Inclusiveness ... Or Exclusion?

"The targets are in place to address a historic and persistent under-representation in the program of individuals from the four designated groups as identified in the employment equity act: women, racialized minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and persons with disabilities."

Statement, Canada Research Chair program

 

"[Only a small number of positions are advertised with such exclusive criteria, as a way to help institutions meet their targets to ensure that we have representation."

"Men are not being barred from participating in the program."

Marie-Lynne Boudreau, director of performance, equity and diversity, Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, Canada Research Chair program

 

"On the surface, to the Canadian general public [this does] seem very discriminatory in the sense that it's reverse discrimination, right?"

"When [a hiring committee] they have an open call, other subjective factors, sort of overwhelm and hijack the actual qualifications needed."

"To me, what Canada's doing is to actually make it fair. People who have access to influence and resources and know how to make the system work for them -- that is not meritocracy."

Eddy Ng, Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business, Queen's University

The University of Waterloo campus in Waterloo, Ontario. Photo by Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press/File

The University of Waterloo recently posted a Canada Research Chair for climate change, water or future cities research in the faculty of environment. The posting restricts potential entrants for the position to anyone self-identifying as female, transgender, non-binary or two-spirit. In the faculty of engineering a  job notice lists the same exclusionary requirement. And to complete the trifecta, a second engineering position has opened singularly to "First Nations, Metis, Inuit/Inuk and those from other Indigenous communities across Turtle Island."

 

There was a time, not so long ago, when it was the other half of recognized binary humanity, women, who were being highlighted as disadvantaged against male applicants for university positions. Equity at that time was labelled 'affirmative action'. And at that, it was white men and women candidates for university positions. Then the search for equality extended to black candidates. And now it has moved to fully embrace all those whom liberal-progressives identify as the ignored, disadvantaged minority groups within society.

 

Initiated in 2000, the Canada Research Chairs program funds these positions to the tune of about $311 million annually with the intention of spurring science and research, finding the most suitable candidates to fill the chairs, individuals recognized for their outstanding professional capabilities in their areas of expertise. The intention is "to attract and retain a diverse cadre of world-class researchers, to reinforce academic research and training excellence". 

Latterly, the program set targets to increase representation of certain groups, to address a lack of diversity among the chairs; women and gender minorities to constitute 50.9 percent of all such Chairs across the entire program, with 22 percent visible minorities, 7.5 percent people with disabilities, and 4.9 percent indigenous, roughly corresponding to population statistics.

According to the latest information on the CRC program website, at October 2021, 40.9 percent of positions across the program were held by women and gender minorities, 22.8 percent by visible minorities, 5.8 percent by persons with disabilities and 3.4 percent by Indigenous  people. Men constitute a majority (54.2 percent) of Canada Research Chairs; the gender ratio persists within other designated categories. 

 

Human rights complaints arguing that white men were over-represented in the program to the detriment of those represented by protected groups spurred deadlines the universities must meet for diversity targets, extending to 2027. According to research out of the University of Saskatchewan, 82.4 percent of respondents agree that diversity is 'fairly' or 'very' vital to the workplace. This widespread belief aside, 59.8 percent of respondents feel demographics should not factor into hiring decisions. The focus should be on perceived merit, at risk of reducing workplace diversity.

There was a time, in the early quarter of the last century, in early years of the 1900s when universities practised strict quotas against admitting Jews to Canadian universities. Either as students and even more so, teaching positions. Jewish intellectuals found themselves persona non grata at Canadian universities until the 1930s when those restrictions began to ease. Jewish academics practising in the teaching profession were a rarity; a result of racial prejudice rife at the time. Exclusion then, inclusion now.

"Had we continued our discrimination against Jewish professors ... there would have been a significant deficit in the advancement of knowledge."

"Thankfully, we moved in the right direction against discrimination. But now, somehow, we've embraced this false notion that discrimination can be good and it simply cannot."

"In general when immutable characteristics become the bar by which someone is offered a job, well, of course, you're going to have people who are not as qualified."

"And, the thing that concerns me is ... it's suggesting that they could not make it on their own merit."

"This is the height of racism. This is an incredibly racist policy, to say that someone who was a person of colour could not compete on their own competency and merit."

David Millard Haskell, professor, faculty of liberal arts, Laurier University