The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to eliminate affirmative action in federal contracting and directed all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff to be placed on paid leave, with plans for eventual layoffs.
The actions follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office, aimed at dismantling federal government diversity and inclusion initiatives.
XFM News spoke with Joseph Pazzano, director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Fanshawe College, to discuss how marginalized or LGBTQIA+ people in Canada will be affected and how it will impact diversity and inequality in the workplace.
“It’s really important to note that this is not new. We’ve seen, both in Canada and the United States, a slow growth of resistance to DEI or EDI efforts since their resurgence in 2020,” Pazzano said.
He continued, “These are dangerous extensions of that resistance because it really invalidates the movement for equity and the movement for people to feel like they belong,” Pazzano added.
“We should not be bullied into resistance. These resistance efforts are bullying, they’re bullying on an institutional scale, on a national scale, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that trans people still need protections. Racialized people still need protections. We still need to be doing the work of Truth and Reconciliation, and nothing that any of these corporations or politicians say against DEI will take away those necessities.”
Pazzano then stated, “There is study after study that tells us that folks coming from equity-deserving backgrounds with lived experience and discrimination are actually more productive, more efficient, and bring more diversity and diverse perspectives to the workplace.”
Finally, Pazzano explained, “There are some really hard times coming, and there are people who are going to be trampled on in the face of this resistance. Trans people in particular, in the last couple of weeks and since the inauguration, have been really seriously dragged through the mud.” He added, “I do firmly believe, with every fibre of my being, that the forces of hope, the forces of wanting to be better people, the forces of community, of wanting to see each other’s humanity, those will win out.”
