Affirmative action and employment equity: Policy, ideology, and backlash in Canadian context

Studies in Political Economy

Volumn , Issue 79, 2007, Pages 145-166

  Bakan, Abigail B ^a   Kobayashi, Audrey ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249888806     PISSN: 07078552     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/19187033.2007.11675095     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. Rosalie Silberman Abella, Commissioner, Equality in Employment (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, October 1984). Hereafter referred to as the "Abella Report," p. 1.
2. This paper is part of a wider study on employment equity and the politics of backlash directed by the authors and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We are very grateful to the expert research assistance of Hilary Janzen, Julie Devaney, Clara Ho, and Alberta Danso in the preparation of this paper, and to Judy Fudge, Donald Swartz, and the editorial collective of Studies in Political Economy for constructive comments on an earlier draft. This paper is equally and jointly written by the authors.
3. See Donald E. Abelson and Christine M. Carberry, "Following Suit or Falling Behind?: A Comparative Analysis of Think Tanks in Canada and the United States," Canadian Journal of Political Science XXXI/3 (September 1998), pp. 525-556.
4. Abigail B. Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada: An Interprovincial Comparison (Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 2000).
5. The Ontario Tories had campaigned in the election of 1995 partly on the promise that they would rid the problem of "job quotas" legislation. See Abigail B. Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, "Ontario: Lessons of the Rise and Fall of Employment Equity Legislation from the Perspective of Rights Advocacy," Canadian Race Relations Foundation Reports (March 2003), pp. 35-77.
6. Ironically, though the Ontario Employment Equity Act did not actually require quotas, opponents insisted on pinning this label on the legislation, a clear allusion to the US affirmative action program, despite the attempts of Abella and others to deflect such assumptions. In 2006, Right-wing critics of Bob Rae's campaign for leadership of the federal Liberal Party continue to emphasize the former premier's ostensibly poor record of governmental administration by highlighting "a workplace hiring law with the Orwellian moniker 'employment equity.'" Guy Giorno, "Don't Fall into a Rae Daze Looking for a Liberal Leader," The Globe and Mail (16 March 2006). Guy Giorno was Chief of Staff to Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris.
7. On the context of neoliberalism and the rise of racist discourse, see Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Christina Gabriel, Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity and Globalization (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2002);
8. Frances Henry and Carol Tator, Discourses of Domination: Racial Bias in the Canadian English Language Press (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002);
9. and Joseph Menseh, Black Canadians: History, Experiences, Social Conditions (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2002).
10. For perspectives consistent with the backlash against employment equity, see Neil Bisoondath, Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada (Toronto: Penguin, 1994);
11. Martin Loney, The Pursuit of Division: Race, Gender and Preferential Hiring in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998);
12. Richard Gwyn, Nationalism Without Borders: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1996);
13. and William Gairdner, The War Against the Family (Toronto: Stoddart, 1992).
14. For example, it has been argued that the relative success of the post-apartheid regime in South Africa has triggered a backlash from the extreme Right. See Fred Khumalo, "White Backlash: The Fear that Mandela and de Klerk Will Eventually Reach Some Accommodation has Prompted a Massive Backlash by Extreme White Wing," New African (April 1992), pp. 12-13.
15. For a review of the literature on "backlash," see Abigail B. Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, "Employment Equity Legislation in Ontario: A Case Study in the Politics of Backlash," in Carol Agocs, (ed.), Workplace Equality: International Perspectives on Legislation, Policy and Practice (New York: Kluwer Law International, 2002).
16. See Lydia Chavez, The Color Blind: California's Battle to End Affirmative Action (California: University of California Press, 1998).
17. Cornel West, "Affirmative Action in Context," in George E. Curry, (ed.), The Affirmative Action Debate (New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Inc., 1996), p. 31.
18. See Audrey Kobayashi and Abigail B. Bakan, "Nunavut: Lessons of an Equity Conversation for Anti-Racist Activists," Canadian Race Relations Foundation Reports (March, 2003), pp. 1-32.
19. This argument and the research upon which it is based can be found in Bakan and Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada.
20. Carol Agocs, (ed.), Workplace Equality: International Perspectives on Legislation, Policy and Practice (New York: Kluwer Law International, 2002).
21. See for example, Lynne Pearson, Frederick Cuddington, and Deb Thorn, Commissioners, "Final Report and Recommendations of the Commission on Improving Work Opportunities for Saskatchewan Residents," Government of Saskatchewan (February 2006), . This report identifies patterns maintained by "structural barriers that prevent Aboriginal peoples from entering the workplace," and recommends numeric targets for recruitment, hiring and training of Aboriginal employees to ensure appropriate redress (p. 39, ff.).
22. Abella Report, p. 7.
23. However, in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the term "affirmative action" continues to be in use in public policy circles. Elsewhere, we have written about each of these provincial case studies in backlash against employment equity in detail. Ontario and BC have been the sites of particular and considerable backlash, the former in an overt manner, the latter more through gradual corrosive measures. The federal policy context, particularly at the level of legislation, continues to be more consistently favourable to employment equity than the provincial contexts. We have demonstrated that despite the now extensive list of policies that support employment equity, opposition remains strong and consists of new protective walls of discursive resistance. In a comparative study of employment equity in Canada's ten provinces, we found a recurrent pattern, where those responsible for implementing the policies drew back from taking a proactive position for fear of backlash. Regarding Ontario, see Bakan and Kobayashi, "Employment Equity Legislation in Ontario: pp. 91-107;
24. and "Ontario: Lessons of the Rise and Fall of Employment Equity Legislation from the Perspective of Rights Advocacy," Canadian Race Relations Foundation Reports (March 2003), pp. 35-77.
25. Regarding BC, see "Backlash Against Employment Equity: The British Columbia Experience," Atlantis volume 29.1 (Fall, 2004), pp. 61-70.
26. Also see Bakan and Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada.
27. Bakan and Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada, p. 13.
28. Ibid.
29. Abella Report, pp. 6-7.
30. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (New York: Crown Publishers, 1991).
31. "A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States of America: The Bakke Case," .
32. Supreme Court Case 1978. US University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 US 265 (1978), .
33. See for example, Allan P. Sindler, Bakke, Defunis and Minority Admissions: The Quest for Equality (New York: Longman, Inc., 1978);
34. F. A. Blanchard and F. J. Crosby, Affirmative Action in Perspective (New York: Springer-Verlag and Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues, 1989);
35. Russell Neili, (ed.), Racial Preference and Racial Justice: The New Affirmative Action Controversy (Lanham, Md.: Ethics and Public Policy Centre, 1991);
36. Barbara Bergman, In Defense of Affirmative Action (New York: Harper Collins, 1996);
37. George E. Curry, (ed.), The Affirmative Action Debate (New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Inc., 1996);
38. Lydia Chavez, The Color Bind: California's Battle to End Affirmative Action (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998);
39. M. Ali Raza, A. Janell Anderson, and Harry Glynn Custred, The Ups and Downs of Affirmative Action (Westport, Ct.: Praeger, 1999);
40. John David Skrentny, (ed.), Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration and Civil Rights Options for America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001);
41. Jo Anne O. Robinson, Affirmative Action: A Documentary History (Westport Ct.: Greenwood Press, 2001);
42. Steven M. Cahn, (ed.), The Affirmative Action Debate 2nd edition (New York: Routledge, 2002).
43. Tania Das Gupta, Racism and Paid Work (Canada: Garamond Press, 1996), p. 99.
44. Gairdner, War Against the Family. Gairdner was a senior advisor to the Reform Party in the early 1990s.
45. See Paul Kellogg, "William Gairdner and the Trouble with Preston Manning," (February 2002), unpublished manuscript cited with permission.
46. For an excellent summary of the role of the media in fuelling public opposition to the employment equity legislation in Ontario, see Henry and Tator, Racist Discourse, pp. 69-88.
47. See, for example, Bakan and Kobayashi, "Backlash Against Employment Equity: The British Columbia Experience"; and "Ontario: Lessons of the Rise and Fall of Employment Equity Legislation from the Perspective of Rights Advocacy."
48. Flora MacDonald, MP for Kingston and the Islands, 1972-1988, in "Closing the Wage Gap: Employment and Pay Equity," in Judy Rebick, Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution(Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2005), pp. 203-204.
49. Critics had long maintained that because the federal public service was not covered under the original Employment Equity Act, the government was unwilling to abide by the standards it set for crown corporations and federally regulated employers. In fact, the parallel legislation was broadly similar, but by bringing the parties under one umbrella the federal government achieved a political advantage by quelling such criticism.
50. See Bakan and Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada, pp. 20-22.
51. See Bakan and Kobayashi, Employment Equity Policy in Canada.
52. Ibid.
53. Hereafter referred to as the Employment Equity Act.
54. See Abigail B. Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, "Employment Equity Legislation in Ontario."
55. This examination of the Ontario NDP's enactment of employment equity legislation, described below, is based largely on face-to-face interviews conducted in Toronto in 2001 with NDP legislators responsible for the Act. Those interviewed were selected on the basis of their involvement with the legislation as participants in the NDP government. The interviews were one to two hours long and loosely followed a schedule of questions focusing on the experience of the NDP government and the subsequent events surrounding the rise and fall of employment equity legislation. Based on a small sample, these findings are not presented as representative numerically, but rather as the qualitative interpretations and lessons gleaned from senior-ranking former members of the NDP government. A strategy of yielding concessions, principally advocated and directed by then Premier Bob Rae, and contested even among Rae's advisors in the government, is indicated. All of the interviews were taped and transcribed, and all of the interviewees provided written permission to be quoted in reference to this research project. No portion of the quotations presented here may be quoted except as part of this study and with prior permission from the authors. Some of the findings from these interviews were presented in an earlier draft in Abigail Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, "Employment Equity and the Ontario NDP: The Legacy of Defeat," Canadian Political Science Association (Quebec City: May 2001).
56. This was the view, for example, of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women at the time. See transcripts of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Standing Committee on Administration of Justice (30 August 1993), pp. J-508-12.
57. The main elements of this chronology are reported in Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, "The Employment Equity Consultation Process: A Backgrounder" (Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, December 1993).
58. Winnie Ng, interview (Toronto: 5 April 2001).
59. Elaine Ziemba, interview (Toronto: 16 April 2001). This is a reference to the federal government's development of employment equity legislation.
60. Rosario Marchese, interview (Toronto: 5 April 2001).
61. Marilyn Churley, interview (Toronto: 29 March 2001).
62. Bob Rae, interview (Toronto: 24 April 2001).
63. Ibid.
64. See Allan Borovoy, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, transcripts of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Standing Committee on Administration of Justice (1 September 1993), pp. J-579-80.
65. Bob Rae, interview (Toronto: 24 April 2001).
66. Ibid
67. Ibid
68. See Abigail B. Bakan and Audrey Kobayashi, "Ontario: Lessons of the Rise and Fall of Employment Equity Legislation from the Perspective of Rights Advocacy," Canadian Race Relations Foundation Reports (March 2003), pp. 35-77.
69. Winnie Ng, Ontario Regional Director for the Canadian Labour Congress, in "It's Not Just About Identity: Women of Colour Organize," in Rebick, Ten Thousand Roses, p. 132.
70. See, for example, General Policy Statement, adopted by ONDP Biennial Convention (May 1998), "The Future of Work: Getting Control of Our Work, Our Work Time and Our Pensions," General Policy Statements adopted by Ontario NDP Biennial Convention (22-24 May 1998).
71. Iris Marion Young, Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000);
72. Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox (London and New York: Verso).
73. Bakan and Kobayashi, "Backlash Against Employment Equity: The British Columbia Experience."