Some Indigenous people wary of Order of Canada’s “colonial symbolism”: federal study
2026/06/30 2 Comments
Somewhat surprising no reference to the chronic under-representation of women. My chart below:
My preliminary analysis of the June 2026 shows an increase to 41 percent for women, 14.8 percent for visible minorities and 11.5 percent for Indigenous peoples. While I can appreciate some of the identify and ideological concerns regarding the Order of Canada by some Indigenous organizations and persons, certainly from a pure representation perspective, there is no under-representation but over-representation in relation to the Indigenous population:
….Andrew Griffith, a former federal public servant who has compiled data on Order of Canada recipients, said he was surprised not to see a mention in the newly released documents of the under-representation of women.
Griffith’s data indicates that while women made up 51 per cent of the population in the 2021 census, they accounted for just 34.5 per cent of Order of Canada recipients from 2013 to 2024. The figure rose slightly to 36.8 per cent last year.
Griffith said in an interview that might be explained by the general under-representation of women at senior levels of organizations across society, with the exception of government and a few other sectors.
“But it’s still striking (for the Order of Canada) that they haven’t been able to really move the needle all that much.”
Source: Some Indigenous people wary of Order of Canada’s “colonial symbolism”: federal study
About Andrew
Multicultural Meanderings 
If any Canadian can nominate someone for the Order of Canada, but women are under-represented among recipients, does this mean that too few women are being nominated or that too few women are being selected from among the nominations?
If it is the latter, I would like to see an analysis of the selection process. I’m not sure what to suggest if it is the former.
I tried at one time to get nomination statistics from Rideau Hall to assess whether it is a lack of nominations or the selection process. So don’t really have an answer to your questions. Perhaps just a reflection of society but the high percentage of Indigenous appointments suggests that there may be other factors.