‘Discrimination’ Rampant in Canadian Institutions, Say Recent Reports—But How Is ‘Discrimination’ Defined?

The legislature building in Victoria in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Chad Hipolito)

In a recent survey, B.C. politicians said the provincial legislature is a “toxic” workplace that’s rife with discrimination. The Canadian Human Rights Commission heard similar complaints about its own personnel late last year. Meanwhile, a March 4 Statistics Canada report said one in five athletes have encountered discrimination in sports, while analysis last month said seven out of ten young Canadians have encountered online hate.

As a result of these reports, one could conclude that Canada is an intolerant society, but that may not be the objective reality, says academic David Haskell.

“It creates a perception that Canada is more intolerant than the reality would suggest,” Mr. Haskell, a professor at the faculty of Liberal Arts at Wilfred Laurier University, told The Epoch Times. “We are moving outside of objective reality, to subjective perception.”

He recently published a paper on the effects of diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) training, arguing that pervasive DEI is teaching Canadians to perceive hate where it doesn’t necessarily exist.

When it comes to the recent studies on racism, it’s important to look at the details of incidents that are considered “discriminatory,” Mr. Haskell said.

‘Made to Feel Uncomfortable’

For example, the StatCan report on discrimination in sports lists types of discriminatory behaviour, the most common of which was being “made to feel uncomfortable.” Respondents also described discriminatory behaviour as “opportunities were denied” and “unfairly penalized or punished.”

When it came to denied opportunities, the survey asked respondents whether they were prevented from getting more play time or advancing to the next competitive level. However, the survey gave no guidance on determining whether opportunities were denied because of inadequate skill or discrimination.

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Accurate surveys about discrimination should try to determine whether there is a clear connection to discrimination, Mr. Haskell said.

“At one time, we had a very clear definition of what racism was,“ he said. ”It was clearly tied to race because the [perpetrator] said it was.”

Mr. Haskell said he’s not the only one talking about how subjective “discrimination” has become. At the University of Melbourne, psychologist Nick Haslam has coined the term “concept creep,” related to an “ever-increasing sensitivity to harm” that reflects “a liberal moral agenda.”

In a 2016 paper, Mr. Haslam wrote, “The negative aspects of human experience and behavior have expanded their meanings so that they now encompass a much broader range of phenomena than before.”

Concept creep “runs the risk of pathologizing everyday experience and encouraging a sense of virtuous but impotent victimhood,” he said.

Mark Lipton, a professor at Guelph University’s College of Arts who specializes in DEI, agrees that it can be hard  to determine if an act is discriminatory.

In the case of an assault, for example, “it’s hard to say if it’s a race-based assault unless assault came with a racist slur,” he told The Epoch Times.

Nonetheless, he advocates for calling people out about their unconscious biases in a respectful manner.

It’s difficult to know what criteria the Canadian Human Rights Commission uses to decide whether a case involves discrimination without an objective definition, he said.

“It feels random what they look at and what they don’t,” he said. “I don’t completely understand the factors that lead to not only an investigation but a trial.”

What Is Considered ‘Discriminatory’ in Recent Reports

In the report on discrimination in the B.C. legislature, many of the instances mentioned were heated debates during question period.

MLAs surveyed by consultancy group ADR Education spoke of “bullying” and shouting. Some said young indigenous women were treated with less respect.

One, however, noted that heated debate is part of the political and democratic process.

Another cited lack of onsite childcare, leaving MLAs with children feeling unsupported.

“Given that the legislative assembly’s fundamental origins and structural foundations are predominantly white, male and colonial, careful consideration needs to be given to building a more inclusive, modernized, and decolonized workplace culture that fully embraces and actualizes the values and objectives of DEI,” the report said, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The majority of B.C. MLAs are New Democrats, whose party is known for having a strong DEI focus. Similarly, Mr. Haskell noted, the Canadian Human Rights Commission—whose members allege widespread discrimination within—are highly committed to DEI and “anti-racism.”

People so steeped in DEI tend to see racism more frequently, he said. He cited an example from the Faculty of Social Work at his university, Wilfred Laurier.

The former dean, who is female and black, accused indigenous staff of racism. They in turn accused her of racism. The conflict ultimately required an outside arbiter, who determined that neither was being racist.

The saga is detailed by the news organization True North, which obtained leaked emails and the arbiter’s report. The faculty involved did not reply to Epoch Times inquiry as of publication, and the university said it cannot comment publicly on personnel matters.

“It’s social work,” said Mr. Haskell. “You can’t get a discipline that is more preoccupied with determining racism.”

He said it’s becoming difficult to believe academics, “because those academics who are the experts are getting it wrong.”

The Senate report on discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Commission noted HRC staff concerns that their colleagues were dismissing race-based complaints at a high rate.

“Long before any investigation took place, it was commonplace for staff to speculate about how a complainant is imagining things,” employee Bernadeth Betchi is quoted as saying in the Senate report.

In the StatCan report about youth being exposed to online hate, no definition of hateful content is provided to guide respondents, saying only that it “can consist of, but is not limited to, terrorist content or violence toward ethnic groups.”

While such reports suggest Canadians and national intuitions are racist, Mr. Haskell said more objective measures show racism is decreasing. Surveys since the 1960s have regularly asked Canadians, “Would you allow your son or daughter to marry someone from another race or another ethnicity?” Every year, more people say yes to that question, he said. “That’s a true measure.”

How subjectively or objectively “hate” is defined becomes more pressing with laws like the proposed Online Harms Act increasingly seeking to penalize “hate” and “discrimination,” Mr. Haskell said.

“Increasingly, we’re moving away from very clear definitions of hate, as we’ve seen in the Criminal Code Section 318, and 319, which were fairly rigorous,” he said. “And we’re now moving into the realm of subjectivity, where hate is anything that offends progressive or liberal sensibilities.”