Canada Needs to Walk the Talk on Multiculturalism | David Langtry

The acting Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, David Langtry, on discrimination and bias:

Recognizing bias is a first step toward mitigation. It should spur us to put processes and policies in place that ensure fairness. This could be as easy as preventing resume screeners from seeing the names and nationalities of applicants. Employers could also ensure an “immigrant-friendly” selection process by including new Canadians on selection boards.

Eliminating the strict requirement for Canadian experience when it is not really essential is also a good idea. The Ontario Human Rights Commission says this practice is potentially discriminatory, and has called on businesses to remove that barrier. I am hopeful that organizations across Canada will take a closer look at how they recruit talent and ensure their processes for assessing the skills and qualifications of job applicants are as fair and objective as possible.

Taking such steps makes business sense. It’s common knowledge that employers with a diverse workforce outperform competitors. Indeed, it’s expected that Canada will rely on the social and economic contribution of immigrants more than ever in future. Retiring baby boomers and low birth rates are shrinking the domestic labour pool. The entire country’s standard of living will fall without a significant increase in immigrant-based productivity, says Tal.

Part of the challenge, unstated in the article, is for immigrants to learn the Canadian workplace culture, which generally can only be learned effectively, with workplace experience.

Canada Needs to Walk the Talk on Multiculturalism | David Langtry.