Category: Self-advocacy

When I tell people my stories captured in TFTP 1&2 they’re always shocked and often say, “Oh, I’m so sorry you’re going through this!”

Whenever someone says that, I always think it would be like saying it to the students who helped launch the US civil rights movement, violating Jim Crow laws by simply asking to be served at a restaurant. Despite being screamed at, hit and doused in hot coffee, I’m pretty sure those students would have responded the same way I do: “No need to feel sorry for me. This is the price of change.” Every successful social movement needs a steady stream of people willing to challenge the system head on to draw it out in the open. This is even more true in Canada in 2020 where we are fighting anti-Black racism and white supremacy cloaked in myths of how “Canadians are all so polite”. Most Canadians are polite – until someone or something threatens their real, or perceived, power or privilege – then we see Mr. or Ms. Hyde emerge in all sorts of colors.

But I’m not encouraging martydom. Hell no. We need you to stay alive, healthy and in the fight. However, the established channels for fighting back in the federal public service – talking with one’s manager, or filing departmental harassment complaints or union grievances are, for the moment, very limited in their effectiveness. Therefore, here are the some things I’ve used to fight back:

1. Access to Information and Privacy requests – as I said in TFTP#1, I got my mugshot via Access to Information (ATIP) and have gotten other invaluable evidence of discrimination that way. ATIP is cheap and fast. All you need do is go on the ATIP site and pay $5 for a request for general documents. If you’re looking for things specifically about you, you can make a privacy request on the same site for free.
2. The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) – As I said in TFTP#2, I filed a complaint against Environment and Climate Change Canada with the CHRC. In the early stages, the Commission did something that no one else had, up to that point: they asked my manager for explanations of the things in my story. Although my complaint is now stuck for the next two years awaiting a decision, it still has impact. No department wants to be seen to be violating people’s Charter rights. Also, should the Commission refer your case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal then, win or lose, the entire version of your story gets posted on the internet. It’s kind of like having your day in court – then having them post the entire transcript online. #exposed
3. Small claims court – also in TFTP#2, I said I was suing the investigator my former manager hired, for libel, in small claims court. Like ATIP, small claims court is cheap, compared to regular court. It has cost me about $500 so far and the next step is a “settlement conference” at which I’ll get to plead my case before a judge, with me as the plaintiff and the white guy I’m suing as the defendant. This is powerful because, systemic discrimination requires chains of people to support actions that protect the system and, therefore, their own power and privilege. As public servants, we don’t have the right to sue any of our public servant managers in the chain but we can sue 3rd-party contractors. As word spreads that Black people are suing 3rd-party contractors who participate in discriminating against them, that weakens the chain.

None of the established processes for fighting back have led to anyone being held accountable for anything they’ve done to me or to any Federal Black Employee Caucus member as far as I’m aware. The methods above have.

The unions, in which I always had great faith, until now, have done almost nothing for me or any FBEC member I know. This is due to a number of factors:

1. The union reps have little training dealing with anti-Black racism.
2. The union reps have massive workloads and are told to prioritize cases where people are facing imminent termination, and sexual harassment cases.
3. Union reps recommend solutions involving “3rd-party” mediators that aren’t 3rd party. In my case, that was ECCC’s former Office of Conflict Management (OCM) that my union rep said was supposed to act as an unbiased mediator between employee and employer. After finding the OCM process painfully slow, I did some checking and learned that the OCM was, in fact, run by Labour Relations that also represents management. I guess that’s why they called it the Office of Conflict Management and not the Office of Conflict Resolution.

FBEC is working with the union management to get the unions to do their jobs but, in the meantime, people need tools that work, so please share this post.

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.