Over the past few weeks, I have felt the southerly cold wind creeping up on The Great White North, bringing doubt amongst equity-deserving groups and their allies. Even our pending elections seem to signal a seismic shift from the commitment to build representative organizations – none more so than within the Federal Public Service (FPS).  It begs the question: Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on its way out?

In 2021, a guttural scream – and much effort – followed Ian Shugart’s call to action. Shugart, Clerk of the Privy Council and a tempered radical (someone who works within an organisation while challenging the status quo in a constructive way), called for an end to racism against Black peoples, Indigenous peoples and other racialized peoples. 

Then came Dr. Rachel Zellars’ report. A Study of the Black Executive Community in the Federal Public Service presented a picture of utter madness within the FPS and the shameful treatment of Black executives. It provided a second wind to the fight, after the emergence of the Federal Black Employee Caucus and the Black Class Action lawsuit. “Whiteness” was faced with the choice of obfuscating or coming to terms with what all of us already knew. 

So the current angst over the status of DEI is palpable and justified. 

I recognize that DEI is personal. For most practitioners, this work is grounded in racialised and marginalised people’s desire – and inherent right – to be seen and honoured as the full human beings they are. The perspectives and experiences of practitioners and allies – more specifically, the physical, mental, and emotional toll of engaging in this work – merited, and continue to merit, a singular focus. 

The work can also lead to burnout. Practitioners pay an emotional tax and trauma from being immersed in work that impacts their own identities as well as the daily emotional toll: being personally subjected to microaggressions, discrimination, inequities, and/or violence, hearing similar stories from others and needing to manage the frustration, anger, and other emotions that result.

But fear not, my fellow dreamers. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are here to stay.  DEI may shift label, but it will not disappear. A rose by any other name is still a rose. The reason is simple: the fundamentals have not changed.

Diversity is a fact. It exists. Inclusion is a paradigm (a way of thinking and being that impacts action). It differs from a culture of “integration” and “assimilation”. But the most fundamental part of DEI was always the “E” – Equity.

Equity is the legal means (Dr. Martin Nicholas rightly refers to it in Canada as Substantial Equality) to achieve fairness. Equity is guaranteed under Article 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Unlike the US and its constant battle regarding the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, this debate is settled in Canada, as our Charter rests within the 1982 Constitution Act.  Every province has a version of a human rights act/code. Federally- regulated employers are subject to the 1986 Equal Wages Guidelines and now the Pay Equity Act.  Anti-harassment rights have now been enshrined in health and safety laws, as violence in the workplace. We still have human rights commissions (albeit ineffective and failed institutions). We have Standing Senate Committees on Human Rights. And we have a political dynamic that despite the rhetoric around a leitmotiv, saw one of the biggest gains in our struggle achieved during the Mulroney years (1984-1993): the Employment Equity Act. 

Even the existence of the FPS Public Service Commission (established in 1901) serves as a reminder that unlike the US, politicians cannot direct the appointment of public servants, except where allowed by law. Killing DEI would mean dismantling the preceding. It can’t be done. 

But forget for a moment the legal argument. There is also an economic imperative. In approximately 10 years, close to 40% of Canadians will be non-white in colour and non-Caucasian in race. The Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, stated: A more inclusive economy is a bigger economy, a more prosperous economy with more room to grow without creating inflationary pressures. Indeed, a paper published in Econometrica finds that 50 years of discriminatory employment practices in the United States have cost that economy up to 40 percent of its productivity and output. Case closed. 

But it is time to pivot!

The understanding – and in some cases, the practice – of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion did drift from its original mandate. One could even say it’s been hijacked. Depending on who was loudest, DEI became “wokeness”;  DEI became “cancel culture”; DEI became hypersensitivity.  

In addition to a lack of understanding of restorative justice in dealing with conflictual situations, real harm has also been done by individuals deciding they are qualified to be “diversity consultants” based solely on their lived experience. A practice steeped in knowledge, skills and professional experience is demeaned when people lacking the qualifications decide to set up shop and peddle their ignorance.  

DEI was never about protecting individual fragilities. DEI is meant to improve business/government services or programs by building on the unique talents of employees’ innate strengths, skills, personality, attitude, life experience and virtues. The agent of this change, the driver of the process, is the equitable leader. 

DEI practitioners need to become savvy business practitioners. We need to demonstrate that DEI is about increasing the bottom line, winning an election, building a cohesive society, effectively delivering services and programs, maximizing human equity capital, winning by reducing legal liabilities, and building the intercultural competence of leaders.