Recommendation for robust Employment Equity frameworks across Canada !!

[Colour of Poverty]

Colour of Change Network - we at Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change wish to reinforce and build on the recently released 61 Recommendations of the National Council of Canadian Muslims - shared prior to today's ( July 22, 2021 ) National Summit on Islamophobia in Canada. We would like to strengthen the section related to Going Beyond GBA+ in the Federal Public Service - by having recommendations 26, 27, 28 make clear reference to federal ( as well as parallel and consistent provincial, territorial and municipal legislative initiatives ) Employment Equity Act provisions - including appropriate faith-related and 2SLGBTQ+ provisions, extensions and expansions !

See - National Council of Canadian Muslims Recommendations at

- https://mk0nccmorganizadbkcm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Policy-Recommendations_NCCM.pdf

We recognize and understand that Canadians - and people generally - spend most of their social lives through gathering in four distinct spheres - in their homes ( often with their families ); in schools ( primary-secondary-post-secondary ); in their workplaces; and in their faith communities or places of worship. But other than providing for the needed and necessary regulatory, reactive and/or punitive measures and other safety and security driven policing interventions - it is only through schools and workplaces that it is appropriate that governments play active roles in structuring, guiding and regulating peoples learning and working lives.

Understanding that education is a very large and distinct area of needed concern and attention - we would wish to bring a particular focus to Canada's workplaces - to both build fair, equitable and inclusive workplaces and labour markets across this country - but even more importantly - to seize the opportunity to bring diverse individuals and groups together - with respect to faith/spirituality, ethno-racial backgrounds, 2SLGBTQ+ identities, persons living with (dis)abilities - so that they then have the opportunity to meet, engage, understand, embrace and befriend members of their diverse communities that they would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet - building equitable and inclusive communities from the ground up !

Toward this end we need strong Employment Equity legislation - federally, as well as provincially, territorially, municipally - frameworks that are -

- restored ( federally );

- comprehensive;

- expanded - Indigenous Peoples, peoples of colour, women, persons living with (dis)abilities AND 2SLGBTQ+ individuals;

- appropriately and consistently disaggregated in their application and implementation - including with respect to faith/spirituality diversity in Canada;

- adequately resourced;

- tracked, monitored, audited; AND

- enforced.

In this post-COVID-19 "Build Back Better" moment - with 100's of billions of dollars in physical and social infrastructure investments flowing - we have a once-in-a generation opportunity to make a titanic shift in moving this effort forward - by attaching employment equity related conditions and obligations to all such transfers and investments !!

The need is all too real - and the time is now - help make it happen !!

michael

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michael kerr
Coordinator
Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change
# 505 - 123 Edward St.
Toronto, Ontario  M5G 1E2  Canada
Phone - 416-966-3882
Fax - 416-971-6780
E-mail - kerr.m...@gmail.com

Web-site - www.colourofpoverty.ca
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