Harper, Kenney, Day – not just turning back the clock.

Posted on | July 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

23 July, 2010 – We heard yesterday about the review being undertaken by the Harper government into Employment Equity. A lot is being made of the ‘shock” and “concern’ felt by Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, after reading the account by Sara Landriault, who sought a job in the public sector but was turned down. Landriault, who is Caucasian, applied for an administrative assistant’s job in the federal ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. She was turned down because the job was only open to members of Indigenous People and People of Colour.

Minister Kenney was apparently so taken aback by this incredible turn of events that, after reading Landriault’s email (imagine that! one email and his eyes flew open at the astounding injustice white folks suffer at the hands of Indigenous People and People of Colour) that he contacted Minister Day who promptly ordered a review of the blasted legislation.

Oh my! I’m thoroughly impressed by the swift action to help the sister. Isn’t that the kind of action required to help Canadians? Yes it is! … if you’re white.

The Ministers (and the Prime Minister) seem to leap quickly into the breach to help when it is Caucasians who need the help. Abousfian Abdelrazik, Omar Khadr Abdullah Almalki and Bashir Makhtal all still need help from their own government, which refuses to act. Are they all white? No. Are they brown folks? Yes. Are they Muslim? Why yes, yes they are!

Some history
Let’s back up just a bit. Employment Equity came about in Canada as a result of the 1984 Abella Commission, presided over by Judge Rosalie Abella. The report coming out of that commission resulted in the Employment Equity Act in 1986 (and later ammended in 1995). The body designated to enforce the Act was the Canadian Human Rights Commission. It’s no coincidence that Justice Abella didn’t call it by it American name, Affirmative Action, as the term had been so excoriated and sullied by right-wing attacks down south that she thought it would suffer prejudgement. Instead, she coined the term “Employment Equity”, a term she thought might escape an American fate. She was wrong!

Justice Abella thought she was doing a good thing – the Canadian thing:

“The purpose of this Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person shall be denied employment opportunities or benefits for reasons unrelated to ability and, in the fulfilment of that goal, to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment experienced by women, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities by giving effect to the principle that employment equity means more than treating persons in the same way but also requires special measures and the accommodation of differences. (Employment Equity Act 1995, c. 44, via Wikipedia)

She was moved to act in this way because of the gross discrimination against all the four groups mentioned in the Act: Indigenous People, People of Colour, Women and Disable People (youth and LGBTQQ people are not mentioned, nor were they included in subsequent revisions!)

Have they really?
While it may be argued that women have more than achieved equity in the public service, the demographics are sadly lacking (anyone know what the breakdown is?). We don’t really know how may of the women are Caucasian, do we? Or how many Indigenous or People of Colour. The POINT of the legislation is that there weren’t enough of the designated groups represented in the federal civil service and the Act was going to try and address that.

Here’s an April 2010 commentary from everyone’s favourite right-wing rag, The National Post as a bit of history to the thing. In it, all the crusty arguments are dusted off and made shiny again. “The hypocrisy of employment equity has always been that it replaced an alleged systemic discrimination — hard to see or quantify — with overt discrimination against mostly white, able-bodied men.” This is just a sampling of what they trot out as truth – and what Kenney, Harper and Day are now using as ammo in their attack on Employment Equity. One has only to read this article to understand where all the future justifications for trashing the Employment Equity Act will be coming from.

 

It is interesting that Kenney and Stockwell Day, President of Treasury Board moved so quickly to hold a review of this legislation.

“I was very concerned to read the report of a position only being open to people from an identifiable group,” said Kenney. “All positions should be on the basis of equality of opportunity and merit.” “While we support diversity in the Public Service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity,” said Minister Day.‬

Cynical words indeed. The Tories, through these two ministers, are

Whitelash
White backlash (also known as whitelash) has been defined as “backlash by white racists against black civil rights advances” (The Free Dictionary). Ever since the end of the Civil War in the United States, racist whites have seethed, simmered and boiled over the preferential treatment they saw as being given to others who had traditionally been on a lesser level than they. They just couldn;t stand to think those they had denigrated were now on an equal footing (such as it was back then). Those very strong currents went underground and started expressing themselves finally with overt anger against what was perceived to be advantageous treatment of all except white males.

The primarily white Tory caucus (and their primarily White supporters) can certainly be counted as part of the grouping of people who have felt a resentment against what they see as the preferential treatment. These are the people who get angry when the term “People of Colour” is mentioned and angrily expostulate that “I’m a person of colour – I’m white!”

Mike Harris and his gang of thugs (many of whom have migrated to the federal level) really started the ball rolling in Canada by abolishing and demolishing any legislation seen as progressive. After wreaking havoc in Ontario and finally getting thrown out, they got into power and are now able to cumswap their venom at a national level with all the other Whitelashers. It seems to be having an effect. A Globe and Mail poll (as of the writing of this article) showed 80% of respondents in favour of reviewing the Employment Equity Act.

The move to review the Employment Equity Act has already polarised Canadians, as a quick look at tweets on the popular microblogging site Twitter shows.

Other motives?
What are the Conservatives really up to? We know that whenever an election comes around, right-wingers bring up the hot-button issues – do immigration, abortion and gun control sound familiar? So why are the Tories bringing up a very controversial issue now? Can there be an election on the horizon – say, around September? Are they testing the waters to see if their hot-button issues will gain them a majority government? We shall see in fairly short order.

It would be an easy thing to turn back the clock. Harper, Kenney, Day and all the Tories and their ilk are not just turning back the clock – they are smashing the crap out of it!

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Take some action: a Facebook group has just started up. Join it.
If you have a Twitter account, start tweeting (hashtag #employmentequity
If you have a blog, start blogging the hell out of it so you can be found on an internet search.
PSAC has posted a very cogent response. Please read it.

 

(Read articles on the issue at Canoe, Globe and Mail, another Globe and Mail article, and the Treasury Board Secretariat.

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A final note: a little more that an hour after I posted this (unfinished and unpublicised) post, Sara Landriault left a comment on the article “without a review I’m still being left to tell my children than racism still lives alive and well in our own government in the year 2010! Why can’t we find a middle ground and have a true equal opportunity employer.”

 

While I may find it perturbing, it also seems that she is trolling the internet trying to insinuate her viewpoint into everything opposing the review. I have posted her comment, but also invite others to oppose her!

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