Kicking off Black History Month with the CIO and TBS BEN Champion, Dominic Rochon

For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been the Chief Information Officer of Canada (CIO) since February 2024. But I’m also the Deputy Head Sponsor of the TBS Black Employees Network (BEN).

And in both those roles, I’m a strong believer in the power of transformative change and moving forward with courage and conviction. Today, I bring with me that spirit and mindset, as we celebrate Black History Month.

The second International Decade for People of African Descent

In 2018, Canada endorsed the United Nations General Assembly’s First International Decade for People of African Descent, which served as a framework for investing in Black-led initiatives across Canada. Recognizing that there’s more to accomplish on this journey, the United Nations General Assembly recently proclaimed that a second International Decade for People of African Descent will span from January 2025 to December 2034.

This decade will serve as an opportunity to further Canada’s efforts to empower and improve the wellbeing of Black communities. And that includes Black public servants across the federal public service.

The Clerk of the Privy Council's Call to Action

In 2021, the Clerk of the Privy Council issued a Call to Action to public service leaders to take specific and meaningful actions to address racism, equity, and inclusion. Some very important actions have taken place since then.

The Clerk issued the “Call to Action forward direction message to deputies” in 2023, calling for tangible efforts to tackle racism and build an inclusive public service that benefits from all employees achieving their full potential.?

Recent actions

With this foundation for change in place, we must bring the aspirations and goals expressed in the Clerk’s Call to Action to life in our departments and teams, and work to include Black public servants in Canada’s prosperity.

Action Plan for Black Public Servants

TBS established the Task Force for Black Public Servants to oversee the development and implementation of an Action Plan for Black Public Servants. Early initiatives include Black-centric enhancements to the Employee Assistance Program, career coaching and counselling services for employees below the executive level, and the Executive Leadership Development Program with dedicated cohorts for Black Leaders.

Employment equity

An important step was the release of the Employment Equity Act?Review Task Force’s final report with recommendations on how to bring the Act into the 21st century.

The government welcomed this report and responded with several initial commitments to modernize the Act, including:

• creating two new designated groups under the Act: Black people and 2SLGBTQI+ people; and
• replacing the term “members of visible minorities” with “racialized people” and updating the corresponding definition.

Challenge to Deputy Heads

To that end, I challenge my fellow deputies to create greater access to learning and development opportunities, to sponsorship from senior leaders, and to leadership-development programs, so that Black employees are set up for success in their career path.

We must also:

• prioritize supporting employee networks and communities;
• ensure the creation of safe spaces for Black employees’ voices to be heard; and
• support efforts to advance the forward direction on the Clerk’s Call to Action, as well as the Action Plan to support Black public servants

But we can’t stop there.

We need to bring about culture change in the very fabric of our organizations by establishing the expected behaviours that are essential for an anti-racist and inclusive work environment, and holding ourselves, and each other, to account.

We must provide training, so that leaders and managers can embody inclusive leadership, exhibit cultural competency, and consciously create an anti-racist workplace that works hard to eliminate bias, to the greatest extent. There must be zero-tolerance for anti-Black harassment.

And to all federal employees, I encourage you to join the Black Employees Networks within your departments to learn more about how you can contribute to their activities, either as a Black employee member or as an ally. So, I'm asking all of you to help move their work forward.

Moving forward

"We must all take action — and take action even beyond employee networks, anti-racism secretariats, and human resources — as important as these are, so that the Canadian public service can lead by example in eliminating anti-Black racism and all forms of discrimination."

…Because this is about more than just programs, policies, and laws. It’s about people taking specific and meaningful actions to address racism, equity, and inclusion, and right the wrongs of the past.

So, in the decade ahead, let’s commit ourselves to empowering and improving the wellbeing of Black communities, of Black public servants… of our friends and colleagues. And let’s move forward with courage and conviction — because what moves people moves the world!

?