Internal federal public service report details racism in the Privy Council Office

Anja Karadeglija

An internal report from the federal public service released Monday says Black and racialized Privy Council Office employees experience racism and discrimination in the workplace.

“Black and racialized employees — through dozens of examples of racial stereotyping, microaggressions, and verbal violence — described a workplace culture where such behaviour is regularly practised and normalized, including at the executive level,” the report says. 

The Coalition Against Workplace Discrimination obtained the report using the Access to Information Act. It details barriers for employees of colour at the Privy Council Office, the administrative arm of government that serves the Prime Minister’s Office and cabinet.

The conclusions were based on group discussions and interviews with employees in 2021 and 2022.

It shows Black and racialized employees described being passed over for opportunities given to white colleagues, and cites the example of Black employees who said they had to intervene with managers who used the N-word “comfortably in their presence.” 

Meanwhile, managers expressed surprise that the N-word was a “greatly pejorative term for Black people,” the report states.

The coalition said Monday that the government made an attempt to implement recommendations in the report, but hasn’t gone far enough to address the disturbing findings.

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, president of the Black Class Action Secretariat, which leads the coalition, said at a press conference Monday many key recommendations from the report still haven’t been addressed. 

He noted the government hasn’t implemented equitable hiring practices, such as name-blind screening and third-party hiring.

“We are particularly concerned about the lack of accountability measures against leaders who were at the helm while widespread discrimination was a regular occurrence at the Privy Council Office,” Thompson said.

The release of the internal investigation comes as the government fights an ongoing class-action lawsuit that alleges around 30,000 Black civil servants lost out on opportunities and benefits that went to others due to their race, dating back to the 1970s. 

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked Monday about the report and whether the government will settle that lawsuit. 

“Racism and discrimination is never acceptable. It’s not acceptable anywhere in Canada, least of all inside our government,” she said.

The report states white employees and executives “detailed personal experiences and career-advancing opportunities that were in stark variance” from Black, Indigenous and other employees of colour.

White employees worked at the Privy Council Office for longer periods of time and “were clustered in permanent and higher-level positions,” the report shows. 

It cites examples from non-Black employees of colour who say they “observed anti-Black discrimination from managers and employees that had direct, negative impacts on the career progression of Black employees.”

Most of those employees “detailed a culture of whiteness at the executive levels and the ways in which a clear preference for whiteness is pervasive at PCO,” the report says.

Career stagnation was “evident,” the author said in the report, and “discussion of these experiences caused some employees to cry as they communicated an awareness of racism as a key motivating factor.”

Employees who encountered stagnation consistently earned high performance reviews, but saw white employees who trained with them advance above their level, the report says.

Fifty-three employees attended group sessions, 13 employees of colour took part in individual interviews, and the report also includes input from eight interviews with Black employees.

The report says most Black employees were “chastised or discouraged” from taking part in diversity, equity and inclusion work. 

It notes that when sessions focused on those themes were held, they were described by some employees as low-quality and inappropriate — including one session on diversity and communication led by an all-white team.

The Privy Council Office did not respond to a request for comment. 

Sharon DeSousa, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the report shows Black, Indigenous and racialized employees experience a very different public service than their white counterparts.

They are lacking the “same opportunities for career advancement, trapped in a revolving door of tokenism, brought into temporary positions to give the appearance of racial equity, then moving out without meaningful opportunities for advancement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2024.