STORY 28

I have worked in the Canadian federal public service for over 20 years. For all of my career, I saw white colleagues getting privileges that I was never offered but kept telling myself that they must be somehow more deserving. Then, in December 2017, some Black employees founded the Federal Black Employees Caucus (FBEC).

At FBEC meetings I learned I wasn’t alone. Almost every Black federal public servant had stories about discrimination similar to what I had seen throughout my career.

Joining FBEC gave me the strength to do what I had never done: ask my white managers about their discriminatory behaviour. Following the first time I did this, my managers launched a series of sanctions of increasing severity over a two year period. In response, I filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and, when my complaint was about to go public, my managers approached me with a deal. They agreed to pay me 1000s of dollars in exchange for dropping my CHRC complaint and signing an agreement saying I wouldn’t speak about my experience. I dropped my complaints…but it didn’t feel right. I was being paid to be silent. They were putting a price on what I had suffered and they were avoiding taking any responsibility that would protect other Black federal employees from discrimination. Those agreements are immoral and they need to stop.