No end in sight to diversity quotas
Canadian universities, at the direction of the federal Liberal government and the research granting agencies for which it’s responsible, have made race- and sex-based discrimination a matter of everyday business. And they don’t seem to have a plan to pare it back.
Take the president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Ted Hewitt, who attended the House of Commons committee on science and research last Thursday for its study on post-secondary funding. Under his organization’s watch is the administration of the Canada Research Chairs Program, which is supposed to provide prestigious multi-year grants to highly competitive researchers across Canada. Only, it can hardly be called competitive, as the program is bound by strict diversity quotas.
For example, the current opening for a Canada Research Chair in physics (specifically, quantum sensing) at the University of New Brunswick, which has been vacant for one whole year, will not accept applications from white men. Similarly, white people can’t apply to Dalhousie’s opening for a chair in industrial engineering. Many more such cases exist. These clearly amount to discrimination, as people are being denied tremendous opportunities simply due to their immutable characteristics.
Aware of all this, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner asked Hewitt on Friday, May 3, whether gender, sexual orientation or race has ever been used to either qualify or disqualify Canada Research Chair candidates. He wouldn’t answer with a simple “yes.” Instead, he deflected:
“We pursue policies that were established in law by the Federal Court and subject to a mediation that was overseen by the Canadian Human Rights Commission,” he said. “Those policies are contained in an addendum to the program and are set to ensure that by the year 2030, the Canada Research Chairs Program will ‘look’ more like Canada . ... ”
With a sanitized, legalistic answer, Hewitt avoided making any admissions of bald-faced discrimination while also carrying water for the Liberal government — for it was the Liberal science minister, not the Federal Court, that agreed to be bound by the quotas in a settlement agreement. The Federal Court merely gave its stamp of approval.
Unfairness aside, the strict enforcement of diversity rules has indeed changed the demographics of the Canada Research Chairs program. As of last September, it surpassed its 2029 racial minority quota of 22 per cent (representation is now up to 29), but the racially exclusionary job ads persist. The other diversity quotas are nearing the finish line: the program is only a hair under-quota for women, currently at 47 per cent with a target of 51; it’s also half a percentage under on disabled scholars, and 0.8 per cent under on Indigenous people.
On Friday, after attempting another legalistic runaround, Hewitt revealed that he had no plan to pare back the quotas — even though some have been surpassed. Rempel Garner: Has the Tri-council undertaken any work to articulate what conditions would have to be established for those hiring practices to be eliminated? And has that work been communicated to the federal government? Hewitt: So, right now we operate under the terms and conditions that were set by the Federal Court and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, so —
Rempel Garner: But I’m asking you, has any work been done by the Tri-council to either set the conditions by which race-based hiring targets, or practices, would be eliminated?
Hewitt: I think we want to get to the targets first and then have the conversation about whether we would need them —
Rempel Garner: But we’re close! We’re there, right?
Hewitt: Well, we’re not quite there —
Rempel Garner: We’re really close. Hewitt: We’re not quite there and a lot can happen in the next few years.
The Canada Research Chair program attracts negative attention due to the intensely shallow granting criteria it adopted at the order of the Liberal government. Hewitt isn’t wrong to point to the source of the problem. But Hewitt is also in charge of the mess, and has been aware of the growing displeasure the program is inspiring in onlookers. Astonishingly, there’s no plan to shut off the tap once the tub is full.
The vice-president of research at the Université du Québec, Céline Poncelin de Raucourt, went a little further when confronted about her own university’s discriminatory Canada Research Chairs hiring practices on April 18. In careful Hr-speak, she explained that the identity-restricted job postings weren’t exclusionary at all.
“It’s not about excluding anyone a priori. It’s all about making sure that the processes take into account the diverse realities so that people have a fair chance of accessing funds and demonstrating their merit,” she said.
“I think that today’s rules do not ask for exclusion of anyone. There are situations where people have to go further, looking into criteria, to provide places for others. When a system is concentrated on certain profiles, and you want to allow room for other profiles, sometimes you have to change the equilibrium. So some measures have to be taken.”
In fact, the cause was so noble that, in Poncelin de Raucourt’s view, it would be “wrong for us to get into a debate instead of ensuring this diversity” because that “would be running counter to excellence and merit.”
So, academic folks, that’s where we are. The man in charge of administering the quotas can’t apply the brakes, and the university staff who are happy to soak up the identity-tied funds will insist that discrimination for a good cause isn’t discrimination at all.
If diversity, equity and inclusion has an off button, it is incredibly hard to find.
THERE’S NO PLAN TO SHUT OFF THE TAP ONCE THE TUB IS FULL.