Posted on 11/19/2005 10:13:08 AM PST by fanfan
A major federal department has temporarily banned the hiring of able-bodied white men in an unusual move critics say could spark a backlash against the very disadvantaged groups it is meant to help.
Managers in the Public Works department must hire only visible minorities, women, aboriginals and the disabled, except with written permission from their superiors, David Marshall, the deputy minister, ordered in an e-mail circulated yesterday.
The policy, designed to address shortfalls in the department's employment-equity goals, will last at least until the end of next March and be reviewed then, the memo said.
"As executives and managers, our role includes ensuring that the public service is representative," Mr. Marshall said in the memo. "This involves providing direction and leadership by example, and demonstrating a firm commitment to an inclusive workplace."
Pierre Teotonio, a department spokesman, said last night the order was prompted in part by a precipitous drop in the number of employees hired from the designated groups this year. The proportion of female, disabled, aboriginal and non-white new hires fell from one in eight this March to only one in 20 by September, he said. The federal benchmark just for the hiring of visible minorities is one in five.
Still, a veteran labour lawyer said yesterday he had never heard of an edict actually barring the recruitment of large numbers of people. And even a federal civil service union that strongly supports employment equity questioned the wisdom of the policy.
"I think it's creating a possible backlash against equity groups and then it's not helping these people to get into government," said Nycole Turmel, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
"It's even creating more frustration or anger from the workforce as well as from the population ... I am quite sure the people they hire will be competent and good employees, but that is not the point here. They will be seen as targets, and then people will question their hiring, and I don't think it will help them."
She also charged that many of those hired over the next few months may well be laid off once the department reaches its targets by the end of the fiscal year in March.
Ms. Turmel said a more effective strategy would be simply to encourage managers to consider members of the designated groups, and provide help to those people to find work in the federal government.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms does allow some discrimination by government to aid groups it identifies as being disadvantaged, said Robb Macpherson, a labour lawyer with the firm McCarthy Tetrault.
However, that usually means implementing equity programs that promote the hiring of qualified people from those groups. The Public Works order appears to take the idea a step further, he said. "They are in effect cutting off a significant portion of the workforce from these opportunities," Mr. Macpherson said. "It sounds like a pretty extreme measure that they're contemplating."
Federal statistics for 2003-04 show that the representation of women, aboriginal people and the disabled in the government was actually greater than in the Canadian workforce as a whole. But the percentage of visible minorities -- 7.8% -- was less than the 10.4% in the overall workforce.
Mr. Teotonio said the move was taken as part of the department's efforts under the six-year-old "Embracing Change" program, designed to bring more members of visible minorities into the federal government.
The percentage of visible minorities and the three other designated groups hired by Public Works over the past year dropped in part because there was relatively little recruitment of any kind, he said.
"All persons recruited externally must be from designated groups (persons who are visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and women), except for cases having received ADM/CEO written approval," the memo said.
"This measure will be in force until March 31, 2006, at which time we will re-assess our progress."
They won't get into power. Free Republic will see to that.
But it's gonna be a hoot if current abortion-driven trends continue and white males ARE a bona fide minority in 20 years. I'll be in favor of affirmative action then, yes sir.
My turn for a Truly Secure SinecureTM...at the public trough!
Cheers!
ROFLOL!
It's not just government. I was working at a private company (coincidently also in 1991), and was told they would not be promoting any more white males into management positions. They had too many and were afraid of getting heat from EEOC. I quit and went back into consulting the following year
Many places of business (telecommunications, manufacturing etc.) in ontario have special rooms reserved with carpets and beads specifically for muslims. They are called muslim prayer
rooms. I have never seen a similar "christian prayer" room
at any of these places.
This country has gone and is going to SH** in a handbasket.
We need a revolution...now!!
"allow some discrimination by government to aid groups it identifies as being disadvantaged,"
Hey, with the whole Canadian govt discriminating against them, white males ARE disadvantaged so give them their jobs!
In previous articles and this one I have proclaimed
exactly how rampant of a problem this is.
The french stuff, the minority stuff, the multicultural
stuff, the cbc news....it all wants to make one puke.
What the white english male veterans fought and died for
has come back to slap them in the face, disgrace them and
embarrass their offspring.
This is the Canada of today.
And to think the ones responsible for this are white
people themselves...but the french factor is the decoy.
A fact of life in canada....french, coloured, visible
minority, oppressed refugee (even if you just claim
you are but could in fact be a murderer)...if you hold one
of these monikers....you have it made in the great white
dump
Could it be that the designated groups are lazy freeloaders waiting for the white man to provide for them?
I have said many times it won't be long before white
english males in canada will be able to apply for
refugee status or get the silver spoons that all the visible minorities and french speaking people get..lol.
My crazy ex abandoned me and our child to go and live
in California. She is east european. Working and living
there illegally, under the table.
You can bet there are alot of spanish people getting breaks
and perks in california akin to the preferential treatment
the french and minorities get up here in the great white
dump.
I call it institutional racism. I'm not saying that the individual leaders of this agency hate white people, but they are willing to discriminate against them based on the color of their skin. Therefore it is institutional racism, not the worst but the most totalitarian racism of all.
LOL!
It is the ugly, revolting spectre of racism, pure and simple. They may not hate whites the way that racists hated blacks, but the practical consequence is the same.
Liberals see people in terms of groups and group rights. Conservatives see people in terms as individuals with individual rights.
The leaders making these types of decisions are mainly guilty white liberal males who think that is perfectly OK to descriminate against their white male counterparts just to prove that they themselves are not racist (when in fact that is EXACTLY what they are).
They don't hate them but are willing to discrminate
against them (the whites) based on the colour of their skin.....so they can be more liberal and gracious to the
minorites.....at the expense of the established majority,
which in Canada is declining fast.
The weird thing is the people who make these decisions
and have done so since trudeau are white.
What is the big common factor with this group.....from
quebec, pro french or sympathetic to the quebec cause.
That cause is the threat of separation. In other words
we will give you the world in Canada and even more just
because you "threaten" to separate.
Maybe all the white english speaking people should make
the same threat nowadays?
Don't pile on GW...Wayback in '76 (after being told that Vietnam / Army / SF / Officers didn't deserve any job at all) I was turned down for a transfer due to 'inadequate education" (BA Degree) while a more desirable high school graduate was put into the job, failed, return to start; three times.
Finally got lucky, largely because they wanted credit for anyone going to night school for a Master's.
But wouldn't think they would "get it" after awhile
knowing how the typical white canadian english speaking feels? Problem is the typical canadian likes to sit
on a nail and yell ouch....too tolerant and forgiving.
Probably contributing to their downfall.
So long as quebec controls the electorate and ontario
keeps letting in minorities by the truckfull (and breeds
socialists and liberals) this country is doomed to eventual
failure..it is happening right now.
This does make the implication that they are excluding all white males under the ASSUMPTION that all white males would automatically be better qualified than the quota recipients. Thus the only way quota recipients can achieve "hiring" is by excluding superior competition.
dumb move, very dumb move on the part of the bureacrats.
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