Category: Government of Canada

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Awareness raising Diversity and Inclusion Government of Canada Public service White women

How my white women bosses terrorized me

The global response to George Floyd’s death has got people talking about other incidents where white people did bad things to Black people. One of those incidents surfaced in a viral video of a white woman threatening to call the police, then doing so, on a bird-watching African-American man who asked her to leash her dog in New York’s Central Park. Amy Cooper’s apology to Christian Cooper (no relation), following her being fired, is a classic case of too little waaaay to late.

In his New York Times article, How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror, Charles M. Blow argues that what Cooper did was simply the latest in a long history of white women using themselves as weapons against Black men. And Blow adds, “There are too many noosed necks, charred bodies and drowned souls for them to deny knowing precisely what they are doing.” I agree and here’s why…

In the fall of 2017, I got a new boss. She was my sixth boss in 18 months and she immediately began micromanaging me on a level that, to me, qualified as my first case of professional harassment. I told my union representative about it and he told me he had informed the Director General. I heard nothing from the DG for about a month while the situation with my boss worsened. Then, one day, after a tense email exchange with my boss, I went to a meeting in a boardroom full of my colleagues, who were mostly white women. When I entered the meeting, I saw my boss sitting at the table, went to her and asked, “Was my email clear?”. I was angry and tense when I said it. In response, she sent an email to my DG that said, “He is getting in my face in a threatening way.” (I got the email through Access to Information – i.e. the federal government equivalent of taking part in a slave rebellion.) A few minutes later, my DG entered the room, came over to where I was sitting silently in the corner and said, in front of all my colleagues, “ Robin. Do you have an issue? Because we can’t have you threatening your colleagues.” (This is the same person who, as I explained in Tales from the Plantation #1, had me banned from all of my workplace buildings without informing me.)

Despite the many complaints I have filed since that day, neither my former boss nor the DG have been held accountable, in fact, the DG got promoted. The global reaction to George Floyd’s death provides some perspective on why that is.

Systemic discrimination means it’s normalized. Black folks suffer it every day. It’s not unusual. It’s not spectacular – and it’s rarely, if ever, filmed. However, like the cops who killed Floyd, the people abusing Black folks in the federal public service know exactly what they’re doing.

Blow’s argument that white women know what they’re doing is counter to the idea of “unconscious bias” that is so popular in government discussions of systemic discrimination. The idea is that, since the bias is unconscious, all we have to do is make it conscious for people through awareness training and all will be well.

However, my experience shows that isn’t the case. All that great awareness I’ve raised by taking the risk to speak out and file complaints has only made my harassers more aware that what they’re doing is wrong – but hasn’t stopped them from doing it. It has also resulted in me being hit by one sanction after another for the last two years.

That’s because systemic discrimination privileges certain groups over others and those on top don’t want to share the goodies. We must recognize that folks act in their own interest so, to get them to do the right thing in terms of diversity and inclusion, we have to change the system so that there are much bigger rewards for doing the right thing – and much bigger penalties for doing the wrong thing.

They should start by setting targets for executives, like actually hitting their legally mandated Employment Equity Act numbers by hiring, and promoting, all the talented Black folks around, and withholding their performance bonuses if they don’t.

Black lives matter – but docking performance pay gets results.

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#TFTP #wetoo 613-819 Black Hub FBEC Government of Canada Plantation tales

Tales from the Plantation #2

When I left off my story in Tales from the Plantation #1, the formal work action plan, and the manager who had imposed it on me, were both gone and I was back working in the buildings from which I had been banned, as if nothing had happened.

I worked like this for months, feeling a bit like Keanu Reeves’ character Mr. Anderson from The Matrix. All my colleagues seemed unaware that we worked in a place that bans people from buildings for asking questions.

In the summer, I asked for the opportunity to work with an organization outside the government on interchange. Most interchanges are for one year and the organization you go to pays your salary. Interchanges are one of the many privileges, like french training, travel and acting opportunities, that me and other Black employees would often see our white colleagues get but would rarely get ourselves. I asked to go for a two year interchange, paid entirely by ECCC, and they agreed.

I started on interchange with the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC) in January 2019. Around my third day, I was forwarded an email from an FBC steering committee member, who had decided to resign, who described problems with the organization in terms of lack of competency, transparency, accountability – and even basic humanity among steering committee members. I was shocked, as I had chosen to go on interchange with FBC because everything I knew about it, before receiving this person’s email, was great. They had co-organized the inaugural National Black Canadians Summit, in Toronto in December 2017, with the Michaelle Jean Foundation and their leader was Judge Donald McLeod who had a fairy tale back story having overcome the adversities of growing up in Toronto’s Regent Park to become a lawyer then a judge.

However, shortly after starting with the FBC, I saw examples of every issue the departing steering committee raised – and more. Like I had done at ECCC, I questioned behaviour that I felt demonstrated a lack of transparency, competence and connection to community concerns. On May 27, the FBC terminated my interchange. In their email to my department announcing my termination, the FBC made 10 allegations against me including that I had “physically threatened my direct report” at the FBC, a completely false claim.

My ECCC manager at the time responded to the termination of my interchange by launching an investigation – against me. She hired a consultant who used to work at Correctional Services Canada and the Canadian Border Services Agency and whose LinkedIn profile showed no evidence of any investigative experience. After a five month investigation, during which he interviewed only me and my two FBC accusers, he found all 10 allegations “founded”.

I am currently in the process of suing the investigator for libel in small claims court and the manager who launched the investigation has since left the department.

In February 2019, I also filed a complaint against ECCC with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). I was reluctant to do this as I saw the CHRC as being quite ineffective in dealing with race-based complaints. (I’m old enough to remember what happened to whistle blower Shiv Chopra.) However, a friend convinced me, saying that it was important to get such complaints on record as one measure of the magnitude of the problem. So, I filed.

At first, the Commission acted as expected and sent me a letter saying they would not deal with my complaint. As the letter they sent was missing a page, they sent another one that had a glaring contradiction. In one paragraph, it said the Commission would not deal with my complaint because I hadn’t exhausted my departmental harassment process then, right below, there was a paragraph explaining how I had exhausted my departmental harassment process. I responded with a letter saying that I was co-founder of the Federal Black Employee Caucus, that I felt the CHRC was useless, and that them sending me an incomplete letter, followed by one with a glaring contradiction, showed that, not only are they not paying attention to detail, they’re definitely not paying attention to larger things like systemic discrimination and anti-Black racism. Two weeks later, they sent me a letter saying they would deal with my complaint.

Things moved quickly at first, with us getting through the mediation phase to the investigation phase in mere months (mediation failed). However, I have been informed that, having completed its investigation, the Commission is now deciding whether to dismiss my complaint or refer it to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and that this will take…two years. This, once again, renders the Commission useless to the many people who are suffering horrific harassment daily.

So what can people do? We’ll look at that more closely in TFTP #3.

For more on the Federation of Black Canadians, see Desmond Cole’s blog posts:

Black Tea—the truth about the Federation of Black Canadians

Steeped Tea—An update on the Federation of Black Canadians

Justice Donald McLeod resigns as chair of the Federation of Black Canadians—again

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Black Employee Caucus. To contact an FBEC spokesperson use the Contact Us page on FBEC’s website.

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#TFTP #wetoo FBEC Government of Canada Plantation tales Public service

Tales from the Plantation #1

Some Black employees of the Canadian federal government, including me, refer to our workplaces as “the plantation”. We don’t do this because we’re in chains, being underpaid and over-whipped. We do this because the treatment that many of us face is based on systemic anti-Black racism just like slavery was in Canada. Here is my story.

I am an African-Canadian man who has worked for the federal government for over 20 years, the last 11 with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Communications. I have also lived with depression for most of my adult life and for all 11 years that I have worked with ECCC. During those 11 years I got used to seeing my white colleagues, sometimes junior ones, being given privileges that I was denied. I didn’t question it because, like most depressed people, I didn’t think very much of myself, or my work, so I thought it was because my work wasn’t good enough. This is despite the fact that I had consistently good performance reviews.

However, about three years ago, I learned to manage my depression in a way that allowed me to start doing things I had never done before, including questioning my treatment at work.

In early 2018, I questioned one of my managers on her decision to give an acting position to one of my white, junior colleagues, who had been with us for three months, without even offering it to me who was the senior team member. Her response was to suddenly say that my work wasn’t meeting expectations, despite my consistently good performance reviews, and to immediately impose a formal work action plan on me. Action plans are normally the last resort after many efforts to help employees deal with performance issues. Action plans are also required before firing someone.

In response to my manager imposing the action plan, I filed a union grievance against her citing anti-Black racism and the impact of her actions on my depression, the symptoms of which had begun to return.

The day after filing my grievance, my manager accused me of “several aggressive incidents in the last two weeks”, a completely unfounded claim, and said they were “concerned for my health and safety and the health and safety of my colleagues”. She then ordered me to have a medical exam to prove I was fit for work, despite the fact that I had returned to work 10 days earlier, cleared by my doctor, from stress leave I had taken due to the treatment I was experiencing.

My union representative, who was at the meeting, told me that I had no choice but to do another medical exam, and leave immediately, or my bosses would have me escorted out by security. I left immediately and was off work for about a month. During that time, my manager, without informing me, and with the support of the director general, had me officially banned from all ECCC buildings and circulated the poster below to all ECCC security guards.

It says, “Access revoked by order of XXX. As of today, March 16, 2018, Robin no longer has access to any Environment and Climate Change Canada buildings. If Robin Browne presents himself at reception of [any ECCC building], ask him professionally for his access card and to leave the building. If Mr. Browne refuses to cooperate, please contact a security officer immediately at 819-918-8903. Don’t hesitate to call 911 if ever Robin shows signs of violence.”

I got what I now call my “mugshot”, through Access to Information. I also contacted my Member of Parliament and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s office and told them everything that had happened. I told them that since Prime Minister Trudeau had recently become the first Prime Minister to acknowledge systemic discrimination and anti-Black racism exist in Canada, including citing the lack of support for Black people with mental health issues, banning Black guys with depression from ECCC buildings, on false pretenses, was pretty bad optics.

A few weeks later my formal work action plan, and the manager who had imposed it, were gone and I was back working in the buildings from which I had been banned, as if nothing had happened.

There is more to tell, but that will come in later posts. Let me end this one by saying that I have continued to question discriminatory treatment of myself and my colleagues and the response like I describe above has continued non-stop. Let me also say that I am co-founder of the Federal Black Employee Caucus (FBEC) currently organizing to help the government fulfill the Prime Minister’s commitments and the attendance, and stories shared, at our meetings clearly show my story is disturbingly common in the federal public service.  I co-founded FBEC in December 2017, just months before the non-stop harassment began.

But maybe it’s just a coincidence…

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Black Employee Caucus. To contact an FBEC spokesperson use the Contact Us page on FBEC’s website.