Chapter 2: Understanding Legal Frameworks

The legal frameworks of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the country of Canada and the province of Québec are built upon key charters and acts that set the foundation for multiculturalism and interculturalism. This chapter explores the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Employment Equity Act, analyzing their impact on multiculturalism, interculturalism, and Employment Equity Act in Canada.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (issued in 1982) and the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (issued in 1975) are the two major frameworks for multiculturalism. The two charters lead to two distinct pathways. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms contributed to the development of multiculturalism while the Québec charter of Human Rights and Freedoms contributed mainly to Interculturalism. Jean-Pierre Dupuis (2017) identified important distinctives between multiculturalism in Canada and interculturalism in Québec, which are outlined below:

Multiculturalism in Canada is based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 (Dupuis, 2017):

• Policy Framework: Canada is known for its official policy of multiculturalism, initiated in the 1970s, which recognizes and celebrates diversity within the country.
• Diverse Society: Multiculturalism in Canada acknowledges the coexistence of various cultural and ethnic groups. It promotes the idea that individuals from different backgrounds can maintain their cultural identities while participating fully in Canadian society.
• Inclusive Approach: Multiculturalism emphasizes inclusivity, equal opportunities, and the protection of minority rights. It aims to build a society where people of all backgrounds feel valued and contribute to the nation’s social and economic fabric.

Interculturalism in Québec is based on the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1975 (Dupuis, 2017):

• Distinct Approach: Québec, while part of the Canadian federation, has taken a somewhat distinct approach to cultural diversity through interculturalism.
• Preservation of French Language and Culture: Interculturalism in Québec is often associated with efforts to preserve the French language and Québécois culture. The province places importance on maintaining a strong Francophone identity.
• Integration with French Values: While recognizing and respecting cultural diversity, interculturalism in Québec emphasizes the integration of various cultural communities into the broader Québec society while adhering to shared values, particularly those associated with the French-speaking majority.

The Employment Equity Act was established shortly after the release of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically in 1986. The Act was designed to protect and empower members of the most vulnerable groups in the community, namely Aboriginal peoples, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities. Although compliance of this Act was initially mandatory for federal government agencies exclusively, it was expanded in 2012 to include Crown corporations, various government agencies, and more than 500 federally regulated private sector companies (Employment and Social Development Canada, 2013).

There are three major tenets for the Act: to promote equality, correct disadvantages, and achieve representation. Equality is achieved by eliminating structural barriers faced by the designated groups. The barriers that designated groups face are both historical and structural. Thus, one of the act’s major objectives is to correct these disadvantages. The hope is that, resultantly, representation in federally regulated workplaces will be achieved and this will effectively reflect the diversity that exists in Canadian society.

Thus, employers covered by the Employment Equity Act (EEA) are obliged to identify and eliminate employment barriers for designated groups, institute policies and practices to achieve an adequately representative workforce, and monitor and report on their employment equity progress to the government. Since the implementation of the EEA, there has been notable progress in improving the representation of the designated groups in the workplace. For instance, women have made significant strides in attaining leadership positions, particularly in the Québec public sector.

The results of these legal frameworks had more of an impact on women in Québec than in other provinces in Canada. Women have made significant gains in leadership positions within the Québec public service. For example, the percentage of women in senior management roles in Québec increased from 6.8% in 1980 to 38.8% in 2007 (Drolet, M., & Amini, M. M, 2023) However, the statistics show that women have seen slower progress in attaining leadership roles nationwide, particularly in the private sector. As of 2020, women held 18.8% of board seats among FP500 companies in Canada, highlighting ongoing disparities (Statistics Canada). Nonetheless, while gender equity is necessary for achieving fairness and justice, it is important to apply a more developed intersectional approach as an analytical framework.

The concept of “Intersectionality” became a core analytical approach in both academia and activism since the prominent, Black, American, legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw published her 1989 seminal essay “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies”. Crenshaw’s work criticized critical race theorists/activists and feminist theorists/activists for their focus on the single axis framework of either race or gender, as if they were not interrelated. Crenshaw argued that the recognition of the complex ways in which race and gender intersect is essential in defining, describing, and understanding Black women’s experiences and systemic oppression. Intersectionality, as an analytical tool, exposes the overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalization at work.

Intersectionality as theory and praxis continued to progress and mature since Crenshaw’s famous paper. Scholars, such as Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, expanded the definition of intersectionality in their book Intersectionality:

Intersectionality investigates how intersecting power relations influence social relations across diverse societies as well as individual experiences in everyday life. As an analytic tool, intersectionality views categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, class, nation, ability, ethnicity, and age—among others—as interrelated and mutually shaping one another. Intersectionality is a way of understanding and explaining complexity in the world, in people, and in human experiences (2020, p. 02).

While the development and existence of legal frameworks are crucial to implement justice, they are not enough for the achievement of equitable systems and structures in the workplace. Other factors mutually contribute to discriminatory practices that are not readily visible or monitored by the legal frameworks. Paul Eid and his team conducted an eye-opening social experiment after developing the “discrimination testing” method. Their method included a test aimed to determine discrimination rate in hiring. The researchers sent fictional CVs to employers in the Greater Montreal area.  The CVs were comparable in all aspects with the exception of the candidates’ ethnocultural origin and background, which was easily identifiable by the names given to prospective candidates. According to Paul Eid’s survey (2012), for each position advertised, researchers sent a CV with a name that sounded like a Québec Francophone name and three others with names that sounded more of African, Arabic, and Latino origin. Analyzing the choices made by the employers, Eid (2012, p. 40) showed that the net discrimination rate is 35.1% for people of Arab descent, compared with 42.1% for people of African descent and 28.3% for people of Latino descent, in the Greater Montreal area.

Eid’s discrimination test asserts that achieving equity and diversity is a socialization problem and that legal frameworks are not sufficient in overcoming structural and social barriers faced by members of minority groups.

In summary, legal frameworks like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Employment Equity Act play crucial roles in promoting EDI in Canada. However, achieving EDI requires ongoing efforts to address social and structural barriers, as well as an understanding of intersectionality.

In order to have a more comprehensive view of the dynamics of achieving EDI, the next chapter focuses on anticipatory socialization in organizations as a part of the culture of the workplace.

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