FAIR News: Defending Canadian Civil Rights

Aug 30, 2024

Dear Friends of FAIR:

This week FAIR submitted a letter of public comment to Canada’s Employment Equity Act (EEA) Review Task Force. Similar to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in America, Canada’s EEA is meant to promote fairness, equality, and diversity in Canada’s federally-regulated workplaces.

Late last year, Canada’s Minister of Labour launched a task force assigned to conduct an extensive review and modernization of the EEA. The initial commitments of the Task Force included, in part:

creating 2 new designated groups under the EEA: Black people and 2SLGBTQI+ people
replacing the term "Aboriginal Peoples" with "Indigenous Peoples," and
replacing the term "members of visible minorities" with "racialized people" and updating the corresponding definition (EEA Modernization Task Force overview website)

Following the publication of these initial commitments, the Task Force sought public comments and feedback from all interested parties. The Task Force also specifically asked for feedback on whether it should formulate and include in the EEA a definition of the word “woman.”

In response to a request from our Canadian chapters, we formulated feedback representing FAIR’s pro-human principles of fairness, understanding, and our common humanity. We respectfully urged the Task Force to prioritize policies that recognize the individuality and unique contributions of every Canadian worker, rather than relying on broad, identity-based groupings that risk reinforcing stereotypes and perpetuating inequality. We are pleased to share our letter with you here. To support initiatives like this, you can donate by clicking on the button below. To join your local FAIR chapter, click here.

Warmly,
The Team at FAIR

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Ideology in American Education

Join FAIR in Education Thursday September 5th at 4pm EST/1pm PST for a live discussion on a multicultural take on the origins and the nature of contemporary race-ideology in North American education. Featuring award-winning filmmaker Eli Steele, documentary filmmaker Shelby Steele, and Hungarian filmmaker Ildi Tillmann, we invite you to explore with us in this webinar the questions:

How can students differentiate between fact and fiction in the contemporary media economy?
To what extent are Black History and White History meaningful terms in a country of immigrants from all around the world?
How and why did the so-called race conversation rigidify into dogmas?

Diversity Without Division: Is It Possible?

Join FAIR Colorado and panelists Jennifer Sey, Dr. Eddie Waldrep, Dr. Travis Morrell, Ronald Scott, and Biff Baker for this IN PERSON discussion on Thursday, September 12th at 6pm, in Denver, CO.

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FAIR News Podcast

For audio versions of our FAIR News and FAIR Weekly Roundup newsletters, subscribe and listen to FAIR News Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or via RSS feed.

FAIR Educators Alliance & Other Networks

Connect with other pro-human educators through the FAIR Educators Alliance. We bring together educators from all levels to share experiences and work on developing resources that can support teachers, community members, and FAIR chapters.

Teachers, administrators, librarians, and educators of all kinds are welcome. For more information and to join any of these networks, please email educators@fairforall.org.