OLLO – Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination – February 6, 2023
Key Messages
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has zero tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind. However, that’s not enough – we must actively fight racism and continue to work tirelessly to foster a culture of inclusion, openness and respect.
IRCC organized a Department-wide anti-racism employee survey in November 2020. Shortly after, the Department procured a third-party organization to conduct employee focus groups in March 2021, in order to gain greater insight into the realities brought forward in the survey.
In October 2021, IRCC published the focus group report on Library and Archives Canada’s website to ensure that we stay accountable and transparent in our anti-racism efforts.
IRCC conducted a follow-up anti-racism survey in September 2022. Survey results were shared with employees on IRCC’s intranet site and were similar to those identified in the 2020 survey. Focus groups are currently in the planning stages and will take place in February 2023.
IRCC has taken a number of steps to make real and lasting change within the Department, to ensure our actions speak louder than our words. These include creating a full-time task force dedicated to guiding the Department in eliminating racism in all of its forms at IRCC. In addition, sector-level commitments have been established to hold the Department accountable for progress and change. These are listed on IRCC’s intranet web page for all employees to see. The Departmental Anti-Racism Value Statement is also posted on IRCC’s internet site.
IRCC has also established a three-year anti-racism strategy, which includes a transparency and accountability framework to measure progress against its anti-racism commitments.
The Department also established sub-committees, mandatory bias training, mentoring and sponsorship programs, leadership development programs for underrepresented groups, employee trust circles, a racial impact assessment tool for policy development, and diversity, equity and inclusion employee networks to empower cultural change in the workplace.
IRCC is also focused on targeted recruitment processes to help us meet higher representation levels, anti-racism training for leaders, hosting learning events for employees, and embedding anti-racism commitments into our leaders’ performance agreements.
IRCC is working to procure and conduct an Employment Systems Review to further our commitment to addressing systemic barriers and adhering to our obligations under the Employment Equity Act. We expect this engagement to be completed in the fall of 2023.
The Department is initiating a three-year hiring and retention strategy to address gaps in our workforce diversity to better reflect Canadian demographics.
IRCC has taken additional measures to ensure all existing managers complete the mandatory courses on unconscious bias, as a pre-requisite for obtaining their sub-delegated authority for staffing decisions. This new requirement has been in effect since April 1, 2022.
IRCC introduced evaluation criteria for competitive solicitations – promoting diversity now increases likelihood of being awarded contracts.
The Department developed an analytical methodology to review our service delivery models by identifying and analyzing varying outcomes for racialized populations to assess how bias impacts processing times and approval rates for Black populations from Africa and the Caribbean, especially for students. Similar reviews have been underway for the citizenship program using an anti-racism lens.
This new tool provides policy makers at IRCC with the understanding of how to analyze and interpret the impacts of bias in decision-making on racialized groups.
The Department continues to invest in data and research through surveys and focus groups with employees. These resources provide us with insight on how we are improving, and highlighting areas to focus on.
Supplementary Messages
IRCC has been using data from surveys and focus groups to make informed decisions on addressing organizational challenges related to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.
IRCC’s Anti-Racism Taskforce has been a strong guide in the Department’s approach to refining its people management strategy and service delivery practices, and aiding lines of business to conduct policy reviews with an anti-racist lens.
It is important to note that our work doesn’t stop at looking at the impacts of systemic racism on employees. We have also started to explore potential barriers in policy and program delivery. This reflection is happening internally, but we are also engaging external stakeholders on how to identify and address systemic barriers to ensure we consistently keep committed to quality service delivery for Canadians and our clients.
The Integrity Risk Management Branch (IRM) is responsible for identifying and addressing institutional bias in decision-making and risk management, including automation practices, across IRCC business lines, as part of IRCC’s Operations Sector Anti-Racism Commitments. IRM has developed a methodology to identify institutional bias and racism in IRCC’s Operations and Risk management activities including the following:
Institutional Bias and Racism Identification Method (IBRIM): a comparative, analytical methodology that consolidates statistical findings, immigration and risk trends, policy and program outcomes and socio-economic drivers to identify and analyse varying outcomes for racialized populations. This produces comparative case studies and recommendations to better improve program outcomes for Black populations. A case study of the Nigerian caseload was completed in October 2022.
Renewed Risk Management Framework: A baseline assessment of integrity management practices, opportunities & approaches that explores areas where there is an influence of bias in operational decision-making. It provides concrete actions to improve cross-sectional understanding of risk management and program integrity. A pilot assessment of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) was completed in 2022.
Anti-Racism Considerations for Risk Management within Digital Platform Modernization: A paper was developed that examines the risk of bias and racism within automation and proposes a way forward for the implementation of IRCC’s Digital Platform Modernization Phase 3.
