non-Western’.

A person is considered to have Danish heritage if she or he has at least one parent who is a Danish citizen and was born in Denmark. People defined as ‘immigrants’ and ‘descendants’ do not fulfil those criteria.

While an ‘immigrant’ was born outside of Denmark, a ‘descendant’ (efterkommer) is also considered to be ‘foreign’ for statistical purposes, despite being born in Denmark.

But the Ministry of Immigration and Integration is to further separate the two groups of immigrants and their children into the so-called ‘Menapt’ group, meaning people from the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey, according to Berlingske and Ritzau.

All are Muslim-majority countries or regions.

The nationalities encompassed by the group are over-represented in crime and unemployment statistics, Ritzau writes.

According to a ministry note reported by Berlingske, women with heritage in Menapt countries had an employment rate of 41.9 percent in 2018, compared to 61.6 percent for women from other non-Western countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Denmark to classify immigrants from Muslim countries separately in crime statistics

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Canada a bright light in a horrible year for refugee resettlement: UN refugee agency

2020/12/16 Leave a comment

 

Of note:

The year 2020 will go down as the worst for refugee resettlement in recent history, says the UN refugee agency’s Canadian representative.

With nearly 168 countries implementing border and travel restrictions, millions of displaced people around the globe were stuck, unable to either return to their home countries or move to others.

Canada, however, was one of only a few that did listen to urgent pleas from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said Rema Jamous Imseis, the UNHCR’s Canadian representative.

Even at the height of the pandemic, when most countries were looking entirely inward, Canada did accept emergency cases and as travel has resumed continues to take in more, she told The Canadian Press in an interview.

“It hasn’t, unfortunately, been at the levels that we had planned for prior to the pandemic, but it still is offering that critical lifeline to people who desperately need it,” she said.

“And we hope that next year actually is going to bring us a very different context and an ability not only to meet those targets, but to perhaps even exceed them.”

Canada had planned to resettle around 30,000 refugees in 2020.

By the end of September, just under 6,000 had arrived, and a spokesman for Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the end-of-year figure will be closer to 7,000.

The target for resettlement next year is 35,000, but how realistic that goal is considering the unknowns around the end of the pandemic is unclear.

Mendicino’s spokesman said in an email that the entire resettlement “ecosystem” continues to operate at a reduced capacity, but is slowly spooling back up.

“While our operations have been affected, we’ve come a long way since the onset of the pandemic and are now processing nearly six times as many refugee cases as in a similar period last year,” Alexander Cohen said in an email.

The border closures weren’t the only challenge this year for refugees, said Jamous Imseis.

Many of the world’s displaced people were just scraping by economically before the pandemic hit, but their sources of income completely dried up, she said.

“The ability to sustain themselves and their families has been wiped out,” she said.

“So you saw entire populations going from vulnerable, but with the ability to sustain themselves overnight to becoming really vulnerable.”

There’s also been a massive blow to the ability of children to be in school. A pivot to online learning possible in some developed nations just isn’t applicable elsewhere, she said.

Some studies suggest more than half of refugee girls may never go back to post-secondary education after the pandemic, she said.

“They haven’t been at school this whole time, and they may never go back because life circumstances have changed so dramatically,” she said.

Monday is the UNHCR’s 70th anniversary. It was created to help displaced Europeans after the Second World War and originally was only supposed to exist for a few years.

“But sadly, we’re still here and it signals the failure of the international community to really address long-standing issues, and drivers of displacement globally,” said Jamous Imseis.

“We look forward to the day when our services are no longer needed.”

Source: Canada a bright light in a horrible year for refugee resettlement: UN refugee agency

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Study: Structural racism has material impact on health of ethnic minorities, immigrants

2020/12/16 Leave a comment

Medical study:

Structural racism can lead to discrimination in many aspects of life including criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine examines the impact of structural racism on health and confirms that chronic exposure to stressors leads to a marked erosion of health that is particularly severe among foreign-born Blacks and Latinx. Investigators say largescale structural policies that address structural racism are needed.

Structural racism is defined as laws, rules, or official policies in a society that result in a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.

There is evidence that structural racism has a material impact on the health of racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants. Comparing allostatic load–a multidimensional measure of the body’s response to stressors experienced throughout the life course–between immigrants and non-immigrants of different racial/ethnic backgrounds can help shed light on the magnitude of health differences between groups.”

Brent A. Langellier, PhD, Lead Investigator, Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University

Investigators examined patterns in allostatic load among US- and foreign-born Whites, Blacks, and Latinx. Using data from the 2005-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), they collected data on a 10-item measure of cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunologic risk.

Measures of cardiovascular risk included systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Metabolic risk indicators included body mass index (BMI), blood sugar (HbA1c), urinary albumin, and creatinine clearance. Immunologic measures were white blood cell count and current or previous asthma diagnosis.

Based on the literature suggesting that, for many outcomes, immigrants have paradoxically good health that declines with time in the US, investigators examined aging gradients in allostatic load for each group. They also assessed whether allostatic load in each group changed across NHANES survey cycles. Their analyses were conducted in March 2020.

Results showed that allostatic load increased with age among all groups, but the increases were much steeper among foreign-born Blacks of both genders and foreign-born Latina women. The difference between the first and last survey cycle was most pronounced among US-born Black women (from 2.74 in 2005-2006 to 3.02 in 2017-2018), US-born Latino men (from 2.69 to 3.09), and foreign-born Latino men (from 2.58 to 2.87).

Aging gradients in allostatic load were steepest among foreign-born Blacks of both genders and foreign-born Latina women, and flattest among US-born and foreign-born Whites. Notably, foreign-born Latina women had among the lowest allostatic load at the youngest ages but among the highest at the upper end of the age distribution.

“Our findings add to the evidence that structural racism has a material impact on the health of racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants – and that this effect accumulates throughout the life course,” noted Dr. Langellier. “They further suggest that the disadvantage experienced by racial/ethnic minorities is compounded among minorities who are also immigrants, which erodes the health advantage that many immigrants have at early ages.”

These findings highlight the magnitude of the disparities in health that are produced by inequities in exposure to these risk and protective factors. “Collectively, our findings and evidence in the broader literature suggest that reducing these disparities will require big, structural policies that address structural racism, including inequities in upstream social determinants of health,” concluded Dr. Langellier.

Source: Study: Structural racism has material impact on health of ethnic minorities, immigrants

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Foreign-born doctors reignite Italy’s citizenship debate

2020/12/15 Leave a comment

Of note:

When the Italian government labeled Sicily a high-risk region last month over fears that the island’s limited resources would hamper its response to the second wave of the pandemic, Rumon Siddique got ready to help.

The region, one of Italy’s poorest, is struggling with a lack of doctors and nurses — and Siddique, a 29-year-old junior doctor born in Bangladesh and trained in Italy, has the necessary skills to step in. But because he doesn’t hold Italian citizenship, he’s unable to apply for open positions.

He was puzzled to learn that Sicilian authorities had instead asked the government of Cuba to deploy 60 health care workers.

“The paradox is that we already have doctors here, without having to ask Cuba,” said Siddique, who works at the Paolo Giaccone University Hospital in the Sicilian capital Palermo. “There are many foreign doctors already living in Italy, willing to fill that void. But because they don’t have Italian citizenship, they are often forgotten.”

At the height of the first wave of the pandemic, medical personnel from abroad, including teams from Cuba, Romania and Norway, were deployed in the hardest-hit northern regions of Italy. During the second wave, several regions have asked NGO workers, junior doctors — who have yet to complete their training — and retirees to prepare themselves to help out if needed.

In March, the government issued the so-called “Cure Italy” decree, which allowed hospitals and regional authorities to hire non-EU staff with legal permission to live and work in the country.

But many institutions have continued their decades-long practice of requiring either Italian or EU citizenship in their job openings, excluding foreigners trained and educated in Italy, even as the country’s intensive care units began filling up again this fall.

That has triggered a discussion on labor rights, with several immigrants’ organizations calling on the government to ensure the law is followed.

But beyond that, with first- and second-generation immigrants finding citizenship a core obstacle to employment, foreign doctors have reignited a longstanding debate on who gets to have an Italian passport — and the rights it bestows.

Paths to citizenship

In Italy, citizenship is acquired mainly through blood ties, as is the case throughout the European Union.

Most EU citizens attain that status through jus sanguinis, a principle that allows parents to pass on their citizenship to their children. Some EU countries allow for a limited version of jus soli, which in its unrestricted form — used in the United States, for example — bestows citizenship on anyone born in the country. Naturalization is usually possible via other routes, albeit subject to conditions.

But acquiring Italian citizenship without ancestral ties or marriage is a particularly lengthy process. The country is one of only five EU countries requiring non-EU citizens to document 10 years of residency to qualify for naturalization. (The EU average is seven years, according to 2018 data.)

Under the current citizenship law, which dates back to 1992, children born to immigrants can apply for citizenship — but only if they apply between ages 18 and 19, and if they can prove uninterrupted legal residency in Italy for their whole lives up to that point.

For children not born in Italy, like Siddique — who arrived in 1999 — naturalization often depends on the status of their parents. As he was already 18 by the time his parents could prove 10 years of uninterrupted legal residency in the country, he wasn’t eligible to apply as their dependent.

He could apply individually as an adult, a route open to all immigrants after 10 years, but it’s a long and difficult path: The waiting time can be as long as four years. Applicants also need to prove regular employment or income — a vicious circle for medical staff that face difficulties obtaining steady employment due to their nationality. (A trainee scholarship, like Siddique has, is not enough.)

There have been efforts to change that. First- and second-generation immigrants have started pushing for citizenship rights, and in 2016 Matteo Renzi’s centrist government made an attempt to reform the 1992 law.

His coalition’s proposal — dubbed ius culturae (Latin for “cultural right”) to contrast with jus sanguinis, “blood right” — aimed to grant automatic citizenship to all children who are either born in Italy or arrived before the age of 12 and who completed at least five years of Italian schooling.

But the vote on the proposal was postponed in summer 2017 amid fierce opposition from both within the coalition and the far right, as the national mood on immigration shifted, with tens of thousands of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy that year.

Then, in early 2018, a populist coalition comprised of the anti-establishment 5Star Movement and the far-right League took power and enacted what critics have labeled as xenophobic laws. The new government also made it harder to apply for Italian citizenship by introducing longer approval times and higher application costs.

These days, the 5Stars — who have been since 2019 in a coalition with the center-left Democratic Party — are striking a different tone. The two parties have been involved in discussions to formally reopen the debate on citizenship reform by mid-2021.

“We recognize it is a lost opportunity when qualified doctors, or valid workers of any field, don’t have the same labor rights as Italians,” says Simona Suriano, a spokesperson for the party.

“We don’t have any prejudice regarding the ius culturae, times are now ripe to extend citizenship rights to those who mainly grew up and studied in Italy,” she added. “But I don’t think either that we would agree to go beyond that and accept, for instance, a ius soli model like that of the U.S.”

‘A loss for Italy’

Italy’s aging population means that the country’s medical staff shortage — more than 10,000, according to 2018 data — is only going to become more acute.

Foreign-born medics could boost their numbers, however. About 77,500 foreign-born health care professionals are qualified to work in Italy, according to data collected by the Association of Foreign Doctors in Italy (AMSI).

They include 22,000 doctors and 38,000 nurses, with the majority working in the private sector as only 10 percent of them managed to access the struggling public health care sector, said Foad Aodi, AMSI’s president.

“There have been around 13,500 [openings] for health care professionals across Italy since the pandemic, but we keep being excluded. We don’t want to take the jobs from Italians, we only ask to integrate in the country we’ve chosen to call home,” Aodi said.

After ASGI, the lawyers’ organization, sent a letter to the Italian interior ministry complaining that many regions were still not complying with the “Cure Italy” decree, some hospitals and regions changed their stance and opened jobs to non-EU applicants.

Yet Alberto Guariso, an immigration lawyer with ASGI, said the organization has found at least seven of Italy’s 20 regions are still not implementing the decree. Even in regions that changed their stance after ASGI’s intervention, the options often remain limited for foreign medics.

For example, Tuscany opened jobs for non-EU nationals recently. “But in terms of rights, it is insignificant,” says Hamilton Dollaku, an Albanian nurse and trade unionist based in Florence, who currently works in the private sector. “It offers a one-year contract with no possibility of renewal. It works through direct calls only” — meaning employment is dependent on the hospitals’ needs — “and many foreigners will rightly refuse.”

Byzantine hiring practices and a lack of suitable positions also present challenges to Italian medicine graduates. But the discrimination is a major factor in pushing foreign-born staff and students to seek their fortunes elsewhere in droves, said Siddique.

“It only damages the image of Italy’s health care system and disrupts our lives, forcing many of us to leave for elsewhere in Europe,” he said.

Plus, he pointed out, it’s a waste of money if the very institutions that spend thousands of euros on training him and others without EU citizenship don’t benefit from their investment.

“We are talking about €150,000 for every [medical student] for the whole duration of studies,” says Siddique. “Excluding us is a loss not just for us, but also for Italy.”

Source: Foreign-born doctors reignite Italy’s citizenship debate

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Muslim Models and Stylists Call on Fashion to Confront Its Racism

2020/12/15 Leave a comment

Of interest:

Halima Aden is considered one of the top models of the world. She was one of the first models to truly break the glass ceiling for Muslim models and Muslimrepresentation in the fashion industry. Aden was also one of the first models to wear a hijab on the runway, which was considered revolutionary.

She recently sent shockwaves through the media sphere when she said that she would be taking a step back from modeling and the fashion industry because she felt she was forced to compromise her religious beliefs for too long.

Aden pointed to instances where she was forced to miss prayers and wear garments in place of her traditional hijab that didn’t align with her religious beliefs. With Muslim women as a fast-growing segment of United States and European populations, civil rights groups including the ACLU have called for Muslim women to have the right to wear head coverings.

Aden often found herself in situations where people treated any head covering as appropriate for her religious beliefs.

Campaigners are now calling for the fashion industry to represent the diversity of Muslim women, and to treat the Muslim women working within it with respect.

Rafiqah Akhdar, a Muslim model and makeup artist, told The Daily Beast, “The fashion industry doesn’t really handle Muslim representation at all. What you even do see in terms of representation is so low and so little. Even when you do see it’s a token hijabi girl, and a lot of Muslim representation is always a certain look. It’s a white-passing Muslim woman.”

“The industry doesn’t give us any representation, and even when they do it’s not a wide array,” Akhdar added. “There are how many Muslim women in the world? Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. Representation should be moving faster than this. It’s not like Muslim women aren’t here and aren’t fashionable, but we are always treated like an afterthought.”

Hoda Katebi, an activist fashion blogger, author and photographer of “Tehran Streetstyle,” told The Daily Beast that the way the fashion industry handles representation, particularly when it comes to Muslim women, is “inherently meaningless.”

“If we are just selling magazine covers of people wearing the hijab, what is the value of that?” Katebi said. “The larger fashion industry as a whole profits from the violence of Muslim women. I don’t view representation as something that is objectively always good. It needs to be qualified. The conversation around representation is more complicated than people who are Muslim taking up space.”

Katebi’s activism as a fashion blogger has extended to labor rights activism for garment factory workers, many of whom are in Muslim heavy countries, like Indonesia, where they suffer poor working conditions that are considered human rights violations.

Katebi says that for true equality of Muslim representation to take place, there needs to be garment worker representation and those voices need to stop being erased. (Human rights organizations have called for the end of forced labor of Muslim minority groups in apparel supply chains in countries like China.)

Katebi says there is also a lack of regard for other people’s cultures and customs within the fashion industry.

“I remember one time when I was getting styled for a photoshoot, they said ‘By the way, we want you to wear your scarf for the shoot,’ like that was even optional. I was going to wear it,” Katebi said. “You don’t get to decide if was going to wear it or not. Even the ways in which styling happened, I specifically requested that I didn’t want men to undress me, I didn’t want men in the changing room with me. They consistently ignored these requests throughout the entire process.

“So many Muslim women have experienced these issues behind the scenes, and they often aren’t articulated because the bar set for the treatment of Muslim women is just so low. Even when Muslim models make it to the cover of magazines and fashion campaigns, the process just was not the same for them, and is often painful.”

The fashion industry has made some incremental changes in terms of representation over the past several years. In 2016, CoverGirl named Nura Afia its first ever hijab-wearing model as part of a panel of brand ambassadors. Nike now sells a lightweight hijab for Muslim consumers and had an entire campaign dedicated to female athletes in the Middle East. Still, many Muslim women feel the industry overall is still failing in terms of representation.

Saniyyah Bilal, a Muslim model and wardrobe stylist, says that the industry has heavily misrepresented Muslim women and has failed particularly when it comes to Black Muslim representation. The majority of Muslim women often represented are often just Arab Muslims, leaving little room for Black Muslim women to take up space. Bilal has faced issues as a model and seen how things are often misrepresented and mis-styled as a stylist.

“One of the big challenges I’ve seen with Muslim representation is just not seeing any Black Muslim women represented at all,” Bilal said. “Even looking at TV, when you see Muslim characters in television shows, they are usually Arab Muslims, and you’ll also see white actors and actresses in hijabs, and the styling of the hijab won’t even be proper, and the clothing won’t be representative of who we are.”

Bilal has been in situations where she’s done background modeling and they have tried to dress her in all black and completely cover her face, because that’s often a stylist’s perception of how all Muslim women who wear hijabs dress.

“I’ve come to shoots where no one has known how to style a hijab or what modesty is and have asked Muslim models to wear short sleeves or wear hijabs in incorrect ways,” Bilal said. “It makes us feel like outcasts for being modest Muslim women. The production team also not offering any halal meat options or kosher meat options for Muslim talent is also a problem Muslim women in the fashion industry face. We don’t feel we are being fully understood and accepted.”

Bilal recalls a particular instance where she was walking a show for New York Fashion Week, and she was modeling a bolero jacket.

The designer in question wanted to show off the neckline of the bolero jacket, so she wanted Bilal to tie her scarf as tight as possible to the back so it would be almost unnoticeable she had a scarf on. The neckline was open and not in line with Bilal’s views on modest fashion. After voicing her concerns, the designer shot down everything Bilal said. Before Bilal went on to walk, she straight pinned the neckline of the jacket to be in line with her modest fashion views, and it ended up not being an issue. She said she learned how to advocate for herself in that moment.

Melanie Elturk, the CEO of Haute Hijab, a prominent hijab and modest fashion company, sees herself as a member of the Muslim community with a fashion company rather than a fashion industry insider. Elturk says that Muslim representation in the fashion industry has been lackluster at best and that brands generally need to be more thoughtful in how they market toward Muslim women.

“Muslim women are already skeptical of outsiders and the mainstream coming into our spaces. It’s a problem we’ve had since 9/11,” Elturk said. “I’m also an attorney, and I’ve worked on various civil rights cases for years and years, and I’ve seen how Muslim women have been the victims of entrapment even prior to 9/11. Mainstream brands don’t understand that. There has to be a high level of care and intention when catering to this customer.”

Elturk also says that Muslim women are very skilled at sensing inauthenticity in campaigns and marketing and can smell a money grab instantly. This will deter them from buying. However, when Muslim consumers do feel that brands have really put in the effort and represented them properly, Muslim consumers will open their wallets to shop.

Elturk was inspired to start Haute Hijab because she remembers when she was in law school and she saw young Muslim women rarely wearing hijabs. Elturk realized that was because there were so few Muslim women wearing them in public life to look up to.

“Young Muslim women like myself had our immigrant moms who were in the house, and bless our mothers, but we had higher hopes for ourselves,” Elturk said. “I wanted to empower other Muslim women to see other women wearing hijabs being successful out there in the world, I could spark some change in that whole narrative. Women don’t have to abandon wearing their hijabs.”

Change is inevitable, with market forces helping drive it. According to the Pew Research Center, Islam will grow faster than any major world religion over the next four years, with the global Muslim population expected to reach 2.76 billion by 2050. Thirty-four percent of the Muslim population is aged below 15, and brands will want to cater to these young, up-and-coming consumers who will be a large part of the future of fashion and shopping.

Elturk says in order for the fashion industry to better represent Muslim women there needs to be more Muslim women in key decision-making roles. Muslim women need to stop being treated like a box for brands to tick off in terms of diversity efforts, Elturk adds.

As advocates for Muslim representation in the fashion industry have worked to bring these issues to light, companies like Modest Visions in the U.K., have formed to connect brands with millennial Muslim models and influencers for partnerships.

“If I can find Muslim models and influencers sitting around scrolling on Instagram, so can these multi-billion-dollar companies, it’s not difficult,” Rafiqah Akhdar said. “Brands act like they can’t find a specific person to fit their aesthetic or fit their looks, but with all the billions of diverse people in the world, I will never believe you can’t find more than one person to show diverse representation that doesn’t fit your aesthetic. They just want to stay stuck in their old ways.”

Source: Muslim Models and Stylists Call on Fashion to Confront Its Racism

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

Les francophones quasiment absents des postes clés de la diplomatie canadienne

2020/12/15 Leave a comment

While I focus more on visible minority representation, did a quick check of the head of mission data that I keep which confirms their concerns (the government over the past five years has improved representation of women and visible minorities in head of mission appointments):

L’ère des influents diplomates francophones au sein du réseau diplomatique canadien est révolue. Presque uniquement composée d’anglophones, la haute direction d’Affaires mondiales Canada ne fait accéder que d’autres anglophones aux postes stratégiques, forçant au passage bien des francophones ambitieux à faire carrière dans leur langue seconde.

Le Devoir s’est entretenu avec une dizaine d’employés d’expérience, cadres et ex-cadres d’Affaires mondiales Canada, dont un ambassadeur en fonction. Tous sont d’avis que l’absence de francophones aux postes clés de la diplomatie canadienne est très préoccupante. Plusieurs d’entre eux dénoncent un climat d’indifférence face au français qui s’est amplifié avec le temps, malgré les espoirs suscités par l’entrée en fonction du ministreFrançois-Philippe Champagne, lui-même francophone. Son bureau n’a pas directement réagi aux questions du Devoir, laissant la rédaction d’une réponse aux bons soins de ses fonctionnaires. Ils confirment « certains défis au niveau des cadres supérieurs », alors même qu’un grand nombre des employés du ministère sont francophones.

Tout en haut de la pyramide, les quatre sous-ministres qui dirigent l’institution fédérale sont tous anglophones, comme 11 des 12 sous-ministres adjoints des prestigieux secteurs « géographique » et « fonctionnel ». Tous secteurs confondus, les quelques sous-ministres adjoints francophones occupent les postes les moins stratégiques pour les affaires extérieures, comme les ressources humaines ou l’administration, selon une analyse de l’organigramme obtenu par Le Devoir, confirmée par des sources au sein de l’organisation. En plus, parmi les 15 sièges de directeurs généraux, patrons des ambassadeurs, seulement deux sont occupés par des francophones, dont le responsable d’Affaires panafricaines, qui n’a pas d’ambassade sous sa responsabilité.

« Affaires mondiales Canada est l’un des ministères les plus francophones de la machine fédérale, mais ça ne se traduit absolument pas au niveau supérieur. C’est un peu comme si on était dans les années 1950 : tout le monde sur le plancher de la manufacture est francophone et, au niveau des contremaîtres, tout le monde est anglophone », témoigne un employé haut placé d’une ambassade canadienne qui a requis l’anonymat puisqu’il n’est pas autorisé à parler publiquement de cette question.

« Je ne peux même pas vous nommer un francophone et dire “cette personne-là a de l’influence”. »

La dernière francophone à occuper un poste stratégique dans la haute direction des Affaires étrangères fut Isabelle Bérard, ex-cheffe de la branche Afrique subsaharienne. Elle a été remplacée en 2020 par une haute fonctionnaire anglophone ayant fait carrière dans d’autres ministères et qui n’a aucune expérience en diplomatie.

« La langue, c’est important, mais la compétence est importante aussi. Si vous ne connaissez rien à l’Afrique et vous êtes nommée sous-ministre adjointe à l’Afrique… À mon avis, c’est un sacré problème », a commenté Jocelyn Coulon, qui a été conseiller politique de l’ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères Stéphane Dion.

Sommet de la pyramide

Si le gouvernement ne nomme que des anglophones dans les postes de haute gestion les plus importants, ce n’est pas faute de relève francophone au sein de l’organisation. Selon un courriel datant de 2019 obtenu par Le Devoir qui recense le nombre de cadres d’Affaires mondiales Canada pour chacune des langues officielles, les francophones représentent une grande part des gestionnaires de premier et de second niveau (EX1 et EX2), à environ 30 %. Au fur et à mesure que l’on monte les échelons, toutefois, leur nombre s’amenuise, à approximativement 1 gestionnaire sur 8 aux hauts niveaux (EX4 et EX5). Des données plus récentes, mais moins précises, fournies par Affaires mondiales Canada confirment que les francophones sont plus nombreux à rester au bas de la pyramide.

« La haute gestion est anglophone et a de la difficulté à lire ou écrire en français. C’est presque impossible de monter au sein du ministère à un poste de haute gestion », témoigne un ex-cadre francophone d’Affaires mondiales Canada qui ne souhaite pas être nommé, par crainte de répercussions pour non-respect d’une entente de confidentialité.

Tous les cadres et ex-cadres consultés s’entendent pour dire que, même si de nombreux anglophones parlent un excellent français à Affaires mondiales Canada, les exigences linguistiques pour les anglophones permettent même à ceux qui maîtrisent très mal la langue de Molière d’accéder à la haute direction, alors qu’une faiblesse en anglais écrit est susceptible de bloquer la carrière de francophones. Pourtant, l’article 39 de la Loi sur les langues officielles garantit les mêmes possibilités d’avancement pour les fonctionnaires des deux groupes linguistiques.

« Je ne dirais pas qu’il n’y a pas de cadres supérieurs francophones, mais de plus en plus, ils sont ghettoïsés dans des fonctions, pas sans importance, mais corporatives. Et c’est la même chose pour les ambassadeurs. Les francophones sont en voie de disparition au niveau des postes à l’étranger », se désole un ambassadeur qui a requis l’anonymat pour parler librement de cette question.

Nostalgique, le diplomate posté à l’étranger se désole de la fin d’une époque où des Canadiens francophones s’illustraient sur la scène mondiale, comme au début des années 2000, avec Claude Laverdure comme ambassadeur de France, Marc Lortie en Espagne, Joseph Caron en Chine ou encore Gaëtan Lavertu au Mexique, pour ne nommer que ceux-là. Excluant les « nominations politiques » de Stéphane Dion en Allemagne et d’Isabelle Hudon en France, ainsi que deux postes vacants, aucun diplomate francophone de carrière n’est ambassadeur dans un pays du G20 en ce moment, témoignent les profils des chefs de mission en poste.

Selon plusieurs sources, certains ambassadeurs canadiens à l’étranger ne parlent pas du tout français. « De plus en plus, nos ambassadeurs ne sont pas capables de s’exprimer en français, confirme Pierre Alarie, ex-ambassadeur du Mexique à la retraite depuis 2019. Je ne comprends pas que, dans un pays de 38 millions de personnes, on n’est pas capables de trouver 175 chefs de mission bilingues. »

Lente érosion

« Il y a eu une érosion ces dernières années. On a perdu une sensibilité au français, croit Guy Saint-Jacques, ex-ambassadeur canadien en Chine, jusqu’en 2006. C’est très préoccupant. Le ministère est le visage du Canada à l’étranger. Si on n’a plus de français, c’est un problème. »

Il précise toutefois que la langue de Molière est malmenée depuis longtemps aux Affaires étrangères. Lui-même témoigne avoir tenté d’obtenir une promotion dans les années 1990 devant un jury tout anglophone, dont un membre ne parlait pas français. Plusieurs sources indiquent que cette situation se produit encore de nos jours.

« Le français s’est émietté d’unefaçon progressive, en même temps que les sous-ministres sont devenus des gestionnaires et le pouvoir du bureau du premier ministre s’est accru », confirme l’ex-ambassadeur Ferry de Kerckhove, en poste jusqu’en 2011. Selon lui, l’incorporation du Commerce extérieur aux Affaires étrangères, dans les années 1980, puis plus récemment la fusion de l’Agence canadienne de développement international (ACDI), en 2013, ont provoqué une centralisation du pouvoir qui a fait globalement diminuer l’influence des francophones dans la diplomatie canadienne.

Basée à Gatineau, l’ACDI était réputée comme étant la chasse gardée des francophones. L’institution a été engloutie par la mégastructure actuelle qui chapeaute trois ministères, renommée Affaires mondiales Canada par Justin Trudeau en 2015.

« On s’est privés de beaucoup d’expertise francophone », analyse Isabelle Roy, ex-ambassadrice retraitée depuis le début de l’année et spécialiste de l’Afrique. Selon elle, la tendance à l’anglicisation des hautes sphères diplomatique a des conséquencessur la manière dont le Canada pratique sa diplomatie. Plusieurs autres ex-ambassadeurs se désolent aussi de la perte du point de vue francophone dans la façon dont le Canada interagit avec le monde. « Ça creuse le sillon d’une sensibilité accrue envers certains pays, et une sensibilité déficiente pour d’autres pays », conclut Mme Roy.

Faire carrière en anglais

Faute de francophones dans la haute direction, de nombreux fonctionnaires du réseau diplomatique font le choix de mener leur vie professionnelle uniquement en anglais, confirment lesemployés et ex-employés interrogés.

« Faire carrière [en politique étrangère], pour un francophone, veut dire faire carrière en anglais. Si on veut faire carrière en français, c’est se cantonner dans des fonctions corporatives. Ça ne sera pas en politique étrangère comme telle », affirme un employé d’Affaires mondiales comptant 20 ans de carrière et ayant requis l’anonymat puisqu’il n’a pas l’autorisation de parler aux médias.

Les ambassadeurs et ex-ambassadeurs interrogés ont tous dressé le portrait d’une administration qui n’oblige pas explicitement l’utilisation de l’anglais dans les communications, mais qui instaure un climat dans lequel un travail sera ignoré des patrons s’il est rédigé dans la langue de Molière.

« Pour ce qui est des réunions, on nous réitère toujours qu’on est libres de parler la langue de notre choix. Mais surtout pour les réunions de haut niveau, c’est presque être le trouble-fête si on insiste à [vouloir] s’exprimer en français, parce qu’on sait qu’il y a des hauts gestionnaires qui ne maîtrisent pas le français, même s’ils ont peut-être le niveau C [niveau de compétence requis pour certains postes] », témoigne un ambassadeur actuellement en poste à l’étranger.

Affaires mondiales Canada confirme qu’une grande part de ses employés (42 %) sont francophones, un taux qui chute à 18 % chez les hauts cadres, selon son calcul. « Le ministère reconnaît qu’il existe certains défis au niveau des cadres supérieurs et cela fait partie des stratégies mises en place dans notre Plan d’action pour les langues officielles 2019-2022 », explique la porte-parole d’Affaires mondiales Canada, Ciara Trudeau, par courriel.

Dans sa réponse fournie au Devoir, le gouvernement précise qu’il met en avant le caractère bilingue du Canada en guise d’exemple d’une société ouverte à la diversité linguistique auprès des autres pays.

Source: Les francophones quasiment absents des postes clés de la diplomatie canadienne

Filed under foreign policy, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Black public servants’ lawsuit will force public service ‘to look deeply inside its structure,’ says former senator who’s fought for diversity in the PS for decades

2020/12/15 Leave a comment


While the concerns are legitimate, this focus on Black public servants as being unique and thus needing unique measures downplays the fact that other visible minority groups also are under-represented and some more so than Black public servants (yet again, see my What new disaggregated data tells us about federal public service …). Without situating these concerns in relation to other visible minority (and Indigenous) groups, and with minimal data to support these claims, an opportunity is missed for a more evidence-based and fulsome discussion:
 
 
Plaintiff Kathy Ann Samuel, who has worked within the department of public prosecutions as a legal assistant for the last 19 years, said she’s ‘tired of being tired’ and that ‘change has to start from the top, it has to start with the government.’

Former Senator Don Oliver, who has argued for decades that the government needs to appoint more Black judges, deputy and associate deputy ministers, and chiefs of staff in government offices, says he was not surprised to read about a planned class action lawsuit on behalf of current and former Black employees within the public service, and that he had “predicted and warned about one for 20 years.”

Twelve plaintiffs are involved in the proposed class-action lawsuit by former and current Black federal public servants, which alleges that Black employees have been systematically excluded from advancement and subjected to discrimination within the government for decades. They are seeking $900-million in damages.

“It’s happening now,” said Mr. Oliver. “I am not part of the lawsuit. But having fought hard for 22 years while a Senator to teach diversity in the public service to ‘simply accept difference,’ I was often a lone voice in the wilderness. But given what facts in the planned suit we know to be true, because they are backed by data, I accept and support that.”

“I have deep respect for the public service of Canada,” said Mr. Oliver. “Over two decades I have worked very closely with several eminent deputy ministers and clerks of the Privy Council trying to find ways to change the culture of some 300,000 employees and root out systemic black racism.”

Mr. Oliver said that the class action lawsuit immediately reminded him of a class action lawsuit filed by current and former African American employees against Coca Cola in the United States, something which Mr. Oliver addressed in 2000 in a major speech to the Senate.

“As in the Canadian suit, they alleged racial discrimination that produced lower pay, less promotions, and poor performance evaluations,” wrote Mr. Oliver in an emailed statement to The Hill Times. “The Black employees won the largest settlement ever in a corporate racial discrimination case, $192-million.”

Mr. Oliver also said he’s warned that given the systemic racism that exists in our largest corporations and institutions in Canada, the same thing could happen here. The former Senator now chairs the Black North Initiative committee on public relations and the public sector.

“I can state that the clerk [of the Privy Council], Ian Shugart, has been extremely open and forthcoming in helping us meet our 3.5 per cent targets looking to the future,” said Mr. Oliver. “That is most encouraging. The planned lawsuit looks to actions in the past.”

In regards to the highly publicized death of George Floyd, a Minnesota man who was killed by a police officer who pinned him down with a knee to his neck in June 2020, Mr. Oliver called it a “pivotal moment” that “brought to light the insidious but painful truth in Canada about white privilege.”

“The ‘perk’ that white people get by virtue of their colour,” said Mr. Oliver. “The lawsuit is a logical and natural next step after the necessary data has been secured.”

“The lawsuit will force the Public Service to look deeply inside its structure and systems to find ways to eradicate white privilege in performance evaluations and all other known forms of systemic Black racism,” wrote Mr. Oliver. “It must start with some profound personal soul searching that will require all white managers to learn to accept some uncomfortable truths.”

“The machinery of government, i.e., getting a new government department, is something directed from PMO and when that directive comes to PCO one way or another, the Clerk of the Privy Council and all the deputy ministers must fall in line. The ongoing work we are doing in the Black North Initiative to find ways to break down systemic Black racism is going well,” wrote Mr. Oliver. “We have been working with a number of senior bureaucrats of good will. This will continue.”

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, who works for the Canada Revenue Agency as a collections contact officer and a plaintiff in the suit, told The Hill Times that the lawsuit started with the Canada Revenue Agency, calling it a “focal point” of this issue last week.

As a union president in Toronto, representing 800 workers in two offices, Mr. Thompson said he’s been advocating around this issue for years.

“In one of my buildings I have 1,100 workers, and there’s 20 Black people,” said Mr. Thompson. “I asked them to address this issue, to provide developmental opportunities to Black people so when staffing processes come out, they have the experience to apply.”

“They are giving the experience to other visible minorities and Caucasian employees, who are getting that opportunity,” said Mr. Thompson. “So that’s why we say ‘Black employee exclusion,’ and that’s why it’s not about visible minorities, because by far, they are allowing other visible minorities to move ahead and get into the management program and into the executive program.”

Duane Guy Guerra, a full-time employee at the Department of National Defence as a heavy equipment technician for more than 20 years, told The Hill Times that the class action lawsuit “is the next step in doing what I can do, and what seems to be happening now is that people are actually listening.”

Mr. Guerra said that when he first began working for the department in 1999, he was very excited and happy to be there and considered it the next step in his automotive career.

“I worked at General Motors for 13 years, I was proud of that, and I was really good at my job, and I figured, why not take my skills to the next level and try to do something better to serve my country?” said Mr. Guerra. “So I moved to [DND], and I was well received there until I started to try and advance, even though I had the support of my military supervisors.”

Kathy Ann Samuel, who works within the Department of Public Prosecutions as a legal assistant for the last 19 years, said she’s “tired of being tired.”

“Throughout the years, we have marched, we have come together, we have asked, we’ve begged, we’ve done different actions, and no change has been done,” said Ms. Samuel. “The change has to start from the top, it has to start with the government and the law has to be changed.”

“It’s just time, it’s the right thing to do,” said Ms. Samuel.

When asked about the brutal death of George Floyd in the summer, an event caught on video that galvanized thousands of people in Canada and in the United States, Ms. Samuel said the spirit of that moment is still alive.

“For what other people think, it may have passed for them,” said Ms. Samuel. “For us, for the Black community it has not passed. I have children—I have a Black son and I have a Black daughter, and anything can happen—they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s very troubling.”

“When it happened with George Floyd, every single video made me cry, because I put my son in that situation, I put my nephews in that situation, and it could be anybody, and it’s disheartening that in 2020, the Black community is still going through these types of incidents that have happened in the past,” said Ms. Samuel.

Courtney Betty, a Toronto-based lawyer involved in the proposed class action suit, told The Hill Times that “immediately, we would like to see the government prepared to enter into a dialogue with the parties to come up with a resolution.”

“It would avoid litigation and what I would say, is also some incredibly embarrassing stories of the pain and suffering that so many individuals [have experienced], and I think it would be a public embarrassment for Canada internationally when these stories become public,” said Mr. Betty. “It is just really beyond description in terms of the pain and suffering that these plaintiffs have faced.”

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment for this story.

Source: Black public servants’ lawsuit will force public service ‘to look deeply inside its structure,’ says former senator who’s fought for diversity in the PS for decades

Erica Ifill also misses this opportunity for a more informed discussion:

If the makeup of an organization is such that Black employees are ghettoized at the lower ranks with a mostly white managerial class, that’s not equity; that’s segregation, intentional or not. And yet, for months, we’ve seen many such institutions perform the equivalent of just taking a knee – proclaiming their commitment to resolving anti-Black racism generally without admitting its existence within their structure or committing to concrete action.

But for some institutions, chickens are coming home to roost. That includes Canada’s federal government, which is quick to crow about diversity but apparently needs to clean up its own coop first.

Last week, 12 Black public servants launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, claiming it “failed to uphold the Charter rights of Black employees in the federal public service, shirking its responsibility to create discrimination- and harassment-free workplaces, and actively excluding Black bureaucrats”.

Systemic racism has become the new buzzword, one that many leaders are happy to throw around, but few actually know how to define. That includes RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who said earlier this year that she was “struggling” with the term and had denied its existence in her organization. It should be no surprise that the RCMP is named among the departments accused in the lawsuit.

To fill folks in, systemic racism is discrimination perpetuated by a system that produces disparate outcomes based on race, despite the racial composition of those within the system, or whether the participants themselves are racist or not. Diversity does not resolve racism. Rather, without equity, it’s just an act of glorified window-dressing. Claiming diversity as your strength – as the organizations named in the lawsuit are wont to do – is not a get-out-of-jail-free card against the possibility of perpetuating systemic racism, just like having a Black friend does not permanently absolve someone of any act of racism.

A spokesperson from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat insists the federal government has taken steps to address anti-Black systemic racism across the country, citing that “the fall economic statement committed $12-million over three years toward a dedicated centre on diversity and inclusion in the federal public service. This will accelerate the government’s commitment to achieving a representative and inclusive public service.” However, recruiting more Black people will not solve the systemic problem of anti-Black racism in the public service. Effectively, the government has offered a solution to the wrong problem.

The government’s response makes clear only that no attempt has been made to review the existing structures and systems of accountability that prevent the promotion of Black people to the senior ranks, where other racialized groups are more represented. Treasury Board Secretariat’s own data show that Black employees’ salary ranges coalesce at the lower ends of the spectrum compared to those of other racialized groups and white employees, with miniscule representation at the higher ends, which would indicate management levels. The problem is the distribution of Black employees, who tend to occupy more administrative roles than analytical ones, which would enable them to move into management positions. Black executives make up only 1.6 per cent of the executive class (96 out of 5,887) yet comprise nearly 5 per cent of the administrative support staff (971 out of 19,900). This indicates that Black people are either not recruited at higher levels or they are not promoted into higher levels.

Dismantling systemic racism necessitates a genuine and effortful cultural shift in organizations that are stubbornly reticent to change. Expecting change from those who have benefitted from the existing structure is a near-impossible feat, which is why much of the work is usually left to a racialized third party.

The way forward includes anti-racism training that features critical race theory and leadership development, instead of the kind of vanilla anti-bias and diversity training that is mostly focussed on reducing legal liability. According to Harvard Business Review, that kind of training has been offered for decades with little effect: “laboratory studies show that this kind of force-feeding can activate bias rather than stamp it out.” Policies, procedures, processes and accountability systems need to be audited for equity and remedies executed. As well, internal communications must be overhauled – not to hedge against liability, but to speak to employees with the intention of transparency and accountability.

Without a systemic and systematic makeover, businesses and organizations all over the country will face a reckoning that could have them spending more time and money in a courtroom, instead of the boardroom. If the federal government can be sued, anyone can, making inaction on dismantling systemic racism a potentially expensive liability.

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-ottawa-claims-diversity-is-our-strength-so-why-is-it-being-sued-by/

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