The last post on this blog was entitled “CBC’s farcical
Diversity and Inclusion plan” – when it comes to employing people with
disabilities. Since Canada instituted
the Employment Equity Act , more than 30 years ago, federal corporations (like
the CBC) and federal contractors have been required to establish and meet
employment goals for women, visible minorities, indigenous peoples and
Canadians with disabilities. It seems a reasonable expectation for a
corporation that receives over a billion dollars annually of federal government
funding. The CBC has consistently failed to meet even the most modest of goals when
it comes to disabilities.
The MediaPerspective post prior to the one mentioned above
was published on November 18th 2017 and appeared under the title
“CBC’s Persistent Bigotry.” It chronicled my experience and observations of
Canada’s publicly funded broadcaster’s resistance to employ Canadian with
disabilities in anything but the most menial of tasks over the past 3 decades.
The CBC published a document called INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY: 2015-2018) PLAN.
It begins with a message CBC President and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix, Executive
Vice President of English Services, Heather Conway, and Executive Vice
President of French Services, Louis Lalande. Their message stated that the
‘Inclusion and
Diversity’ document is the latest effort in a 5 year
strategy they refer to as A Space for Us All. They stated the strategy “aims to be the public space at the heart of our conversation and
experience as Canadians.” These most senior executives continued:
“Inclusion and Diversity
(I&D) is integral to achieving this vision, as it highlights the importance
of including a range of faces, voices, experiences and perspectives in our
content and workplace. The public broadcaster must be relevant to and
representative of the population it serves.” [my emphasis added]
I found these comments reassuring in theory,
disappointing in practice. Messrs. Lacroix and Lalande and Mme Conway, as the
most senior executives, may have such a commitment but somehow it hasn’t filtered
down to managers, executive producers, casting directors or others who actually
do the hiring. The Inclusion and
Diversity Plan illustrates the utter failure to meet targets to hire and retain
people with disabilities, across various every levels of the CBC. I am left to conclude that a persistent
bigotry against the idea of disabled employees is still firmly embedded in the workings of CBC beneath the President and Vice-Presidents. This absence of disabled employees
persists despite a number of training and networking activities being
developed. These include:
· a development workshop for diverse content creators,
providing participants with the tools and resources they need to develop their
own pitches for original programming. Has the workshop actually been
developed? If so, who developed it? Were the developers of the workshop experienced with issues and barriers faced by Canadians with disabilities. How often was the workshop presented to CBC
staff? What follow-up occurred to reinforced the content of the workshop?
· A yearly networking event that focuses on facilitating
connections between emerging diverse talent, experienced creators, decision
makers and our production partners. Was there only one yearly networking event? Did
“facilitating connections between emerging talent” include emerging talent with
disabilities? If so, how many? Were emerging talented people with disabilities actually connected with experienced creators and decision and/or the CBC production
partners? If so, how many? What were the results?
· A working group on diversity in drama series, bringing
together all levels of the industry. Was the working group established? If
so, who established it and who makes up this working group? Was this group the
Joint Employment Equity Committee (JEET) mentioned on page 6? How active and
proactive are they at bringing together all levels of the industry to benefit disabled
actors, broadcasters, writers, film-makers, etc.
The preamble of the Inclusion and Diversity Plan
mentions that there have been a number of CBC-led initiatives targeting
specific communities, such as:
Ø “A new learning journey at Radio-Canada to encourage the
hiring of more Aboriginal employees within News and Current Affairs and
similarly, at CBC, we are working with our Aboriginal unit and leadership
across the country to improve recruitment and internship opportunities.” Excellent! Was the same
thing done to encourage hiring employees with disabilities? Is there a disabilities unit at CBC similar to the Aboriginal
unit? If not, why not?
Ø “Coordinated, multiplatform programming for targeted vents,
such as our [CBC] initiatives surrounding Black History Month.” This is good in the area
of visible minorities. Did the CBC give similar attention to the International
Day of Persons with Disabilities? Did coordinated multi-platform programming happen
for Canadians with Disabilities?
If the aim of the CBC is to be relevant and
representative of Canada’s population, then that should be reflected not only
in their programming but also in their own workforce. According to Statistics
Canada, nearly 14 percentage of Canada’s population over 15 years of age have
disabilities. The targets and goals for CBC employees with disabilities
should reflect this. By extension, a
similar representation of Canadians with disabilities should be reflected in News,
Current Affairs and dramatic programming, including on-air presence.
Page 5 of the I&D Plan states, under the title
PROGRESS ACHIEVED, that CBC’s human resources department (called People and
Culture) focuses on “attracting,
recruiting and developing a diverse workforce.” Apparently they have a team
to help foster a culture of inclusion. (I can hardly wait until they
start!) They claim, “The Corporation’s workforce became increasingly
diverse over the last three years, as did the Canadian population.” Nice
words, but “the Plan” later confessed that:
“Aboriginal peoples and
persons with disabilities – saw marginal increases in representation. However,
important representation gaps remain in those two groups. Barring a concerted recruitment and hiring effort, existing gaps for
three out of four designated groups may remain.” [My emphasis added]
It seems that not much progress was actually achieved.
What sort of
review and adaptation of the plan has occurred since 2015 to
improve this disappointing reality? What
response did JEET have to improve recruitment of employees with disabilities?
Table 2 – WORKFORCE ANALYSIS BY EMPLOYMENT EQUITY
OCCUPATIONAL GROUP, to 31 December 2014, reveals employment levels for
employees with disabilities:
Senior Managers, middle and other managers = 1.3%
Professionals = 1.4%
Semi-professionals and technicians = 2.3%
Supervisors = 0%
Administrative and Senior clerical = 0%
Skilled crafts and trade workers = 0%
Clerical personnel = 2.7%
Intermediate sales and services = 0%
Semi-skilled manual workers = 0%
Other sales and service personnel = 0%
The Corporation's employees with disability across Canada represent a
mere 1.7% of their workforce. Perhaps a
“concerted recruitment and hiring effort” is needed.
2016 EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ANNUAL REPORT PRESENTED BY
CBC/RADIO-CANADA TO EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CANADA (LABOUR PROGRAM):
In this latest document to the federal government, more current information is
presented. There’s little improvement, after the smoke and mirrors of the document are cleared away. It’s designed to cast the CBC’s dismal performance in the best
possible light. The report stated that
CBC/Radio-Canada increased its representation rate in all designated groups
during 2016. Wonderful! Then they revealed that the results for the four
designated groups under the Employment Equity Act: (Women, visible minorities,
indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities.)
Women fared best representing 57.2% of new hires and
55% of promotions for 2016. Visible minorities also fared fairly well
representing 19.1% of new hires, which CBC claimed was above their
representation rate. Disabilities represented 2.3% of new hires.
Keep in mind that any minuscule increases in disability
hires were for one year of a 5 year strategy. This should be viewed in the
context of more than 30 years of the
Employment Equity Actbeing in force! By now, their workforce should resemble and represent
the population (see footnote #1 of this post).
A subset within CBC’s A Space For Us All
strategy is necessary that focuse on disabilities. Begin by increasing a
nation-wide on-air presence of people with disabilities. Role models and
examples are needed to inspire young people with disabilities to consider
broadcasting and acting. In television and dramatic programming visible disabilities
should be purposely cast for the same reason. Other strategies are included in
Footnote #2.
Although not included in employment equity targets, there must also be a general openness within the CBC to
contracting seniors to developing and presenting programming to and for issues impacting seniors,
including disability that increases with age.
According to the 2016 federal census 16.9% of
Canada’s population are 65 or older. If representation and inclusion are as important to the CBC as they claim, they should have about that much programming
dedicated to issues impacting seniors – including increasing disability with
advancing age.
All of this ties back to something I quoted at the
beginning of this post that CBC’s President and Vice Presidents of English and
French Services said: “The public broadcaster must be relevant to and
representative of the population it serves.” Indeed it must. But it requires a
significant shift in CBC’s corporate culture and collective mindset to actively
embrace the inclusion of people with disabilities across the organization, at
every level. Under-representation (or absence) of employees with disabilities
across the spectrum of CBC, News and Current Affairs and programming cannot
continue. The problem is systemic.
While I was preparing this post I received an disheartening
email from CBC’s Values and Ethics Commissioner. She wrote, “The allegations in your email
are broad ones. If you have a specific complaint regarding the behavior of one
of our employees, please indicate the nature of the complaint you want to make
and send us specific details.” She doesn’t get it! The Commissioner of
values and ethics does not understand that the problem is not with a person per se -- the problem systemic. And that involves corporate values and ethics at a fundamental level. I am not pointing at an individual. I am
accusing the CBC of a long-standing and continuing anti-disability prejudice.
The CBC needs to change to reflect the reality of our Canadian mosaic that
includes people with disabilities as integral, contributing and valued members of society
and the Corporation.
Words like diversity and inclusion
ring hollow if they are not backed up with action and do not reflect in the
numbers.
Mark Davis Pickup