A comfortable conversation about race
“It is the topic dominating the news waves and social channels, yet the silence in our workplace on this issue is deafening to me.”
“It is the topic dominating the news waves and social channels, yet the silence in our workplace on this issue is deafening to me.” That’s what Farahldine (Farah) Boisclair wrote in the opening of her email to employees a week following the murder of George Floyd. At the time, she was the Director of Recruitment at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and after days of facing silence at work and hurting quietly internally, she felt that she needed to say something. At the end of her email, she proposed a town hall, with the objective of listening to each other and to figure out how, as a team, they can make their workplace more supportive and inclusive.
Little did she know, this townhall idea for her team ended up reaching IRCC’s entire Human Resources Branch of approximately 400 employees. It also made its way to the offices of the department’s Deputy Minister Catrina Tapley and Associate Deputy Minister Caroline Xavier—the first Black DM in the public service, appointed in February of 2020. It wasn’t long before Farah began presenting to different audiences within the department. Soon after, the Deputies approached her to lead a new team that would zone in on, and identify where, barriers and racism may exist within the department, through people management, policies, practices, programs, and service delivery. Today, Farah is the lead of the anti-racism task force at IRCC, which was founded in July of 2020.
Anti-racism in our DNA
The goal of the task force is to identify racism, recommend strategies to go about tackling it, set metrics for success, and build capacity within the department to address these issues through awareness and education. It’s an undoubtedly challenging feat, but for IRCC, it’s heavily linked to their mandate. “Most of the people we deal with are racialized. We, as employees of the department, have to learn how to normalize these conversations about racism, think about bias and about how it affects our business,” Farah explains, “the long-term goal is to embed this mindset and an anti-racism lens into our DNA.”
“Recognizing barriers may come easier to those who are very system aware—especially if they’ve been affected by it—so it’s important for us to hear those perspectives.”
Currently, the task force is working on their strategic plan and are seeking input from stakeholders within the department. “We believe that the more we engage with folks, the more we’ll get ideas from untapped talent. Recognizing barriers may come easier to those who are very system aware—especially if they’ve been affected by it—so it’s important for us to hear those perspectives,” Farah says. Their strategy now is built on four pillars: to foster an equitable workplace culture, recruit a workforce that reflects Canada at all levels, ensure equitable policy and operations practices, and to prioritize leadership accountability at all levels.
May is Asian Heritage Month and Farah tells us, “there are conversations that need to be had on anti-Asian racism. It has always existed but with COVID we’ve seen a rise in incidents everywhere.” Farah reminds us that the problem doesn’t exclude us, “I’ve seen articles and heard about these acts of racism occurring in Ottawa, in Canada.”
At all levels
The key word here is “at all levels.” When I ask Farah in what ways she feels that the workplace has perpetuated racism, she replies, “it’s so complex and so deep—it’s everywhere.” She provides me with a couple of examples, the first being the way data used to be collected through the Public Service Employee Survey (PSES). “We ask employees every year like clockwork how they feel about the workplace and their leaders, how they feel they’re being treated and supported and the learning opportunities they are afforded. For a long time, we didn’t disaggregate that data,” she explains. As a result, the data collected through the survey in the past didn’t speak to the specific experiences of racialized groups, and it neglected the fact—as Farah states—that people experience the workplace in different ways. As of last year, it is now possible to disaggregate the PSES data, which is a step in the right direction.
Farah’s second example is the way we set and measure representation goals. She points out that we often look at representation from a wide lens, which creates many opportunities for bias to set in. She explains that from the overall perspective, it may appear that the representation goal has been met, but once you start breaking it down by different career levels (entry, mid, executive), you come to the realization that some groups are stuck. “You see clear inequities, people aren’t progressing at the same rates, not succeeding in staffing processes in the same way—peel away the layers and you really start to see the disproportionate impacts on people,” she elaborates, “to change this narrative, we have to set representation goals specific to all levels.”
In our differences is where beauty, knowledge, and strength lie
To say that the work Farah is doing is incredibly challenging, mentally exhausting, and emotionally draining is an absolute understatement—but I am grateful to her and the task force for continuing to forge ahead. I ask Farah if everyone she has talked to so far since her work on anti-racism began has been receptive, and she truthfully answered: not really. But she acknowledges that many are awakening to the realities of racism as they participate in more and more open conversations that prompt education and research and hear about the experiences shared by their colleagues—whether it be from being on the receiving end of racism, bearing witness to it, or recognizing mistakes made in the past that they have since learned from.
“Take a look around you and if everybody around you looks like you, comes from the same place as you, I’d challenge you to build relationships with all kinds of different people.”
It is no doubt difficult to understand an experience if you’ve never had it firsthand but being open minded and empathetic to others is the place to start. Farah reminds us that we’re all different, from one person to the next—whether it’s our ethnicity, where we grew up, what country we’re from, our values, or our beliefs. She emphasizes that there’s so much beauty in that, “once you start to get to know people, you can learn so much.” Farah also encourages us to reflect on ourselves: “take a look around you and if everybody around you looks like you, comes from the same place as you, I’d challenge you to build relationships with all kinds of different people.”
The “R(ace)” word
“Consider a racialized person’s path. Growing up in Canada, a lot of us were the only racialized person in the classroom, in the ballet class, on the team—we’re always the different person. For a lot of folks, they’ve been uncomfortable all their lives, so if you’re uncomfortable now, imagine a lifetime of uncomfortable.”
One of the big things Farah has heard in the townhalls is the concept of fear, specifically the fear in speaking up. Often, people are afraid of saying the wrong thing, or receiving negative reception from their colleagues, but Farah counters this: “if you can’t get past the fear, you can’t get to doing something about it.” Standing up for someone is always worth it. Farah adds another important perspective, “consider a racialized person’s path. Growing up in Canada, a lot of us were the only racialized person in the classroom, in the ballet class, on the team—we’re always the different person. For a lot of folks, they’ve been uncomfortable all their lives, so if you’re uncomfortable now, imagine a lifetime of uncomfortable.”
On the other hand, for racialized people, the fear stems from feeling silenced, having their voice be dismissed, or worse, having their personal experience be questioned and challenged. While Farah doesn’t shy away from talking about race now, it hasn’t always been this way, “I understand it completely,” Farah empathizes, “I got to a point in my career where I didn’t talk about race because of how distrustful I grew over time.” We talk about the important fact that for racialized individuals, everyone is at different points in their journey. Not everyone is ready or willing to speak about their experiences and that must be respected. For racialized people, speaking out comes at a great risk and there is a lingering fear of losing one’s job or not being extended on a contract. “The playing field is not the same,” Farah points out. But now, Farah says she’s seen a lot of people, including herself, find their voices—she’s seen the feeling of hope, re-ignited. “Of course, it’s a shared responsibility across all spectrums, but this time around, I really believe that it’ll be through the support of our White colleagues, friends, and family, our allies and advocates—as the majority group—that we’ll be able to make real meaningful change,” Farah states.
Farah’s “Let’s talk racism” townhall has reached 6,000 employees at IRCC, and she continues to conduct presentations and townhalls by request, alongside her Associate Deputy Minister, Caroline Xavier. At the end of our interview, Farah concludes with two things: first, she gives a special shoutout to the Black Employee Network at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat for the value they have added to the workplace. Second, she reiterates what Sandy Hudson, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada had said at an all-staff Farah had attended: “she told us to never give up, she said you’re going to want to quit because it’s so complex and so heavy, but just to get back on, because change is possible. You have to believe change is possible to be effective. Don’t give up.”
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