Tories Push Petition to End DEI Criteria for Government Funding

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 17, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The Conservatives have launched a petition to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria for government funding, saying merit-based prioritization and fiscal discipline should be restored instead.

The petition calls for an end to DEI metrics for government funding and supports the Conservative’s plan to “restore fiscal discipline, end the billion-dollar DEI bureaucracies, and put taxpayer dollars into services Canadians actually need.”

“DEI should be dismantled and meritocracy should be restored,” Tory MP Vincent Neil Ho said in an Oct. 9 X post promoting the petition.

Tory leader Pierre Poilievre shared Ho’s X post saying, “End DEI. Restore the merit principle.”

Federal records indicate the Liberal government has spent more than $1.049 billion on DEI programs since 2016, Ho said in an Oct. 14 emailed statement. He said this is diverting money away from services that Canadians “actually need.”

The petition adds that federally funded research programs that tie funding to DEI policies undermine academic freedom, silence dissenting voices, and erode trust in Canadian institutions, saying that research funding “must reward the best ideas—not identity checkboxes.” Ho says this is “incredibly dangerous” to science and progress.

The Epoch Times contacted Employment and Social Development Canada and the prime minister’s office for comment but did not receive a response from either department by publication time.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has also called DEI policies discriminatory and said government hiring “should be based solely on merit.” He signed an executive order in January to end DEI prioritizing in U.S. government hiring.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said during the Liberal leadership event in February that while America “engages in a war on woke, Canadians will continue to value inclusiveness.” Canadians will “remain resolute and true to our values,” he said.

The Liberal government says DEI is important for creating a workplace that is “safe, inclusive, and free of all forms of racism and discrimination.” It says ensuring the public service is “truly representative” of the people it serves is both important and urgent.

Implementing DEI practices in federally funded research supports a more “innovative economy” and promotes research that “better addresses the needs of a diverse Canadian population,” the government says.

Research Funding

University professors voiced opposing views on federal funding based on DEI criteria during a Sept. 24 House of Commons committee meeting.

Canadian academic Gad Saad and professor Eric Kaufmann said “woke” policies are harming academic integrity and depriving worthy researchers of funding. Saad said using DEI when allocating research funds is “an affront to individual dignity and to research excellence.”

“Ideological activism is anathema to research excellence,” Saad said. “Meritocracy is all that matters.”

Kaufmann said considering DEI metrics when allocating research funding is polarizing Canadian society and worsening public trust in higher education.

“DEI creates the conditions for delegitimizing research funding,” Kaufmann said. “I strongly advise Canadian Research Councils to abandon their current focus on cultural socialism or [DEI], if they wish to retain public support.”

Meanwhile, professor Imogen Coe and assistant professor Nadia Hasan said DEI criteria in allotting research funding is needed to solve pressing issues and erase “systemic inequities,” which they said make it harder for minorities’ voices to be heard.

Hasan said she has seen the positive impact of considering DEI in research funding during her role as an assistant professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and director of the Islamophobia Research Hub at York University.

She said DEI policies have “saved lives” and are crucial for allocating money for research that helps populations who might otherwise be overlooked.

Also speaking at the committee meeting, Liberal MP Helena Jaczek said DEI has been a helpful metric in allocating funding and said that more diverse teams produce better research. She said DEI criteria aims to address the “issue of exclusion.”

Paul Rowan Brian contributed to this report.