Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

source: The Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Gurcharan Singh Gill’s grandfather was a stout man - and could just barely see over the rails of the Komagata Maru when it docked in Burrard Inlet 94 years ago.

Despite that, Daljit Singh, the personal assistant to the man who led the voyage, was proud as he looked out over the water to Vancouver after a month-long voyage that began in Asia, Mr. Gill said.

But after a two-month standoff in British Columbia, the Komagata Maru was turned away, marking one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian immigration history.

Now, the federal government is preparing to apologize for its exclusion of 376 would-be immigrants from India.

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My name is Kiran Arora and I am a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University, in the Marriage and Family Therapy department. I am conducting a research study which seeks to understand the impact of political violence in Punjab India, on Sikh diaspora in Vancouver.

Specifically, I would like to understand your views on what it means to be living in Vancouver, Canada as part of the Sikh diaspora. Further, I would like to understand how the political violence in Punjab, India has impacted you, your relationships and your position in the world, as a member of the Sikh diaspora in Vancouver.

This study will be pioneering in the field of Marriage and Family Therapy because this topic area has not been studied before. Bringing forth the unique experiences of the Sikh diaspora will be informative for those working in the mental health field. It will also allow the unique stories and voices of Sikh diaspora to take space in academia, where these voices can be acknowledged, and understood.

I am looking for potential volunteers for my study and hope that you will consider participating. If you wish to participate you must meet the following criteria:

1. You must be born outside of India, to parents who were born in India.
2. You must have experienced (first hand or second hand) some of the events affecting the Sikh community in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
3. You must reside in Vancouver.
4. You must self identify as a Sikh.

Participation in this study would be completely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time if you choose to participate. Your confidentiality is of utmost concern, and measures have been put into place to ensure that your confidentiality is protected.

I would be happy to discuss this with you in detail on the phone. The format of this study will be interviews, where I would be interviewing you for 90 to 120 minutes.

If you are interested in this study, please phone/email me. I will give you further information at that time, and also answer any questions or concerns you may have.

Kiran S.K. Arora
kiransarora@gmail.com
315.383.5400 - Syracuse, N.Y.
604.719.1871 - Vancouver, B.C.

Lawyer, senator, union leader agree minorities are unwelcome

Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Justice Canada is a “very poisonous, toxic department” that drives visible minorities out the door, says a high-profile former Justice lawyer.

Mark Persaud, who left Justice in 2003, told a Senate committee the atmosphere during the decade he worked there was rife with “overt racism and intimidation of employees.”

His testimony came on the heels of charges by a senator and the Public Service Alliance of Canada that racism is blocking visible minorities from being properly represented within the federal public service. Nova Scotia Senator Donald Oliver, who is black, bluntly asserted at Monday night’s Senate committee meeting that “it is racism that is preventing visible minorities from progressing in the public service.”

And Ed Cashman, a PSAC vice-president, told senators that racism is “the elephant in the room” that nobody in government wants to talk about.

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The deadline for nominations for the racially visible delegate to the B.C. Regional Convention has been extended to Friday, January 25th at 4 p.m. The Convention will be held in Vancouver from April 18-20, 2008.

Nominations for the racially visible delegate are open to racially visible members in good standing who have self-identified. Please ensure you have completed the self-identification form.

Please see the attached nomination form (pdf) which may be faxed to the REVP office at (604) 430-0194.

Recruitment rate drops as pool grows; critics call for penalties if government can’t reach hiring goals

Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen (Monday, January 14, 2008)

The federal government’s multimillion-dollar plan to hire and promote visible minorities has failed and it’s time to start imposing tough penalties if departments don’t meet hiring goals, critics say.

Despite the government’s push, visible minorities are losing ground in the public service, and their under-representation will only become more marked as their share of Canada’s population increases.

Staffing watchdog Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, raised the alarm when she found the recruitment rate of visible minorities fell last year even though overall hiring in departments increased. Despite that hiring spree, recruitment of visible minorities dropped from 9.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent of all hires.

“I was optimistic we could close the gaps more rapidly. I had not expected that downturn and that is quite a significant downturn. … It means that we have reached a level that we seem to be getting into the public service and we are not going beyond that because all of our recruitment is going up and the proportion is not going up,” she told a Senate committee.

In a bid to catch up, Ms. Barrados has asked Statistics Canada to determine how many visible minorities departments will have to recruit “within a reasonable amount of time” so its workforce reflects Canada’s labour force. She also launched a series of surveys and reviews to determine why visible minorities can’t land jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

What’s worrisome is that this dip comes at a time when the number of foreign-born Canadians — who are mostly visible minorities — in the labour market continues to climb.

Last year’s census revealed Canada’s foreign-born population grew four times as fast as that of the Canadian-born population during the first half of this decade and accounts for nearly one in five people who live here, a 75-year high.

“One in five Canadians will be visible minorities by 2017. That’s like the population of Quebec, which brings a lot of social, economic and political power with it,” said Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.

“This is as much about the economy and sustainability of the public service and the private sector has caught onto this much faster.”

Under Canada’s employment equity laws, the government must hire women, people with disabilities, aboriginals and visible minorities in proportion to their share of the labour force. Departments are only trailing in the hiring of visible minorities, who make up 10.4 per cent of the labour force but have 8.6 per cent of federal jobs. Women, people with disabilities and aboriginals are hired at rates higher than they represent in the labour force.

On paper, getting more racial minorities into the public service has been a federal priority since the Liberals approved targets in 2000 recommended by the Embracing Change task force. It called for one in five new hires to be a visible minority by 2003. Similarly, one in five promotions into the executive ranks was to be a visible minority by 2005.

But a recent Senate study found the government went backwards and only one in 10 new hires is a visible minority.

Many say the poor showing will ratchet the pressure for new targets and tough penalties to enforce them.

Fo Niemi, the director general of the Centre of Research-Action for Race Relations, said the problem is Canada’s laws and policies aren’t enforced and there are no consequences.

The Senate’s human rights committee echoed that criticism and urged a cut in pay for deputy ministers, such as withholding their performance bonuses, if departments don’t hire enough visible minorities. Mr. Niemi, however, said ministers should be “accountable” if departments fall short.

The Embracing Change targets, led by Lewis Perinbam, lost momentum and the Harper government has shown little enthusiasm in pursuing them. Ms. Barrados said those targets are now being reworked and will have to be increased to catch up with the growth of visible minorities in the labour market. (Mr. Perinbam, a longtime bureaucrat, died last month.)

Governments have been bedeviled why visible minorities don’t get more jobs because they show such high interest. The commission’s studies reveal they accounted for 25.7 per cent of applications, but have 10.5 per cent of the jobs. This discrepancy is larger in some regions, departments and occupations.

Visible minorities are also more educated than most applicants; half have bachelor degrees or higher. Language doesn’t seem to be a barrier, especially for entry jobs, and neither does the preference for Canadian citizenship.

Ms. Barrados said the commission has been studying the recruitment process for about a year to determine where visible minorities drop out. She said they meet the advertised job requirements; fill in all forms properly and sail through the first screening. She now plans to survey visible minority applicants to ask them why they don’t think they landed the jobs.

Mr. Niemi said he suspects the dropoff happens after the interviews, which are often done by panels without visible minority members. The public service has long been dominated by white men and people tend to hire those who look like them, the Senate report said.

“It’s natural for people to like to hire and retain those they are most comfortable with. That’s the natural rule of selection and why men hire male buddies and work with people from the same cultural group,” he said.

Deborah Gillis, vice-president of the research firm Catalyst, said her studies show visible minority managers, professionals and executives in the private sector feel excluded from relationships that often help people get ahead, such as those forged by networking or with mentors and role models. She said many don’t feel comfortable going for drinks, paying golf or to see hockey games, especially women. She said nearly half felt they were held to higher performance standards and said who you know was critical to getting ahead.

Ms. Barrados said the big problem is departments aren’t strategic in their personnel planning, which should include plans for visible minorities.

She said she hoped that would change now that departments have been ordered to publicly post staffing and business plans on websites by the end of March.

She said the fact that departments rely on term and casual workers as their main pool of talent for permanent jobs also affects the number of visible minorities. These short-term workers are typically hired locally, through networks or contacts. Once hired, they get the inside track on permanent jobs. Visible minorities, however, don’t have the same contacts and are also concentrated in big cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

This is a reminder that the deadline date for PSAC racially visible members to apply to attend the upcoming 2008 PSAC National Conference for Racially Visible members either as a delegate or an observer is next Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 4 p.m. (Ottawa time). The deadline to receive resolutions for this conference is also January 16th, 2008 at 4 p.m. (Ottawa time).

Be The Change: Create A Better World!

The objectives of our 2008 PSAC National Conference for Racially Visible Members are to:

• Educate, politicize and mobilize racialized members by making links between the union, the workplace, the community and equality rights.
• Create and/or strengthen networks within our union and our communities.
• Enhance and support leadership development of racialized members in our union, workplace and beyond.
• Develop an analysis on what is racism, the impact of racism and how to fight against racism.

For more information visit the national website or go directly to the online application form.

The Downtown Eastside Community Arts Network Film and Video (DTES-CAN-FV) cluster is pleased to present the broadcast premiere of FearlessTV #10, an In The Heart of the City Festival (HOC) special edition.

In Metro Vancouver on Shaw cable 4, the community channel: Wednesday October 24 @ 8:00pm and Saturday October 27 @ 3:00am (early morning)

The show features Anne Marie Slater introducing her documentary Heart and Home. Also interviews with Terry Hunter about upcoming HOC, Mildred German and Carlo Sayo on the titled Maleta [Suitcase] art at Gallery Gachet and Gena Thompson on Downtown Eastside Romeo and Juliette performance. Closes with Our Story: Chinese Head Tax Mash Up by No Luck Club and more. More information about the Heart Of The City festival.

Meeting Of The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance

• Thursday, September 27, 7 PM
• BCGEU HQ Auditorium
• 4911 Canada Way, Burnaby (half block west of Norland, entrance at Iris Crescent)

Join other Asian Canadian union members at a meeting of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance to discuss plans for upcoming events. Also, hear about the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Convention that took place in July and the recent Anniversaries of Change conference and reconciliation dinner. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance provides a forum for Asian Canadian Union members to connect, encourages the increased participation of Asian Canadian union members in the labour movement, and works to strengthen the relationship between labour and our Asian Canadian communities.

For more information about the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, or for more directions to the meeting please contact: Lorene Oikawa at 604-291-9611 or lorene.oikawa@bcgeu.ca

The Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society (ACCESS) and Head Tax Families Society of Canada would be honoured by your presence this Friday evening at a dinner gathering of anti-racism, human rights and social justice activists. Food and non-alcoholic beverages are provided. BYOB beer and wine okay.

• 5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday September 7, 2007
• Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver

On site will be one of two video installations titled “Shattered” by Karin Lee, current artist in residence at Video In. The works question the official reports of the anti-Asian riots that took place in Vancouver between September 7-10th, 1907. Earlier at 3:00pm, Karin presents an Artist Talk. Later in the evening, following our by-invitation-only gathering, there will be a reception open to the public at 8:00pm. For more information: email Sid Tan.

Roy Mah passed away on June 22, 2007 at the age of 89.

Mah was born in Edmonton in 1918. In 1943 at the age of 25, Mah was recruited as a union organizer for the IWA while still a history student at the University of Victoria. He was also the Secretary of the Chinese Youth Association in Victoria.

Even though he was born in Canada, Roy and thousands of other Chinese Canadians were not recognized as citizens. Roy attended a segregated school in Victoria and instinctively rebelled against inequality and other forms of discrimination.

As an IWA organizer, Roy began organizing workers of Chinese origin into the Victoria local of the IWA. He traveled up and down the Coast organizing workers in such places as Duncan, Youbou, Nanaimo, Comox, and Port Alberni.

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• Thursday, June 28, 7 pm
• BCGEU HQ Auditorium
• 4911 Canada Way, Burnaby (half block west of Norland, entrance at Iris Crescent)

Join other Asian Canadian union members at a meeting of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance to discuss plans for upcoming events. (Light Refreshments will be provided.)

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance provides a forum for Asian Canadian Union members to connect, encourages the increased participation of Asian Canadian union members in the labour movement, and works to strengthen the relationship between labour and our Asian Canadian communities.

For more information about the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, or for directions to the meeting please contact: Lorene Oikawa at 604-291-9611 or via email.

• Meeting: Asian Canadian Labour Alliance
• Thursday, May 24, 5:30pm, BCGEU HQ Auditorium

Join other Asian Canadian union members at a meeting of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, before the film viewing.

The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance provides a forum for Asian Canadian union members to connect, encourages the increased participation of Asian Canadian union members in the labour movement, and works to strengthen the relationship between labour and our Asian Canadian communities. A light meal will be provided for those attending this meeting. Please RSVP to Sarah Maglio at 604-291-9611 or sarah.maglio@bcgeu.ca

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Source: The Vancouver Courier, May 11, by Cheryl Rossi-Staff writer

When families who were affected by the Chinese Head Tax celebrate 60 years of citizenship Saturday, they’ll be recognizing how far they’ve come in gaining rights and respect for Chinese people in Canada.

But according to Sid Tan, co-chair of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, they’ll also highlight problems migrant workers face today as echoes of what their families endured.

“The issues of guest workers, the issues of seasonal and temporary employment, live-in caregivers and domestics, all these issues are not that different from what the early Chinese suffered,” said Tan. “These are people that are good enough to come to Canada and do the dirty and menial work or the work that a lot of Canadians won’t or aren’t willing to do, and they have no rights. There’s something wrong with the picture, and a hundred years ago this is what happened to the Chinese.”

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VDLC Education Committee presents a public meeting with Kent Wong:

How can Labour Work More Effectively in Asian Communities

Friday, March 30, 7:30 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, Boardroom 1

Kent Wong is the Director of the Center of Labor Research & Education at UCLA. Founding President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (fist national organization of Asian union members & workers). Kent regularly addresses labour, community, civil rights, university & student conferences across the US and is involved in developing international labour solidarity in the Pacific Rim.

Please RSVP to Keziah at the VDLC Office: office@vdlc.ca

Every year Canadians are invited to take part in the festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present, during Black History Month.

This is a time to celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians, who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada the culturally diverse, compassionate and prosperous nation we know today. It is also an opportunity for the majority of Canadians to learn about the experiences of Black Canadians in our society, and the vital role this community has played throughout our shared history.

• Read more at the Canadian Heritage website and the PSAC national website.

Celebrate Black History Month with the PSAC! Dinner & Film Screening of The Road Taken - A Portrait of Black Sleeping-Car Porters

• February 13, 2007
• dinner @ 5:30 PM | film @ 6 PM
• PSAC Vancouver RO, 200-5238 Joyce Street

Film: The Road Taken - A nostalgic ride through history, this film documents the experiences of black workers who worked as sleeping-car porters on Canada’s major railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. The film will be introduced by Irma Mohammed, BC Fed Director of Education & Black Labour Activist

• Read more about the Brotherhood of Sleeping-car Porters at wikipedia.

I think the story of the porters is a story of the pain and the beauty of survival. – Clifton Ruggles (teacher and artist whose father was a sleeping-car porter)

All members are invited to this forum. Please RSVP by February 7th to Amal Rana, 604.430.5631 or ranaa@psac.com, as a catered dinner will be served.

PS to probe why minorities don’t get jobs : Despite one-in-five benchmark, only 10% of applicants land posts

The watchdog of Canada’s non-partisan public service is launching an investigation into why visible minorities aren’t landing jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

But Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, said the one-in-five hiring targets for visible minorities that have been promoted since 2000 may be too high, and the study will help determine what the rate should be to ensure their numbers within the bureaucracy reflect the Canadian workforce.

“My preoccupation is how long will it take us to get a more representative public service,” she said in an interview.
“Those benchmarks were set in a very different environment and we have a much higher turnover now, and with that higher turnover, what kind of target should we be setting? … I am not sure 20 per cent is the right number.”

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Visible-minority immigrants are slower to integrate into Canadian society than their white, European counterparts, and feel less Canadian, suggesting multiculturalism doesn’t work as well for non-whites, according to a landmark report.

The study, based on an analysis of 2002 Statistics Canada data, found that the children of visible-minority immigrants exhibited a more profound sense of exclusion than their parents.

Visible-minority newcomers, and their offspring, identify themselves less as Canadians, trust their fellow citizens less and are less likely to vote than white immigrants from Europe.

The findings suggest that multiculturalism, Canada’s official policy on interethnic relations since 1971, is not working as well for newer immigrants or for their children, who hail largely from China, South Asia and the Caribbean, conclude co-authors Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto sociologist, and Rupa Banerjee, a doctoral candidate.

Continue reading at the Globe and Mail.

“Making the Filipino Community Count in British Columbia”: A BC-wide Gathering of the Filipino Community and Beyond

On February 9-11, 2007, the Philippine Women Centre of BC (PWC-BC) and the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) will host a BC-wide gathering of the Filipino community. Appropriately themed “Making the Filipino Community Count in British Columbia,” the gathering aims to advance the community’s full participation in BC and to contribute to the strengthening of social cohesion in a multicultural society like Canada.

The Filipino community in BC and Canada continues to rapidly grow in numbers. There are an estimated 500,000 Filipinos in Canada, making them the fourth largest visible minority group in the country. Filipinos are the third largest visible minority group in B.C. and the second in Vancouver.

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Via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee

This is the office building I work in. It would be good if the Union (PSAC) or union’s EO committee could issue a statement in support of the demand for name change. If not, then UEW. - Anne Marie Sleeman, UEW 20729

Japanese-Canadians want MP’s named removed from building: Accuse Howard Green of racist remarks in ’30s, ’40s

Japanese-Canadians are demanding Ottawa change the name of a building it named after a former Conservative MP known for his racist remarks in the 1930s and ’40s.

They say that honouring Howard Green is wrong and that Ottawa should change the building’s name.
“I was pretty shocked myself,” said Prof. Roy Miki at Simon Fraser University and author of Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice.

“From a Japanese-Canadian point of view, he was one of the most feared politicians in Canada because he was pretty relentless in his hatred of Japanese-Canadians.”

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier announced in September that an eco-friendly federal building at 401 Burrard St. would be named after Green. A dedication ceremony was held at the 19-storey building, whose tenants include Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“Howard Green exemplifies the notion of service to one’s country,” Fortier said at the time.

But yesterday, after criticism from Japanese-Canadians, Fortier said he will ask a volunteer committee that recommended the name to review its recommendation.

Fortier, who made the final decision, was not aware of Green’s past of making racist remarks, ministry spokesman Jean-Luc Benoit said.

The volunteer committee of community representatives evaluated more than 350 names and gave Fortier a short list including Green and Rosemary Brown, a former MLA and human-rights advocate, Terry Fox, artist Toni Onley, Pierre Trudeau and W.A.C. Bennett.

Mary Kitagawa, a member of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association for Human Rights, said she wrote to Fortier in September asking for Green’s name to be erased from the building.

“What we want to do is have that name removed from that building because to us, he is not a hero by any measure,” said Kitagawa.

The National Association of Japanese Canadians has also written to Fortier and Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for Green’s name to be removed from the building.

Newspaper stories from the ’30s and ’40s document Green’s campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C.
“Our stand is, and always has been, that we won’t have Japs in the province,” Green said in a Province article dated May 27, 1945. “The Liberal policy is to scatter them; the CCF want to scatter them and give them the vote. If they ever get the vote, nothing more will be done about them.”

In a Province article dated April 22, 1946, Green “warned of the danger that all Japanese might again be back on the coast.”

A Vancouver Sun article on May 17, 1945, quotes Green as saying “the Japs must never be allowed to return to British Columbia.”

The Public Works Ministry said earlier Green was chosen because he was a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. He was also a First World War soldier and the second-longest serving MP from Vancouver, elected 11 times in Vancouver South and later Vancouver Quadra.

He died in 1989 at age 93.

source: Vancouver Province, Oct 25, pg A14.

via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee

Cracking the visible minority ceiling: Corporations face talent shortage, major study to target barriers

They helped women crack the glass ceiling in corporate Canada. Now, they want to do the same for visible minorities.

Catalyst Canada, a group that exposed the barriers to advancement for women at the highest corporate levels, announced yesterday the launch of a groundbreaking study into the problems facing talented minority employees who want to get ahead.

While not the first organization to examine this problem, the non-profit research group said it would take a deeper, broader look at an issue of emerging significance to employers, executive director Deborah Gillis said yesterday.

“What we know is Canada is facing a significant talent shortage. Many of our best-educated employees are getting ready to retire. We also know the face of Canada is changing,” Gillis said.

“If you combine the retirement of boomers with the fact that in less than 10 years visible minorities are going to represent one in five members of our workforce, we know this is a fundamental issue for Canadian business.”

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