Du racisme dans le secteur privé, selon la Commission des droits de la personne

2015/01/31 Leave a comment

Quebec Government EEOngoing issue in Quebec with visible minorities having higher unemployment rates, greater prevalence of low-income, and lower median incomes than non-visible minorities, often greater than differences elsewhere in Canada.

L’État devrait donc les forcer juridiquement à adopter un mécanisme visant à contrer toute forme de racisme et de discrimination au moment de recruter des employés, plaide l’organisme dans son mémoire présenté mercredi dans le cadre de la consultation publique menée par le gouvernement sur la future politique d’immigration du Québec.

Le gouvernement devrait commencer par donner l’exemple et accorder un statut particulier aux membres des «minorités racisées» (qu’on pense aux Noirs et aux Asiatiques) lorsqu’il y a embauche dans la fonction publique, a fait valoir le président de l’organisme de défense des droits, Jacques Frémont.

Car les nouveaux arrivants issus des minorités visibles sont systématiquement sous-représentés «dans toutes les catégories d’emploi de la fonction publique», déplore la commission dans son document étoffé, assorti de 23 recommandations remises à la ministre de l’Immigration, Kathleen Weil.

Ces personnes, trop souvent victimes de discrimination à l’embauche pour des motifs n’ayant rien à voir avec leurs diplômes ou leurs compétences, devraient donc faire partie d’«un groupe cible distinct et spécifique» aux yeux du gouvernement à titre d’employeur, recommande la commission, qui revendique de plus l’adoption d’une politique globale de lutte contre le racisme et la discrimination.

And as shown in the above chart, relatively low public sector hiring rates for visible minorities.

Du racisme dans le secteur privé, selon la Commission des droits de la personne | Jocelyne Richer | National.

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Overall interest in military careers low for Black, Latin-American and Filipino Canadians | National Post

2015/01/05 Leave a comment

Not particularly surprising, nor is the usual bureaucratic response – change the targets (RCMP had managed to do so a number of years ago):

The findings come as National Defence has been looking to cut legally mandated recruitment targets for women, visible minorities and aboriginals in uniform, a move that has prompted sharp debate in military circles.

While the military is expected to aim to have 11.7% of those in uniform be visible minorities, the actual number is 4.2%.

While that represents an increase from previous years, documents obtained by the Citizen show defence officials have been pushing to cut the target to 8.2%.

Those lobbying for a change will point to the survey of black, Filipino and Latin American Canadians as proof the current employment equity goals are unrealistic. Others, however, will say the report proves recruiting efforts need to change.

The survey saw less than 1% of respondents from the three ethnic groups cite the military from a list of careers they would be interested in pursuing, or which they would recommend to a young person.

Similarly, about 20% of respondents from each of the three groups said the military was the career they would be least interested in pursuing or recommending to someone else.

Overall interest in military careers low for Black, Latin-American and Filipino Canadians | National Post.

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Public service still shrinking, but signs show hiring picking up

2014/11/06 Leave a comment

PS_Hiring_2013-14Understandably, latest report focus on hiring after recent rounds of downsizing:

In its latest annual report, the Public Service Commission revealed signs the bureaucracy is coming out of a major downsizing and gearing up to hire. More jobs were advertised, more people applied and more were hired, moved and promoted within the bureaucracy than the year before.

“What we are now seeing in the data – and we started to see it turn around last year – is that the demand by departments for new hires is starting to go up. So we do anticipate that we will turn the corner on this and start to hire new graduates into permanent jobs in the coming year,” PSC president Anne-Marie Robinson recently told the Senate finance committee.

In fact, the commission has been active getting the message out that once the downsizing is completed, the government will recruit new talent.

Robinson said the public service is “changing” as it emerges smaller and leaner from the 2012 federal budget cuts, which reduced the number of employees by 10 per cent from March 2011.

But last year also saw the first increase in hiring and staffing, both of which had fallen every year for four years. Overall, hiring and staffing jumped 11.7 per cent over the previous year – a far cry from the hiring spree in the years before the Conservatives froze operating budgets and put the brakes on spending.

Relative little on employment equity, which awaits the more comprehensive Treasury Board report, but the above graph highlights the main trends for visible minorities and Aboriginal peoples.

For visible minorities, applicants are greater than labour market availability (LMA), appointments less. The report, unless I missed it, did not have any up-to-date figures on actual representation within the public service.

Public service still shrinking, but signs show hiring picking up | Ottawa Citizen.

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Ontario’s Teacher Diversity Gap

2014/11/03 Leave a comment

Interesting study on the gap between visible minority representation among teachers and the student population in Ontario and Toronto, including comparisons with the USA:

  • The demographic divide between teachers and students in Ontario and the Toronto CMA is large. In Ontario, racial minorities represent 26% of the population, yet make up only 10% of the 70,520 secondary school teachers and 9% of the 117,905 elementary school and kindergarten teachers. In the Toronto CMA, racial minorities represent 47% of the population, yet make up 20% of secondary school teachers and 18% of elementary school and kindergarten teachers.
  • The Teacher Diversity Gap is worse in Ontario and the Toronto CMA than for the United States overall. While Ontario and the Toronto CMA are doing a slightly better job of reflecting the diversity of the student population than states such as Ohio, we are also doing worse than other states, including New York, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The Teacher Diversity Gap for the United States as a whole is slightly smaller than the gap for Ontario and the Toronto CMA.
  • The Teacher Diversity Gap is no better for the Toronto CMA than it is for Ontario. The Teacher Diversity Gap in the Toronto CMA is .40, while the gap for Ontario is .38. This means that the demographic divide between teachers and students is just about the same for students in the Toronto CMA as it is for students in the rest of the province.
  • The gap could get worse as the population becomes more diverse. While we currently face a large Teacher Diversity Gap, the province is rapidly becoming more diverse. Statistics Canada data shows that racial minorities currently represent 26% of the Ontario population and 47% of the Toronto CMA population. Statistics Canada projects that by 2031 racial minorities could make up 63% of the Toronto CMA population. As such, without significant changes to the composition of the teaching population, the Teacher Diversity Gap may widen.

Previous  employment equity reporting provided much more detail (e.g, 2006 reports cited) compared to today’s high level overview limited to the Canadian public service and federally regulated sectors (banking, communications, transportation).

Combination of budget cuts and change in government priorities.

Ontarios Teacher Diversity Gap – TURNER CONSULTING GROUP INC..

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Apple Is Mostly White and Male, According to Its First Diversity Report

2014/08/14 Leave a comment

Hitech diversityNo surprise and in line with its competitors as above graphic shows (although its ads generally portray diversity well):

Apple, the latest tech company to reveal its workforce demographics, said Tuesday that its U.S. staff is 55% white, 15% Asian, 11% Hispanic and 7% black. Two percent of workers are multiracial, and another 9% did not declare their race.

In regards to gender, Apple’s global workforce is 70% male and 30% female. Within tech-related jobs specifically, the disparity is 80% male and 20% female.

Apple’s employee demographic trends are similar to those of other major tech companies, several of whom, like Google, Facebook and Twitter, have also recently released diversity reports. Like the other firms, Apple included in its report a public commitment to increase the diversity of its workforce.

“As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page,” Apple head Tim Cook said in a letter accompanying the figures. “We are making progress, and we’re committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products.”

In addition to race and gender, Cook said that Apple celebrates other types of diversity, such as people with disabilities as well as varying sexual orientations.

Time Magazine.

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eBay’s Surprising Diversity Figures | TIME

2014/08/07 Leave a comment

More on diversity within the tech industry, this time eBay:

The tech industry is notoriously dominated by white and Asian men. But eBay’s first diversity report shows that it employs more women, blacks and Hispanics than its peers.

Forty-two percent of eBay’s staff of 33,000 workers is female, beating out LinkedIn’s 39%, Yahoo’s 37%, Facebook’s 31%, Twitter’s 30% and Google’s 30%.

eBay also reported that 7% of its U.S. employees are black and 5% are Hispanic.

But even though eBay as a whole may be more diverse than many other tech companies — it also had a female CEO, Meg Whitman, from 1998 through 2008 — there is still a huge gender gap in terms of tech jobs and leadership roles: only 24% of eBay’s tech workers are women.

eBay’s Surprising Diversity Figures | TIME.

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Matt Gurney: Quotas have no place in our military

2014/05/22 Leave a comment

The predictable reaction to the story regarding revising Canadian Forces diversity targets downward (Canadian military hopes to cut hiring targets for women, minorities).

There is merit in the argument that the military recruiting base tends to be more rural and more white. But merit arguments sometimes also disguise unconscious biases and preferences. Having targets (I oppose quotas) ensures focus on what is a likely long-term challenge:

A more diverse military is a desirable goal, of course — albeit one that should be treated as completely secondary to the primary objective of fielding a competent force. And as Canada becomes increasingly diverse, the military naturally will draw recruits from a wider pool of applicants. But as it stands now, many recruits join to escape local economic difficulties in parts of the country that are less multicultural than our large cities, or to honour long family traditions of service. We owe all of them a fair chance and, of course, our thanks.

But we owe the country a properly trained and equipped fighting force, regardless of what it looks like. If someone is willing to put on the uniform and defend Canada and our values abroad, and meets reasonable definitions of fitness and suitability, that’s all that matters. Our soldiers defend the country, not just those who look like them.

Matt Gurney: Quotas have no place in our military | National Post.

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Canadian military hopes to cut hiring targets for women, minorities

2014/05/21 1 Comment

Sigh….

Currently, the military is expected to aim for these targets: females should make up 25.1 per cent of full-time military personnel and reservists; 11.7 per cent should be visible minorities; and 3.3 per cent should be aboriginals.

Those target numbers are lower than for other federal departments, in recognition of the unique nature of military service.

The Canadian Forces place well compared to many of Canada’s allies, particularly on the percentage of women in uniform. The military has also seen recent progress in the number of visible minorities and aboriginals joining up.

Yet it has never actually met its targets. Women currently account for 15 per cent of personnel in uniform, a number that hasn’t changed in several years, while visible minorities represent 4.2 per cent, and aboriginals 1.9 per cent.

…

The proposed targets, contained in a briefing note to Canadian Army commander Lt.-Gen. Marquis Hainse from February, are 17.6 per cent for women, 8.2 per cent for visible minorities, and 2.6 per cent for Aboriginal Peoples.

…

Canadian military officials have previously highlighted the importance of increasing diversity within the Canadian Forces given the country’s changing demographic makeup, which includes more visible minorities and a growing aboriginal population.

“The changing makeup of Canada’s population makes it mission critical that the (Canadian Forces) take proactive measures to be inclusive for men and women of all cultures,” rear-admiral Adam Smith wrote in 2011 when he was chief of military personnel.

Chantal Fraser, a retired lieutenant colonel who spent the last part of her 28-year career looking at employment equity in the military, is worried about the impact reducing the targets would have on the Canadian Forces and their connection to average citizens.

“If we reduce the goals, then they don’t have to strive as hard to reach them,” she said. “And we may end up in a situation where the Canadian military no longer reflects Canadian society. And that’s bad news no matter what country you live in.”

Fraser said the problem isn’t unrealistic targets; it’s that the Canadian Forces aren’t doing enough to recruit women, visible minorities and aboriginal people.

That includes measures to improve the work-life balance for women; focus recruitment efforts on the country’s three biggest cities for visible minorities and on the North for aboriginals; and showcase people from those communities who are already in the military.

Canadian military hopes to cut hiring targets for women, minorities.

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Canadian Public Service Commission studies on Employment Equity designated groups

2014/04/29 Leave a comment

Courtesy of the Community of Federal Visible Minorities (CFVM), summary of the findings of recent studies on employment equity hiring. Main findings:

  • Men who are members of visible minorities have greater chances of promotion than their comparison group, and women who are members of visible minorities have fewer chances of promotion than their comparison group;
  • Men and women with disabilities have fewer chances of promotion than their respective comparison groups;
  • Aboriginal men and women have similar chances of promotion than their respective comparison groups; and
  • Women who do not belong to another EE group have similar chances of promotion to men who do not belong to other EE groups.

As to perceptions of fairness:

  • Men with disabilities and men who are members of visible minorities have less favourable perceptions than their respective comparison groups;
  • Aboriginal men have similar perceptions to their comparison group;
  • Women who are members of visible minorities have less favourable perceptions than their comparison group;
  • Aboriginal women and women with disabilities have similar perceptions to their respective comparison groups; and
  • Men who do not belong to an EE group have less favourable perceptions than women who do not belong to another EE group

For the complete reports:

Statistical Study – Members of EE Groups: Perceptions of Merit and Fairness in Staffing Activities

Statistical Study – Members of EE Groups: Chances of Promotion

Appointments to the Public Service by Employment Equity Designated Group for 2012-2013 – Statistical Update

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Calgary Mayor Nenshi’s diversity problem

2014/01/28 Leave a comment

I am not sure that greater attention to employment equity means that each and every group will argue for parity. That hasn’t been the case at the federal level, and there is something out of whack when senior management, in any organization, is monolithic:

Albertans really are colour-blind, most of ’em. They can afford to be. The province is an affluent land of individualistic, relatively independent farmers, entrepreneurs and non-union workers. But the broaching of racial grievance is not vexing only to those who are racists simpliciter. When well-meaning people hear the mayor talk about how there are not enough women and minorities in the upper ranks of Calgary’s government, they know perfectly well that, as soon as it does recruit some women and minorities, questions about minority women will follow. And then individual ethnic groups will start agitating for parity. And, before long, everybody is plunging into a thicket of mutually irresolvable claims and ad-hoc affirmative-action programs, with no one ever explicitly mentioning “quotas,” while overall institutional quality is neglected.

This is not what the mayor is proposing, but then, no one ever proposes such a thing explicitly. Nenshi’s complaint about city hall is obviously valid on its face—and yet the validity is quite irrelevant to the fears it will tend to arouse.

Nenshi’s diversity problem – Blog Central, Canada, Colby Cosh – Macleans.ca.

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