A group of labour rights groups is calling for the dismissal of top officials in the federal civil service after an internal audit revealed a workplace culture of racial stereotyping, microaggressions and verbal abuse within the Privy Council Office (PCO).
The Workplace Anti-Discrimination Coalition, which is made up of several other groups representing public servants, including the Black Class Action Secretariat and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), released the internal report from the PCO on Monday, which it obtained through a freedom of information request.
The Public Employees Union said the audit and subsequent report, completed more than a year ago, showed what the union said was a deep-rooted culture of systemic discrimination, with Black, Indigenous and people of colour employees often hired to inflate diversity figures but not encouraged to speak up and hindered from advancing in their careers.
The report found that such discriminatory behaviour was “routine and normalised, including at senior management level”, that the PCO’s culture discouraged reporting of such incidents and that mechanisms for accountability “currently do not exist”.
Dozens of recommendations listed in the report have yet to be implemented, but they include “developing and implementing a Black-centered perspective within the PCO using best practices,” creating an anti-racism office or chief diversity officer position, setting clear department-wide guidelines, and improving data collection to monitor progress.
The PCO is Canada’s highest level of bureaucracy, covering 137 government departments and representing approximately 270,000 federal civil servants.
“We are particularly concerned about the lack of accountability measures for the leaders who were at the helm,” Nicholas Marcus Thompson, executive director of Black Collective Action, said at a press conference at the Capitol on Monday.
“Ultimately, we are witnessing a scenario in which those who caused harm are tasked with implementing the solution,” he added.
The report indicates that Black and other employees of color distrust PCO, saying the organization has placed an emphasis on “self-preservation, even dishonesty, at the expense of credibility.”
Asked about the report at a news conference in Toronto on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said “racism and discrimination will never be tolerated.”
“This is unacceptable behaviour anywhere in Canada, but especially within government,” she added.
CTV News has reached out to PCO for comment on the report but has not yet heard back.
PSAC national president Sharon DeSouza said the report makes clear that Black, Indigenous and people of colour experience “separate and unequal realities” in the federal civil service.
“(They) are not given equal opportunities for career advancement, they are trapped in token positions, they are put in temporary roles to give the appearance of racial equality, and then they leave without any opportunity for meaningful promotion,” DeSouza said.
The PCO audit, conducted by Rachel Zellers, a professor in the School of Social Justice at Saint Mary’s University, focused on the results of PCO’s “Safe Spaces Initiative.”
Of the Privy Council Office’s 1,200 employees, Zellers was able to interview only 58 as part of the audit, and of those, only 13 had experienced racial discrimination.
Zellers’ report, published by the Workplace Coalition Against Discrimination, noted that few employees of color had worked at PCO for more than a year, with most only staying there for a few months.
The professor also noted that while PCO data showed the number of black employees increased from 22 to 38 between March 2019 and March 2022 (around 3.9% of all staff, a higher proportion than the civil service as a whole), the data was “largely symbolic as it does not reveal anything about employment levels, length of tenure or employee experience”.
The slow progress has led the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) to call for the resignation of senior government officials, including PCO deputy secretary Nathalie Drouin, who has been in charge of the federal discrimination file since 2021, and assistant cabinet minister Matthew See.
“We are outraged that these discriminatory practices are tolerated. It is clear that significant structural reforms are needed to create a fair and equitable work environment,” CAPE President Nathan Prior said.
Coalition members believe there is political will in the federal government to combat racism, but say systemic barriers within the bureaucracy are preventing needed change.
“The report identifies corporate services as a major obstacle to solving discrimination – how can the leaders who have led the damage be responsible for the solution?” Thompson asked, saying public service leaders must take responsibility for the “status quo” and for allowing discrimination to go unchecked.
