Academic Qualifications DePrioritized at Canadian Universities

"In other words, 98 percent of academic postings ... directly or indirectly discriminated against non-minorities."

"Only two percent of vacancy postings did not contain any form of DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] ideology." 

"Our index measures the prevalence of exclusionary potential, but it does not prove for certain if discrimination has technically occurred."

"Should Canadian taxpayers fund public institutions that claim to serve the public interest but favour one race over another?" 

Aristotle Foundation report

 

What is scholarship all about? To favour the advance of the academically gifted, to credit their brilliance and bring a light to the world of knowledge? That, without doubt, speaks to the origins of institutes of higher learning; their original authentic search for the questing minds, to nurture and imbue them with the exposure their minds flourish within to the greater benefit of humanity in their natural inclination to guide the world to a better, more informed and empathetic place of civilized harmony under the canopy of refined intelligence. 

 

So, then,  how to explain, how to justify shutting the most qualified and academically gifted out with the contentious movement of racist empowerment in academia?

 

Receiving applicants who aspire yet lack the intellectual wherewithal to reach the heights of knowledge available to those whose thinking prowess is far superior, yet deliberately overlooked and shunned because they may belong to the perceived entitled class, to an ethnic/cultural grouping known for their logical and interpretive curiosity in the gaining of knowledge. Favouring instead those whose tradition, culture, heritage and genetic endowments are less generous in the learning virtues of academic inspiration.

 

A report has just been issued based on a study whose purpose was to define how many universities in Canada advertise employment in a number of categories which seek to fulfill 'diversity' quotas with the intention of bypassing the convention of hiring the most qualified candidates to fill advertised positions. Aristotle Foundation researchers selected 489 job positions posted by ten of Canada's universities. Of the total postings a mere dozen failed to contain some element of the search prioritizing candidates based on race, gender or sexual identity.

 

Since 2017, it appears that an acceleration of the prioritized diversity sought in faculty and staff has assumed greater emphasis with the policy more explicit; identity quotas established in all zones, from student admissions to hiring, to the granting of awards. Each and every applicant to University of Toronto, from maintenance technician to academic positions must complete a "diversity survey" to be considered. Race and "ethnocultural identities, gender identity, visible and invisible disabilities and sexual orientation", all under critical consideration. 

Universities have taken to restricting positions to specific identity groups; a 2024 computer science position, as example, at the University of Waterloo was open specifically to candidates "of a racialized minority". Following the guidance, as it were, of federal mandates under the Trudeau Liberal government which mandates federally funded Canada Research Chairs subject to stern identity quotas: 22 percent of positions must be chosen from among visible minorities; 50.9 percent must select scholars identifying as women, while 7.5 percent must go to candidates with disabilities. 

Samples for the research were based on ten Canadian universities, one representing each of the provinces. From 2023 forward, 50 sequential job postings from each institute resulted in 489 job posts -- from a health sciences librarian at University of Saskatchewan, to an assistant professor of economics at University of Toronto. Some area of the posting making reference to "diversity, equity and inclusion" was universal. Some of the university postings had minimal such requirements.

 

On the other hand, each posting by the University of Manitoba included the school's commitment "to the principles of equity, diversity & inclusion and to promoting opportunities in hiring, promotion and tenure for systemically marginalized groups". In other postings applicants were required to fill out a diversity survey explicitly stating that diversity characteristics were an "asset", or requiring an essay outlining the candidate's commitment to DEI.

 

Four universities posted at least one job making no mention of DEI; University of British Columbia, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia) and the University of Prince Edward Island. The report by the Aristotle Foundation spoke of the findings as a "reality check" on Canadian universities, with the warning that DEI policies were harming "individual merit, academic freedom and equality of opportunity". 

"The problem with diversity, equity, and inclusion, and this attempt to make everything exactly equal at the end and discriminate at the front end to do that, is you’re not looking at merit and qualifications the way that universities claim they are. Instead, you’re basically banning people from the position who don’t fit some irrelevant, non-changeable category."

"Now, 100 years ago, there was systemic racism. If you were Chinese, for example, you could not get into a white hospital. They had to set up their own hospital. The same with Jewish people in Toronto, which is why Mount Sinai Hospital was set up. But that was 100 years ago. Systemic racism has been outlawed in Canada since the 1950s. You still find individual cases of prejudice, but systemic racism as a policy, as a law, began to be abolished in places like Ontario in the early 1950s".

Mark Milke, founder/president, Aristotle Foundation on Public Policy