On September 2023, REAL Women published a REALity Update article on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in which the effects of DEI on society were discussed. In this article we would like to provide background information on DEI to explain why the policy is without substance or common sense and that its implementation is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
Growing out of the left-wing woke Identify agenda in the United States, DEI has come to infect the elites who rule Canada, including the federal/provincial/municipal governments, universities, corporations and regulatory bodies. A more precise interpretation of DEI should be Divisive, Elitist, Idiocy. In essence, DEI is based on the classical Marxist theory that there is a conflict between different classes of people. Marxism initially dealt with conflict between the classes of capital and labour. This Marxist theory has been extended in DEI to classify people according to their identity. The class struggle is between the oppressor and the oppressed in society. The oppressed are supposedly exploited by the oppressor class. The DEI classifications are based on sex, race, sexuality, ethnicity or religion. According to DEI theory this classification is the only thing that matters in managing society.
The oppressed classes under DEI are Blacks, Indigenous, people of colour (except Asians), females, LGBTQ2S++, the poor (except white people, Christians, and Jews). Muslims are regarded in an oppressed class because as immigrants from economically depressed countries they are deprived of opportunities.
The oppressor class consists of Whites, men, the able bodied, the well-to-do, Christians, Jews, and Asians. Jews and Asians are placed in the oppressor class because they have sinned by being generally high achievers. Jews have a long terrible history of being persecuted which is ignored by placing them in the oppressor class because they are considered “white”. Asians, although not white, are also oppressors because they are high performers – namely, they are achievers as individuals and as a group.
The goal of this classification is to flip Canadian society so that the oppressed classes become the privileged or dominant class, and the oppressor classes become subordinated to them. The object of this classification of people is to achieve so called “social justice”.
There is no actual evidence that individuals of the oppressor class have ever discriminated against or exploited any in the oppressed class. Rather, DEI is “groupthink” on steroids, being based on manipulated statistics only, which indicate that some groups are high achievers than others and therefore oppression is the only explanation for this disparity among groups. Statistics alone, however, are not proof of discrimination because they do not take into consideration other factors that may have led to differences among groups. Such factors could include: family stability (a low divorce rate within some cultures); intelligence; the stability of communities in which achievers grow up; or family emphasis on education, leadership and perseverance. These are attributes that lead to success. In short, success is based on many qualities that can lead to achievement regardless of biological traits. Social justice advocates, however, prefer to ignore or disparage such attributes, and argue that the high achievement of the oppressors was/is the result of “white supremacy”, because they interpret statistics to indicate this. In doing so, social justice advocates commit the classic error of confusing correlation with causation.
In short, the justification for DEI social justice is based solely on the statistical disparities between identifiable groups. This theory is a house of cards and without merit.
Hierarchy Enforcing DEI
Those enforcing DEI are part of the elites which control many of our institutions and can be found in: all levels government; established political parties; universities; corporations, including the mainstream media; and regulatory bodies.
The absurdity of this concept of social justice is obvious when it is applied to other areas such as basketball, football and baseball for example – professional sports which are dominated by Black athletes who are selected because of their natural athletic ability. That is, they are selected on merit. However, under the DEI concept, despite Black athletes’ natural talent, statistics indicate that white athletes have experienced discrimination in sports. Consequently, social justice requires for equity purposes, that Whites be given priority in the selection of athletes in professional sports. Similarly, the Roman Catholic Church, since the formation of modern Italy in the late 19th Century, all the Popes have been Italian, with only three recent exceptions. The application of social justice theory indicates that statistically, individuals from other nationalities have been discriminated against and to correct this imbalance in the “universal Church” Italians should no longer be eligible to be candidates for the papacy—at least until the imbalance has been redressed.
Elites and DEI
Corporations and regulatory boards are applying social justice analysis in their recruitment and promotion of employees and members. They believe that by doing so, they are “protecting” minorities from disadvantages which leads these elites to censor and re-educate others into “proper thinking” as to what constitutes social justice. Such re-education invariably involves the condemnation of “white supremacy”, the acceptance of “white privilege” and subsequent guilt for that privilege by whites within these organizations.
In reality, these employers and boards have lost their way by promoting concepts that are nonsense.
Trudeau’s government is consumed by DEI and has spent millions of tax dollars to implement DEI throughout government departments and agencies.
- Since November 2015, the Department of National Defence has paid consultants and contractors nearly $10 million for DEI programs. These include spending DND funds to purchase Gay Pride Flags for military bases, workshops on gender and speakers for presentations to military personnel. It has always been understood that the purpose of the military is to defend Canadian sovereignty and promote democracy abroad when required. Under DEI, the military has become a social engineering experiment. As a result, DND is experiencing difficulty in recruiting and retaining personnel and has become a joke to our adversaries abroad. What sane rational young person wants to join such a misguided institution? Those reasonable individuals who have previously joined the military, a once honourable profession, must now serve in an institution with nonsensical priorities.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) contracted the leading homosexual organization EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) for $18,500 worth of webinars between 2020 and 2021 for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (their word), intersexual and the two-spirited (aboriginal). Meanwhile, the DVA is on record for refusing to provide a veteran with the cost of a wheelchair. To solve the veteran’s problem, DVA offered MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) to the veteran instead.
- In December 2023, Liberal Labour Minister, Seamus O’Regan, announced a “New Employment Equity Act” which provides that LGBT and Black Canadians will have priority in employment. The government claims this policy is not reverse discrimination at all, or the loss of merit-based hiring practices, as the Act does not impose quotas, and that homosexuals and Blacks will still have to meet certain requirements before consideration for employment. However, the Act means that Blacks and LGBTQ will now only have to compete for jobs in the department within their own minority groups.
- Parks Canada is spending millions to introduce “new narratives from other cultures” to the beloved Anne of Green Gables site in P.E.I. and is altering the site of Sir John A. Macdonald’s former home in Kingston, Ontario. Both are popular tourist sites. Parks Canada says it will focus on providing “fair and equitable” access and opportunities for under-represented people. The language of identity politics is a clear sign that sites will be ideologically driven. Macdonald’s home (called Bellevue House) has now been filled with indigenous artifacts implying Macdonald was a colonialist and racist, and undermines Macdonald’s great accomplishments for Canada.
- Other government agencies are being “remade’ with taxpayer dollars in accordance with the DEI policy and are being federally funded to do so. Examples are: Canada Energy Regulator ($4,800); Accessibility Standards Canada ($5,748); the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada ($6,637); the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada ($7,755); Employment and Social Services Canada ($6,964,882); Parole Board of Canada ($2,268,488); Innovation, Science and Economic Development ($2,136,725); and Canadian Heritage ($1,720,081).
Further agencies such as: Canada Revenue Agency; the Canadian Security Intelligence Service; Transport Canada; National Resources; Corrections Services Canada; Safety Canada Public Prosecution Service; Library Archives Canada; Canada Safety; and the Canadian Space Agency are all providing speakers and employment policies costing millions of taxpayer dollars but have yet to disclose the amount spent on this policy.
Universities
“Diversity” at universities does not include diversity of opinion or belief. DEI forbids opinions that differ from the woke, progressive point of view. To speak out in politically incorrect dissent at any university on any issue can lead to dismissal, financial penalties or demotion. Professors may be intelligent, but their behaviour is not. Blindly going along with the non-intellectual DEI discredits them. Some professors, however, may be afraid to speak out because they fear ostracism from their colleagues, financial penalties or denial of appointments. University administrators, professors and left-wing progressive ideologues are nonetheless deep into DEI. Consequently, universities are no longer institutions from which students acquire knowledge. Instead, they have become centres of indoctrination. The expansion of one’s intellect by critical analysis is no longer included in a university education, especially in the Humanities. The very essence of a university is critical analysis and the free exchange of ideas. Further, the foundation of universities is free speech, which includes the expression of discordant opinions. However, this is no longer a part of university life. Free speech also teaches the fundamental principles of civil behaviour in dealing with opposing arguments in a civil and respectful manner. This important behavior is lost in universities as well as society. Instead of providing knowledge, universities have become centres for teaching Marxist ideology which displaces real scholarship and intellectual inquiry.
DEI is Toxic
The pursuit of DEI is costing our country dearly in economic terms. DEI is also toxic because it causes divisions and polarization in society. The persistent mining of Canadian Anglo history for colonial abuses and supposed white privilege generates a continuous cycle of recrimination and resentment. DEI is a woke concept that is dangerous and absurd but is being imposed by elite authorities who believe they have the right to impose their nonsense on a justifiably skeptical population.