Federal public servants are to report back to the office again. Their bosses say they mean it this time

2024/09/11 Leave a comment

Unlikely that DM messaging will convince many and the unions risk attracting negative reactions given the prevailing practices in the private sector and setting the stage for even more rocky relations should, as likely, the Conservatives form the next government:

…A 2023 survey by Capterra found that 69 per cent of Canada’s hybrid workers are onsite two to three days per week; about 25 per cent have mandatory in-office days. In the U.S., Gallup found that 50 per cent are structured hybrid, with 22 per cent onsite a minimum number of days and 40 per cent are in the office 2-3 days per week.

But the government is different from the profit-and-loss-driven private sector. A non-partisan public service is built on an attachment to a mission, a public service ethos that Fox argues is best instilled by teamwork and working together.

The issue goes beyond worker and management rights. It goes to the core role of the public service.

Fox worries the sense of mission – which shone in the public service during the pandemic – will be lost if employees aren’t working together enough, raising questions whether they could handle another crisis on that scale.

“I think we do see a gap where people are not spending enough time together. That is big in terms of culture, and you’re not going to see productivity data (showing) how well you’re doing culturally,” said Fox.

The bureaucracy has also grown like gangbusters, with 80,000 people added over the past few years – many of whom haven’t worked in an office and haven’t been introduced to the culture in-person.

“There’s a risk that connections would be harder to establish in a crisis moment without that a basis of relationships and teamwork and things we had done together,” said Fox.

The compliance protocol for the return to office is onerous, with a heavy emphasis on protecting employees’ privacy while monitoring metrics like entry-card swipes at turnstiles and computer login locations.

The burden falls on front-line managers and supervisors, some of whom are not themselves keen on the mandate. Many of them, too, would prefer more freedom and flexibility and now must track daily attendance and ensure employees are where they should be, whether working in the office or from home.

Managers are expected to take daily attendance. The results will be compiled for bosses to monitor. If they spot anything that requires looking at specific employees, a whole process kicks in that can involve union representatives and privacy officials.

And those who fail to comply will face progressive discipline, including a warning, verbal and written reprimands, suspension without pay and, finally, dismissal.

It’s unclear how deep the resistance to the mandate runs. But what is clear is that the kind of workplace they are returning to has changed dramatically. Offices are being retrofitted or have disappeared entirely as the government pushes to cut its real estate portfolio in half.

While some junior employees have never worked in an office, others are going to  to workspaces with no assigned seating and personal space. Desks must be booked. Raffles are sometimes held to see who works on what day with their team to ensure there’s office space. Many pack up their equipment as they shuffle between office and home.

It’s a perfect storm for discontent.

At the same time, as one senior bureaucrat underscored, there may soon be a change of government. With Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s argument that the public service is too big and broken, the question won’t be whether they are at home or the office but rather whether they still have a job.

The Conservatives haven’t said anything about where they stand on return to office. They have been content to let the Liberals take the heat. Meanwhile, Liberals are dodging it by saying this is a public-service decision, not a political one.

Experts have also turned the spotlight on the bureaucracy, saying it is bloated, unable to deliver basic services, and is a drain on the country’s productivity.

Next week, Donald Savoie, one of Canada’s leading scholars on public administration, is releasing his latest book, Speaking Truth to Canadians About Their Public Service. He has long argued the public service has lost its way. The book chronicles how that has happened.

“I believe the federal public service is overstaffed; that it is providing a lower level of service to Canadians and that Canadians are losing trust in the institution,” he wrote. “I argue that it is the responsibility of the public service to provide evidence that I am wrong, not the other way around.”

Fox says that while public perception doesn’t factor directly into the return-to-office decision, decision-makers can’t ignore it, either. “It goes to trust: trust in government, trust in the public service, trust we are working to serve Canadians,” she said.

Source: Federal public servants are to report back to the office again. Their bosses say they mean it this time

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ICYMI: Les annulations de cours de francisation se multiplient sur la couronne nord faute de budget

2024/09/11 Leave a comment

Of note:

Les réductions budgétaires en francisation du ministère de l’Éducation sèment la consternation dans la couronne nord de Montréal, qui connaît un boom d’immigration. Au Centre de services scolaire (CSS) des Mille-Îles, ce sont 90 % des cours de francisation aux adultes qui ont été annulés et une vingtaine de postes qui ont été éliminés. Quant aux étudiants, eux, ils ne savent pas vers qui ou quoi se tourner.

Depuis la semaine dernière, « c’est la panique » chez l’organisme ABL Immigration, explique son directeur intérimaire, Alain Marginean.

L’organisme de Saint-Eustache est inondé d’appels depuis que le CSS des Mille-Îles a annulé presque toute son offre de cours de francisation des adultes en cette rentrée scolaire. Seulement trois classes, plutôt que 14, ont été ouvertes, et ce, uniquement pour la moitié de l’année.

« Ça appelle en continu depuis jeudi dernier », relate M. Marginean, un cadre du réseau collégial à la retraite.

ABL Immigration organise des activités de socialisation pour les nouveaux arrivants et offre différents services de soutien — comme aider les gens à s’inscrire aux cours de francisation offerts par le CSS.

Le directeur Marginean a l’impression de retourner en arrière. « Ça dépasse mon entendement. J’en ai vu, des conneries, mais ça, ça dépasse l’entendement », dit-il à propos des réductions imposées par Québec en francisation. Car, cette année, les ministères de l’Éducation et de l’Immigration ont décidé de limiter les budgets destinés aux cours de francisation donnés par les CSS.

Des parcours et une intégration freinés

Sehriban Naman et son mari — deux réfugiés kurdes — s’apprêtaient à commencer leur classe de francisation de niveau 5 (il y en a 12) quand ils ont appris la nouvelle. Ils sont découragés. « Mon mari ne peut pas se trouver de travail parce qu’il n’a pas la langue », explique la dame.

Le couple réside à Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac depuis 2023. Dans leur pays d’origine, la Turquie, les deux enseignaient. Mme Naman espère maintenant s’occuper de garde d’enfants ; son mari souhaite devenir plombier. « Pour trouver une bonne job, je dois prendre le français au niveau 5, 6 ou 7. Mais, maintenant, je ne peux pas », dit-elle.

La CSS des Mille-Îles confirme avoir dû abolir 21 postes d’enseignants en francisation cet automne. « Nous avons l’obligation de nous gouverner avec les règles budgétaires 2024-2025 du ministère de l’Éducation », a indiqué sa porte-parole par écrit. « Chacune de ces personnes a été contactée par l’équipe de direction […] et un second suivi a été fait par l’équipe des ressources humaines afin de leur offrir un autre poste. »

Dans une lettre ouverte au Devoir, des professeurs parlent de restrictions « sauvages, injustifiables et incohérentes » ordonnées par le gouvernement Legault. « Environ 250 nouveaux arrivants ne seront pas francisés cette année dans notre région. Ils devront retourner sur les listes d’attente interminables de Francisation Québec », déplorent-ils. « Si on se fie aux différentes mesures et lois mises en place pour protéger les valeurs, la langue et la culture d’ici par ce même gouvernement, c’est contre-productif. »

Les réductions décrétées par Québec touchent l’ensemble des CSS, mais l’effet sur l’offre de cours de francisation varie selon les endroits. Plus au nord des Laurentides, à Saint-Jérôme, le CSS de la Rivière-du-Nord ne rapporte aucun changement dans l’offre. Idem au CSS des Laurentides, basé à Saint-Agathe-des-Monts.

Mais à Repentigny, dans Lanaudière, le CSS des Affluents a dû réduire de 50 % son offre de cours en francisation, privant ainsi 200 élèves de cours et 20 enseignants de leur poste. Au CSS des Patriotes, basé à Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, le nombre de cours offerts est passé de vingt l’an dernier à sept cet automne.

Plusieurs directions de CSS qui disent avoir maintenu leur offre de cours affirment toutefois qu’elles ne prendront peu ou pas en charge de nouveaux groupes. C’est entre autres le cas des CSS Marguerite-Bourgeoys (à Montréal), des Navigateurs (à Québec), des Chênes (à Drummondville) et des Hauts-Cantons (en Estrie).

D’autres, comme le CSS de Sherbrooke, tablent sur une résolution du problème cet automne, au risque de devoir fermer des classes plus tard cette année.

Des solutions de rechange limitées

Depuis le début, le gouvernement Legault défend sa décision en plaidant que la demande en francisation est trop forte. En seulement deux mois, ce printemps, le nombre d’adultes inscrits en francisation dans le réseau québécois a atteint 26 656, alors qu’on en comptait 34 060 pour tout l’exercice 2023-2024.

Or, M. Marginean plaide que des régions comme la sienne en pâtissent beaucoup plus que d’autres.

Cela fait seulement quelques années que des cours de francisation sont offerts localement à Saint-Eustache et à Saint-Thérèse, fait-il valoir, et il a fallu se battre pour les obtenir. « Ça fait trois ans qu’on a gagné ça. On n’est pas intéressés à envoyer les gens à Laval ou à Saint-Jérôme. »

Le ministère de l’Immigration avait affirmé au Devoir à la mi-août que le nouvel organisme Francisation Québec (FQ) dirigeait les étudiants déboutés vers des solutions de rechange. « L’équipe de FQ […] surveille de près les capacités de tous les partenaires, dont les CSS. Lorsqu’un centre informe avoir atteint sa capacité, l’équipe procède à un aiguillage des élèves vers d’autres partenaires ayant de la capacité, que ce soit des CSS, des cégeps, des universités ou des organismes à but non lucratif. »

« Rappelons que les services de FQ s’appuient aussi sur des cours offerts en ligne », signalait-on aussi.

Sehriban Naman a jeté un regard sur les cours offerts à Laval, mais doute de pouvoir s’y inscrire. « C’est très loin et il faut que je fasse garder mes enfants près d’ici. »

Un autre étudiant de Saint-Eustache avec qui Le Devoir s’est entretenu, Enrique (qui a demandé que l’on utilise un pseudonyme, par crainte de nuire à son dossier d’immigration), dit, quant à lui, avoir essayé les cours en ligne sans grand enthousiasme. « Personne n’aime ça », dit-il. « La francisation, c’est pas juste la langue : c’est connaître des gens, être en immersion. »

Ces derniers mois, l’homme d’origine nicaraguayenne a commencé à travailler en soirée comme opérateur de machine dans une entreprise des environs, tout en suivant des cours de francisation le jour. « C’est important de continuer les cours, dit-il, parce qu’il y a beaucoup de choses que je ne comprends pas au travail. »

Source: Les annulations de cours de francisation se multiplient sur la couronne nord faute de budget

Computer translation:

The French budget cuts of the Ministry of Education are sowing consternation in the northern crown of Montreal, which is experiencing an immigration boom. At the Centre de services scolaires (CSS) des Mille-Îles, 90% of adult francization courses were canceled and about twenty positions were eliminated. As for the students, they don’t know who or what to turn to.

Since last week, “it’s panic” at the ABL Immigration organization, explains its interim director, Alain Marginean.

The Saint-Eustache organization has been flooded with calls since the CSS des Mille-Îles canceled almost all of its offer of adult francization courses this school year. Only three classes, rather than 14, were opened, and only for half the year.

“It’s been calling continuously since last Thursday,” says Mr. Marginean, a retired college network executive.

ABL Immigration organizes socialization activities for newcomers and offers various support services — such as helping people enroll in francization courses offered by the CSS.

Director Marginean feels like he’s going back. “It’s beyond my understanding. I’ve seen some bullshit, but that’s beyond comprehension, “he says about the reductions imposed by Quebec in francization. Because, this year, the Ministries of Education and Immigration have decided to limit the budgets for francization courses given by the CSS.

Braked courses and integration

Sehriban Naman and her husband – two Kurdish refugees – were about to start their level 5 francization class (there are 12) when they heard the news. They are discouraged. “My husband can’t find a job because he doesn’t have the language,” explains the lady.

The couple has lived in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac since 2023. In their country of origin, Turkey, they both taught. Ms. Naman now hopes to take care of the child; her husband wants to become a plumber. “To find a good job, I have to take French at level 5, 6 or 7. But now I can’t,” she says.

The CSS des Mille-Îles confirms that it had to abolish 21 teacher positions in Frenchization this fall. “We have the obligation to govern ourselves with the 2024-2025 budget rules of the Ministry of Education,” his spokeswoman said in writing. “Each of these people was contacted by the management team […] and a second follow-up was made by the human resources team to offer them another position. ”

In an open letter to Le Devoir, teachers speak of “wild, unjustifiable and incoherent” restrictions ordered by the Legault government. “About 250 newcomers will not be Frenchized this year in our region. They will have to return to the endless waiting lists of Francisation Québec,” they lament. “If we rely on the various measures and laws put in place to protect the values, language and culture here by this same government, it is counterproductive. ”

The reductions decreed by Quebec affect all CSS, but the effect on the offer of francization courses varies by location. Further north of the Laurentians, in Saint-Jérôme, the CSS de la Rivière-du-Nord does not report any change in the offer. Ditto to the CSS des Laurentides, based in Saint-Agathe-des-Monts.

But in Repentigny, in Lanaudière, the CSS des Affluents had to reduce its offer of francization courses by 50%, thus depriving 200 students of classes and 20 teachers of their posts. At CSS des Patriotes, based in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, the number of courses offered increased from twenty last year to seven this fall.

However, several CSS managements who say they have maintained their course offerings say that they will take little or no support for new groups. This is the case, among others, of CSS Marguerite-Bourgeoys (in Montreal), Navigators (in Quebec City), Chênes (in Drummondville) and Hauts-Cantons (in the Eastern City).

Others, such as the Sherbrooke CSS, are counting on a resolution of the problem this fall, at the risk of having to close classes later this year.

Limited alternative solutions

From the beginning, the Legault government defended its decision by arguing that the demand for francization is too strong. In just two months, this spring, the number of adults registered for francization in the Quebec network reached 26,656, while there were 34,060 for the entire 2023-2024 financial year.

However, Mr. Marginean argues that regions like his suffer much more than others.

It has only been a few years that francization courses have been offered locally in Saint-Eustache and Saint-Thérèse, he argues, and it was necessary to fight to obtain them. “It’s been three years since we won that. We are not interested in sending people to Laval or Saint-Jérôme. ”

The Ministry of Immigration had told Le Devoir in mid-August that the new organization Francisation Québec (FQ) was directing rejected students to alternative solutions. “The FQ team […] closely monitors the capabilities of all partners, including CSS. When a center informs that it has reached its capacity, the team refers students to other partners with capacity, whether CSS, CEGEPs, universities or non-profit organizations. ”

“Remember that FQ services also rely on courses offered online,” it was also reported.

Sehriban Naman took a look at the courses offered in Laval, but doubts that he can register. “It’s very far and I have to have my children looked after near here. ”

Another student from Saint-Eustache with whom Le Devoir talked, Enrique (who asked for a pseudonym to be used, for fear of harming his immigration file), says he tried the online courses without much enthusiasm. “Nobody likes it,” he says. “Francization is not just language: it is knowing people, being immersed. ”

In recent months, the man of Nicaraguan origin has started working in the evening as a machine operator in a nearby company, while taking francization courses during the day. “It’s important to continue classes,” he says, “because there are many things I don’t understand at work. ”

Filed under Integration Tagged with ,

Angus-Reid – Temporary Foreign Workers: Canadians support reduced program; few want workers to have path to citizenship

2024/09/11 Leave a comment

Although not covered in the summary, the data tables highlight that non-white are more critical than white (I would have preferred an immigrant, born in Canada comparisons):

Part One: Views of Temporary Foreign Workers program

  • Canadians say they hear more negative things than positive ones
  • Most say number of workers too high
  • Plurality say program should continue with changes

Part Two: Who benefits and loses from TFW program

  • Most see a boon for business at the cost of labour market and housing
  • Liberal supporters most positive, cross-partisan concern about impact on housing

Part Three: Concerns about treatment of workers, but little support for citizenship

  • Majority say businesses that can’t afford to pay wages Canadians will take should close
  • Many also say Canadians don’t want to do the jobs TFWs perform
  • Majority say businesses treat TFWs unfairly; half say government exploits them
  • Citizenship for TFWs not supported by many

Source: Temporary Foreign Workers: Canadians support reduced program; few want workers to have path to citizenship

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Tao | Canada is scapegoating migrants. Believe us, migrants are feeling it

2024/09/10 Leave a comment

It is more anti impact of immigration numbers than anti immigration per se, but not surprising that some perceive it that way with the resulting impact on mental health:

…We seem to have forgotten, over the course of Canadian history, the separation of loved ones by explicit and implicit race-based laws. Today’s social media algorithms shield us from a history replete with narratives of turning away boats and refoulement to torture and punishment and the destruction of migrant businesses and communities. Less viscerally, exclusionary bars were placed on individuals that had the direct impact of separating families, still today healing from the trauma of generations past. 

This collective amnesia, with an election looming and amidst shifting global political tides, has seemingly replaced the amnesty we were initially proposing for those who had served as guardian angels in times of need. In January, the federal government set an intake cap on international student permit applications, limiting the number of approvals to 360,000, down 35 per cent from 2023. Just last week, the government announced it will be reducing the number of temporary foreign workers and that it is considering the number of permanent residents Canada accepts each year. Surgery is indeed being done with a hammer, and with not enough consultation of those migrants that the changes impact.

The “low skilled” workers, who on one hand have been found to work in slavelike conditions and on the other hand are being told they are taking Canadian jobs and homes with that slavelike salary, have received a clear message of: “we don’t need you anymore.” 

As the dialogue shifts more toward displacement and deportation, and as descendents of migrants and those who work in migrant spaces, we want to highlight the harmful impacts that this culture of scapegoating, meme-ing, and generally, mobbing is having on the mental health of migrants.  

We have seen firsthand the mental health impacts that Canada’s move toward anti-immigration policy and sentiment is having on individuals and families, especially our clients, within the context of this dialogue where immigrants are cited as the source of many societal woes. …

Will Tao is a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer (J.D., LLM Student) and the son of first-generation immigrants to Canada. Karina Juma is an articling student (J.D./MA) and daughter of first generation immigrants to Canada.

Source: Opinion | Canada is scapegoating migrants. Believe us, migrants are feeling it

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Tens of thousands of international students who spent years finding a pathway to permanent residency are out of options

2024/09/10 Leave a comment

Major and inhumane policy failure, whipsawing international students between government encouraged expectations and subsequent government imposed reality:

…That same year, a series of policy reversals and changes began to take place. Ottawa stopped granting extensions to PGWPs and noted that granting permanent residency to temporary residents in bulk was a one-time emergency pandemic measure. The government also abruptly changed its criteria for permanent resident (PR) selection in the Express Entry system – a score-based application process that determines eligibility for permanent residency. It began prioritizing French speakers and people with job experience in health care, skilled trades, agriculture, transportation and STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – fields as opposed to those with Canadian-specific education and experience.

“Nobody knows the probability of a successful permanent residency transition now because the PR selection system has become highly non-transparent and unpredictable,” explained Mikal Skuterud, an economist at the University of Waterloo. “What we do know is that the government is not going to grant extensions to expiring visas so there will now be many, many people in situations where they either remain in Canada undocumented or leave.”

There is no precise data that reflect exactly how many foreign graduates currently holding PGWPs will see their visas expire this year. The Naujawan Support Network – a labour advocacy organization based in Brampton, Ont. – estimates that approximately 70,000 PGWP holders will not obtain permanent residency before their visas expire and be forced to leave Canada in 2024 and 2025.

Prof. Skuterud estimates that approximately 131,000 permits could expire this year – if one were to assume that most PGWPs issued had three-year durations. But he noted that an exact figure was tough to determine….

Source: Tens of thousands of international students who spent years finding a pathway to permanent residency are out of options

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Teachers say immigrants not to blame as Quebec links teacher shortage to newcomers

2024/09/10 Leave a comment

Interesting that have not seen similar stories from other provinces, the vast majority of whom have higher levels of immigrants:

Quebec’s school year started on a familiar note: thousands of teaching spots were unfilled, and the provincial government had to defend itself for its failure to solve the problem.

But as politicians continue to point to immigration — a common justification for the province’s ills — as the main culprit, education experts say newcomers are not the underlying cause of the widespread teacher shortages.

“There has been a significant increase in the number of children who need a teacher because of the explosion in the number of immigrants,” Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters last week, despite also mentioning working conditions and salaries as other reasons the education system is lacking personnel.

In mid-August, Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville said there were 20,000 more students enrolled than last year, about 80 per cent of whom are newcomers to the province. With about 5,700 teaching positions unfilled, he called on the federal government to “get control of the immigration process to reduce temporary immigration in Quebec, particularly asylum seekers.”

Statistics from last week showed 1,957 teaching positions across the education system had yet to be filled.

Drainville’s math, however, doesn’t add up, says Diane Querrien, professor in the department of French studies at Montreal’s Concordia University.

“Even if you go with the worst-case scenario, meaning that the 20,000 more students are all immigrants, it doesn’t make sense,” Querrien said, explaining that dividing that figure by the roughly 5,700 unstaffed positions would mean hiring one teacher for groups of only three to four students.

The Canadian Press asked the Quebec Education Department for clarity, but it did not respond to a request for comment.

Immigration, Querrien added, doesn’t explain why some outlying regions, which receive fewer immigrants than do big cities, are also short on teachers — and have been for years.

Mélanie Hubert, president of teachers union Fédération autonome de l’enseignement, says it’s true that a rise in the number of immigrant children requires more staff in French-language schools. But Quebec has done little to replace a generation of retiring teachers, she lamented.

“As long as we have a lot of people retiring and fewer people coming out of university, we’re bound to have a shortage of teachers. And that’s something we could have planned for,” she said.

“Maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now, and we’d be able to absorb the number of students arriving from immigrant families.”

A teacher shortage is also being felt in the province’s English schools, despite the fact Quebec’s strict language laws force the vast majority of immigrants to enrol their children in the French system.

Steven Le Sueur​, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, said the uptick in immigrant students has had “minimal” impact on Quebec’s English schools and yet they are still searching for qualified teachers. As of Friday, Le Sueur​ said 200 positions were unfilled.

Poor working conditions and low pay over the past two decades has resulted in fewer people entering teaching programs and many educators throwing in the towel shortly after they enter the system. “We’re losing 25 per cent of our new teachers within the first five years, so it’s something that needs to be addressed,” Le Sueur​ said.

University of Sherbrooke professor Philippa Parks, who studies the reasons teachers leave the profession, thinks Le Sueur​’s 25 per cent estimate might be on the conservative side; she said the statistics vary, but it could be as high as 50 per cent.

Immigration is “a drop in the bucket,” Parks said. “I think it’s a little bit of dog whistling and disingenuous here because it is one of many factors.”

The main one, she said, is teachers not getting the support and training needed in the classroom, especially after reforms bringing students with learning and physical disabilities who had previously been educated separately into the same classrooms as the general population.

The other issue, Parks says, is that teaching is no longer the middle-class profession with status it used to be. “I started teaching in 1998 and I could buy a house. I actually put down a down payment with my salary as a teacher and of course things have changed dramatically.”

Despite recent salary increases — 17.4 per cent over five years — after thousands of teachers went on strike in the province last year, Le Sueur​ and Parks say it will take time to attract more teachers to the profession and more needs to be done to make the day-to-day lives on educators easier.

University of Ottawa emeritus professor François Rocher, who researches immigration and Quebec nationalism, says the current teacher shortage is “just another example of how Coalition Avenir Québec has framed the issue of immigration.”

“Immigration has been used as a cause for many other ‘problems’ that we have seen in Quebec,” he said, adding that the CAQ has also pinned blame on immigrants for the province’s housing crisis, a decline in the use of French in Quebec and increased demands for health-care services.

Source: Teachers say immigrants not to blame as Quebec links teacher shortage to newcomers

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Study provides evidence of AI’s alarming dialect prejudice

2024/09/09 Leave a comment

Interesting study, just adding to the challenges of using AI to evaluate speech:

An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him, The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him. – Dr Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady

While large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT-4 have been trained to avoid answers that overtly racially stereotype, a new study shows that they “covertly” stereotype African Americans who speak in the dialect prevalent in New York, Detroit, Washington DC and other cities such as Los Angeles.

In “AI generates covertly racial decisions about people based on their dialect” published in Nature at the end of August, a team of three researchers working with Dr Valentin Hofmann at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle shows how AI’s (learned) prejudice against African-American English (AAE) can have harmful and dangerous consequences.

In a series of experiments, Hofmann’s team found that LLMs are “more likely to suggest that a speaker of AAE be assigned to less-prestigious jobs, be convicted of crimes and be sentenced to death”.

The study, the authors write, “provides the first empirical evidence for the existence of dialect prejudice in language models: that is, covert racism that is activated by features of a dialect (AAE).”

The study states: “Using our new method of matching guise probing, we show that language models exhibit archaic stereotypes about speakers of AAE that most closely agree with the most negative human stereotypes about African Americans ever experimentally recorded, dating from before the civil rights movement.”

Developed in the 1960s at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, “guise probing” allowed the isolation of attitudes held by bilingual French Canadians towards both Francophones and Anglophones by having subjects pay attention to language, dialect and accent of Francophones and Anglophones on recordings and asking the subject to make judgements about these individuals’ looks, sense of humour, intelligence, religiousness, kindness, and ambition, among other qualities.

A new racism emerges

Hofmann and his co-authors begin their discussion by placing the AI’s covert racism in a historical context that is quite separate from other problems with machine learning such as hallucinations, that is, when an AI system makes things up.

Instead, they map the appearance of covert racism onto the history of American racism since the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

Between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and 1877, to a greater or lesser degree, the national government enforced the Amendments to the US Constitution that ended slavery and granted civil rights to the freedman.

This effort was abandoned in 1877 and, soon, white supremacist state governments in the South began instituting Jim Crow laws that stripped the freedmen of their civil rights and created a legal regimen of peonage that was slavery in all but name.

In the 1950s, the civil rights movement and Supreme Court decisions such as the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education (which ruled that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional) set the stage for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal laws that dismantled the legal structures of Jim Crow.

However, Hofmann et al write, “social scientists have argued that, unlike the racism associated with the Jim Crow era, which included overt behaviours such as name calling or more brutal acts of violence such as lynching, a ‘new racism’ happens in the present-day United States in more subtle ways that rely on a ‘colour-blind’ racist ideology”.

This ideology (which the Supreme Court of the United States endorsed when it ruled that affirmative action admissions programmeswere unconstitutional) allows individuals to “avoid mentioning race by claiming not to see colour or to ignore race but still hold negative beliefs about racialised people”.

“Importantly,” the authors argue, “such a framework emphasises the avoidance of racial terminology but maintains racial inequities”.

Two lines of defence

According to Dr Craig Kaplan, who has taught computer science at the University of California and is the founder and CEO of the consulting firm iQ Company, which focuses on artificial general intelligence (AGI), when AI reproduces the racist assumptions contained in the texts the systems were trained on, developers typically first try to further filter and curate the data on which the systems were trained.

“Some of these systems are trained on three Library of Congresses’ worth of information that could include information from books like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn that contain racist stereotypes and dialogue.

The first line of defence, then, is to try to curate the data. But, it’s impossible for humans to sort reliably and filter every instance of racial stereotype. There’s so much data that it’s a losing battle,” he said.

The second line of defence is a technique known as Reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) which uses humans to question the LLMs and correct them with feedback when the LLMs’ responses are dangerous or inappropriate.

Unfortunately, Kaplan explained, it is impossible to question LLMs on every topic, so bad actors can always find ways to get into an LLM to provide dangerous or inappropriate information. As fast as bad responses can be addressed, new ways of “jailbreaking” the LLMs emerge.

Kaplan characterises RLHF as “Whack a Mole”, a child’s game in which the aim is to keep hitting the mole that pops up.

“In this game … you tell the model that when it says African Americans are less intelligent and so forth, the system gets whacked. This is called reinforcement learning with human feedback (HF). But it’s impossible to anticipate every potential racist response that the LLM might generate,” said Kaplan.

Part of the reason RLHF won’t work is because of the way AI systems work.

“How LLMs represent anything, including African Americans, is a ‘black box’, meaning it is not transparent to us,” Kaplan told University World News.

“We don’t know how the information is represented or understood by the LLM. LLMs have maybe 500 billion parameters or a trillion parameters – far too many for a human to really grasp. We don’t know which exact combination of parameters, which are just numeric values, might represent erroneous concepts about African Americans.

“We simply have no visibility into that,” he said.

Though Hofmann and his co-authors do not speculate as to what is happening in the ‘black box’, their statistical analysis shows that HF (the same as RLHF) training perversely increases the dialect prejudice.

“In fact we observed a discrepancy between what language models overtly say about African Americans and what they covertly associate with them as revealed by dialect prejudice.

This discrepancy is particularly pronounced for language models trained with human feedback, such as GPT4: our results indicate that HF training obscures the racism on the surface, but the racial stereotypes remain unaffected on a deeper level,” the study states.

Striking and dangerous assumptions

The different assumptions made because of dialect are striking.

Prompted by the (Standardised American English, SAE) sentence “I am so happy when I wake up from a bad dream because they feel too real” the LLM said the speaker is likely to be “brilliant” or “intelligent” and not likely to be “dirty”, “lazy” or “stupid”.

By contrast, the AAE sentence “I be so happy when I wake up from a bad dream cus they feelin’ too real” led the LLM to say the speaker was “dirty”, “lazy” and “stupid”.

The authors draw attention to the fact that race is never mentioned; “its presence is encoded in the AAE dialect”.

However, they continue, “we found that there is a substantial overlap in the adjectives associated most strongly with African Americans by humans and the adjectives associated most strongly with AAE by language models, particularly for the earlier Princeton Trilogy studies”.

The Princeton Trilogy was a series of studies that investigated common American racial stereotypes held by Americans. Accordingly, speakers of AAE were recommended by various LLMs for jobs like cleaner, cook, guard or attendant.

By contrast, speakers of SAE were recommended for jobs like astronaut, professor, psychiatrist, architect, lawyer, pilot and doctor.

Criminal justice experiments

If anything, what Hofmann et al found in their two criminal justice experiments is even more alarming.

In the first, they asked the LLM to decide whether an individual was guilty or not guilty of an unspecified crime using only the statement of the defendant. In the case of GPT4, when the statement was in AAE, the conviction rate was 50% higher than when the statement prompt was in SAE.

The second experiment asked the LLM if the defendant merited the death penalty for first-degree (planned and deliberate) murder. Again, the only evidence provided to the language modes was a statement made by the defendant.

In this instance GPT4 sentenced speakers of AAE to death approximately 90% more often than it did speakers of SAE.

Massive pattern detectors

Why, Kaplan was asked, do LLMs produce such unjust outcomes for African Americans?

“These systems are basically massive pattern detectors. They could be trained on millions of documents, including court records that go back decades,” he replied.

“Those old court records would reflect the prejudices of the times, when people of colour were sentenced more harshly, as they still are.

“The records may also contain court transcripts including African Americans’ speech in the context of sentencing. That could all be reflected in the data used to train an LLM.

“The AI system could recognise these patterns of prejudices of the society, reflected in the court records and bound up with the language of the African American defendants who were sentenced to death,” he explained.

Source: Study provides evidence of AI’s alarming dialect prejudice

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Terry Newman: Trudeau’s Canada safe for alleged terrorist targeting New York Jews

2024/09/09 Leave a comment

One of the first pieces in mainstream media that ventures into country of origin and values arguments against immigration in addition to housing, healthcare etc:

…Canada needs to slow immigration for a number of reasons: lack of housing (it’s unfair to bring immigrants here when they have nowhere to live), rising unemployment, increasing social unrest, and decreasing social cohesion. At the very least, Canada needs to slow immigration from countries whose residents are currently hostile to Canada and the United States. This isn’t rocket science, and the notion that even discussing immigration in any way makes you a racist needs to be put to bed once and for all. There are countries with governments and citizens who hate our way of life and want to destroy it, and they are quite vocal about it. Canada needs a government that is mature enough to recognize this reality in order to keep citizens safe. This does not make us less empathetic. It makes us smart.

Source: Terry Newman: Trudeau’s Canada safe for alleged terrorist targeting New York Jews

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‘Reckless and naive’: Trudeau’s immigration policy works for no one, says former Alberta premier Jason Kenney

2024/09/09 Leave a comment

Kenney’s comments more interesting that the numbers. But he is silent on his making the same mistake as the Liberals with respect to Temporary Foreign Workers before reversing course in 2014 (and the Liberals of course criticized him at the time for allowing rapid increases in fast food and other sectors):

Is there any denying that Justin Trudeau’s arms-wide-open approach to inviting immigrants, refugees, foreign students and foreign workers into Canada is a radical departure, a shock change from past practice?To grasp the enormity of the shift, let’s look at the previous three prime ministers — Liberals Jean Chretien and Paul Martin and Conservative Stephen Harper — and compare where they ended up on immigration intake numbers in their final years in power to what Trudeau did in 2023, the last year we have full statistics.

In 2003, Chretien’s final year in power, Canada allowed 469,000 newcomers in total. This was made up of 164,000 study permit holders, 32,000 refugee claimants, 34,000 foreign workers and 239,000 immigrants, according to data from Statistics Canada.

In total, Martin let in 488,000 people in 2005, Harper 678,000 in 2014.

Trudeau in 2023? He let in 1.84 million.

If we dig one layer deeper we see that in their final years in office, Chretien, Martin and Harper allowed a one-year average of 222,000 study permit holders, 22,000 refugee claimants, 57,000 temporary foreign workers, and 245,000 immigrants. That’s an average total of 545,000 per year.

In 2023, Trudeau allowed 1,041,000 study permit holders, a 370 per cent increase over the one-year average of the other PMs this century, 144,000 refugee claimants, a 563 per cent increase, 184,00 temporary foreign workers, a 222 per cent increase, and 472,000 immigrants, a 92.7 per cent increase.

Again, Trudeau’s total added up to 1.84 million, a 238 per cent increase over the average of Chretien, Martin and Harper.

This astronomical increase happened in a country where there’s a crisis around people finding housing, where inflation has shot up for food and other essentials, where many young people are struggling to find employment, and where hospitals and schools strain to meet needs.

Source: ‘Reckless and naive’: Trudeau’s immigration policy works for no one, says former Alberta premier Jason Kenney

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Geist: A new academic year requires a new approach to combatting antisemitism on campus

2024/09/09 Leave a comment

This one will be the hardest to implement I think. But needed:

…Third, universities must preserve their position as neutral forums for discussion, debate and learning. Often referred to as institutional neutrality, the principle dates back to the 1960s and a University of Chicago report that concluded, “There is no mechanism by which it [the university] can reach a collective position without inhibiting that full freedom of dissent on which it thrives.”

In other words, institutional neutrality ensures that faculty members and students are free to express their opinions, but the institution itself should refrain from wading into political matters. That principle was undermined by the University of Windsor’s recent agreement with campus protesters, which included commitments to university advocacy and restrictions on academic partnerships that could undermine academic freedoms.

The proliferation of campus antisemitism may have caught some universities off guard last year. But this year, there are no surprises. Universities must rise to the challenge by prioritizing a safe environment for all students and faculty – one that lives up to their ideals of inclusion and non-discrimination.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law.

Source: A new academic year requires a new approach to combatting antisemitism on campus

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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