READING THE ROOM — Years of tall talk from Ottawa about its anti-racism strategy have translated into easy, make-work projects that have achieved little, a recently disclosed public opinion research report reveals.
— Tick tock: It’s been two years and one federal election since IAN SHUGART, former clerk of the Privy Council, sent a letter telling deputy ministers and the heads of federal and separate agencies to get serious about anti-racism, equity and inclusion. — Insight that C$99,779 buys: In December, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) enlisted Pollara Strategic Insights to conduct six interviews and 15 two-hour focus groups. The firm booked virtual time with employees at various levels with responsibility for a range of files. Minister SEAN FRASER headed the department at the time the contract was awarded. The goal was to understand how racism is experienced within the department and to uncover what employees think about management’s handling of it. The March report also tried to solicit ideas about policy change. Some findings and highlights from Pollara’s interviews with 62 employees: — Employees want an independent, external body to probe complaints: “We help people leave their countries and get protection within Canada, and within IRCC we can’t even get that protection. We put our careers and salaries on the line [if we decide to report].” — Confidence in the department is undermined by the perception that it’s an old boys’ club: “[The people in positions of power] all have similar ways of speaking, similar backgrounds. Where they went to school. It’s that Franco-Canadian, Laurentian elite, immersion school thing. It seems like a club that we are not a part of, and we don’t know how to get in. It’s a government-wide issue but at IRCC we should be better, because we are bringing in immigrants.” — Consultants don’t always abide by the department’s anti-racism values: “I’m shocked at the things that have come out of consultants’ mouths. There is no proper vetting process for consultants.” — WFH is considered an escape: “Working from home was like erasing my exposure to all these daily microaggressions. Having that out of my work environment has helped me. But now, when people bring up their concerns, all they get [from management] is this media line saying we are committed to equity instead of saying IRCC gets it.” — It creates disillusionment when “known offenders” in foreign postings soar without accountability or consequence: “Being a Black person here is an extreme sport. I kid you not. We are not protected.” Interview participants with experience in foreign postings said they witnessed managers mock the accents of locally engaged staff — either asking them to repeat things or pretending not to understand. Also on the record: IRCC employees claiming they’d witnessed leaders express “overt disdain and even hatred for people from certain countries and for immigrants to Canada.” — Double standard in immigration policy for Ukrainian refugees: One employee said decisions were “flawed and racialized people saw it immediately.” “To open the doors and just say come on in … that has never been done before. Not in Yemen, not in Syria...” “When I was onboarding, and I saw the approval rates from different countries and the differential in willingness to support arriving Afghans versus Ukrainians ... I was expecting there to be a difference. I am not naïve. But it’s the extent of the difference that struck me.” — What’s next: One employee urged the department to address racism before biases become entrenched in automated processes. “Our aggressive output targets have us moving fast towards technological solutions. Once it gets embedded in that machine and it's running, good luck trying to get it modified.” Fraser’s 2021 marching orders made no mention of prioritizing guardrails for technological solutions. The prime minister’s new mandate letters are expected to drop around the time of next week’s Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown. | 
