Ottawa backs listing Black and LGBTQ workers under Canada's workplace equity laws
Labour minister will present findings of a task force review of the workplace law
The federal government says it supports listing Black and LGBTQ people among groups facing systemic workplace barriers under the Employment Equity Act, CBC News has learned.
The Liberal government is backing the legislative change after a task force report recommended the move.
A source told CBC News earlier on Monday that Ottawa "broadly supports" that recommendation and others from a task force that reviewed the legislation. The government made an initial commitment Monday to modernize the act, the source said.
Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan and the task force chair, McGill University law professor Adelle Blackett, presented the committee's findings outside the House of Commons foyer on Monday.
The stated purpose of the 1986 Employment Equity Act is to knock down employment barriers marginalized communities face. It identifies four groups that face additional barriers in the workplace: women, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities.
Decades after the law's passage, it is "startling to see how unrepresentative some employment remains across Canada," the report states.
The task force recommends that Black workers comprise a separate group under the Employment Equity Act, instead of falling under the label of "visible minority." Statistics Canada says 1.5 million people in Canada reported being Black in 2021. The Black population accounts for 16 per cent of the racialized population and 4.3 per cent of the overall population.
"Many Canadians may only recently have learned that slavery existed in Canada," reads a section of the task force's report, obtained by CBC News before its release. "The case for a distinct Employment Equity Act category specifically for people of African descent is rooted in part in the legacies of slavery.
"The history of segregation — in service provision, housing, schooling and employment — is also not well known in Canada."
The task force cites Census Canada data which shows that Black workers tend to be overqualified for their jobs, work in low-level occupations and earn less money compared to non-racialized Canadians of the third generation or later.
The task force also recommended that LGBTQ workers comprise a new group under the law. One million people in Canada identify as LGBTQ and they account for four per cent of the total population.
A 'disturbingly recent history' of persecution
The task force report says LGBTQ workers have endured a "disturbingly recent history" of persecution. They were demoted or forced to resign for engaging in same-sex relationships, says the report.
"The Government of Canada has acknowledged and apologized for the fact that throughout the Cold War Era, from the 1950s through to the early 1990s in Canada, federal government employees faced a systematic campaign literally to purge them from the federal public service," the report says.
The task force also is proposing replacing the terms "Aboriginal Peoples" and "members of visible minorities" with "Indigenous Peoples" and "racialized people" in the legislation.
The senior government source told CBC News that the "first step" the government will undertake is further consultation with affected communities, unions and employers on how best to implement the task force recommendations. Then, the Liberals will introduce legislation.
The task force report notes that women remain a group facing barriers that require removal. But it cites claims that progress with workplace equity has tended to benefit white women more than Indigenous or other racialized women.
"Early employment equity implementation has tended to focus on including women as a category without paying sufficient attention to diversity within the category of women," the report says. "The need to approach the category of women in a disaggregated and intersectional manner was stated poignantly by many of the stakeholders who appeared before our task force."
Ottawa announced the employment equity task force review in 2021. Its 12 members consulted Canadians, employer and worker organizations, civil society groups, experts and public sector representatives on modernizing the employment equity legislation that applies to all federally regulated workplaces.
More than 1.3 million people are employed in federally regulated industries and workplaces — about six per cent of Canada's workforce.
Among other recommendations, the task force says parliamentary employees and public sector workers who operate abroad should be covered by the Equity Act.
Penalties too low, report says
Since the murder of George Floyd in U.S. police custody in 2020, the use of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training and practices has increased in workplaces. But the report said EDI should not eliminate the need for robust legislation.
"Voluntary measures alone will not work to bring equity to Canadian workplaces," it said.
The report says that penalties for violating the act are too low and are rarely levied.
"Our task force was informed that only four employers have ever received a notice of assessment of a monetary penalty," the report says. "We learned that the last penalty was issued in 1991, which is also when the largest penalty was issued — $3,000.00.
"Someone needs to be making sure that reasonable progress is actually occurring, with a view to achieving and sustaining employment equity that is properly resourced and effectively structured to avoid incentivizing non-compliance. Employment equity must not be sacrificed to wishful thinking."
The task force calls on the federal government to establish an independent equity commissioner who would report to Parliament.
The commissioner would take over tasks from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, whose "tiny" employment equity division can't keep up with the oversight work, the report says.
The commissioner should have a separate budget, guaranteed in legislation, that reflects the number of employers in federally regulated sectors.
"It is time to break out of the idea that equity work should be done on a nickel and a dime," the report says. "If we are committed to championing employment equity in this global moment of rising intolerance, if we understand how critical substantive equality is to our workplaces, our economy as a whole and our identity as Canadians, we must show it."
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from features on anti-Black racism to success stories from within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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