Published
|
Last updated
3 hours ago
Date: June 30, 2025
Place: PIPSC Toronto Office
Meeting time: 9:00PM to 5:00PM ET
Meeting minutes taken by: Marielle Nadon
| Present: | Regrets: |
| Katie Francis – PIPSC VP – NCR- Chair Niraj Nitheanandan – CP – ATL – Member Harry Timla – AFS – ONT – Member Sally Hanna – SP – NCR – Member Madeeha Choudhry – CS – B.C., Yukon- Member Chinyere Okafor – SH – Prairies, NWT – Member Sean Stiff – CP – NCR – Friend of the Committee Richard Gaboton – PIPSC Staff Ressource Marielle Nadon – PIPSC Admin. Assistant | Mary Lycett – AFS – NCR – Friend of the Committee |
| Guests: | |
| Tony Goddard – PIPSC Governance Officer |
| Words of Welcome, approval of the agenda and previous meeting minutes |
| Katie opens the meeting with words of welcome. Harry performed the land acknowledgement. Katie presents the agenda. The agenda is carried by consensus. Everyone reviews the previous meeting minutes from April 2025 – they are approved without changes by consensus. |
| Equity Caucus update |
Women’s Caucus (Chinyere): Since the last HRDC meeting, they haven’t met. She sent out a poll to find the best date that would work with the majority of the members on this caucus. They will have a guest speaker that will discuss premenopause and menopause. Indigenous Caucus (Sean): According to the previous meeting minutes, he was supposed to find the Indigenous logo – unfortunately, he just found the draft one. He will reach out to Andria D. and see if she has the final one. They created a Google Chat. A couple of members has been added recently to the email distribution list, he would like which member self-identify as a Indigenous or joined to support the group – he will reach out to Marielle. Workers with disabilities Caucus (Mary): Mary couldn’t participate in this meeting. 2SLGBTQIA+ (Stacy & Gordon): Both chairs aren’t present but Katie confirms that they haven’t met yet. Black Caucus (Jennie): Katie has spoken with Jennie, there is no update for the moment. Workers of Colour Caucus (Harry & Sally): They held a meeting on June 26 where 10 people attended. During the meeting, they developed a mission statement (below). Harry & Sally will look among the group if somebody would be interested to put their creativity at work and create a logo for them. Their plan for the next future meetings is developing training for ERO’s and a brainstorm for PIPSC AGM (networking event, workshop, etc). The next meeting will happen in late August or early September. Mission statement: The PIPSC Worker of Colour Caucus advocates for improved access, inclusion, fairness and accommodations in the union and the workplace for workers of colour by identifying issues and providing actionable recommendations to the PIPSC Humans Rights and Diversity Committee. |
| Chair update |
Shutting down hate speech It has been discussed in the previous HRDC meetings that we receive a great amount of negative and hateful emails in response to equity related emails sent to members. The idea of responding with a strong stance to these individuals has been brought to Sean (PIPSC President) by Katie. They are now working on getting the correct wording for this. Gender transition guide A PIPSC Research staff has created a gender transition guide and requested comments from the HRDC members. Katie will share it with the 2SLGBTQIA+ caucus. HRDC logo Discussion on the HRDC logo created last year. The logo reads INCLUSION with different symbols representing each caucus. Everyone agreed to change the word inclusion to HRDC or Human Rights and Diversity Committee, while keeping the same symbols representing each caucus. Katie will request a revision of the logo with the new elements to the graphic designer at PIPSC. Awards update Farzana Merani received her citation award at the Regional Council. Another member that the HRDC nominated will receive one at a future event this year. Katie presented a citation certificate for Madeeha Choudhry. |
| Resolution Writing Training (Richard) |
Richard and Tony provided training on writing a resolution. He then proceeded to separate members of the Committee into 3 groups that will practise writing a motion. Some policies from others unions were highlighted as examples for the HRDC members to practice: Electing two members of each equity deserving group as delegateEach active regional Women Committee shall be entitled to elect one delegateFully funded regional meetingsProviding space and logistical support for equity caucusesProviding on-site childcare Tony joins the conversation to explain how to understand a resolution. Motion: A motion is a formal proposal made by a member/group to request that the group take a specific action or express a particular opinion. Resolution: A resolution is a motion that has been debated, voted on, and adopted and becomes an official decision or statement of the group. Resolutions must be submitted to resolutions@pipsc.ca or motions@ipfpc.ca no later than September 19, 2025. The member must be prepared to speak to their motion and defend it on the floor of the PIPSC Annual General Meeting. |
| Round Table |
| Harry – Harry proposed a citation certificate nomination for a member. Chinyere – Nothing to add. Madeeha – Discussion of international solidarity. Sean – He appreciates the training on the resolutions. Niraj – Nothing to add. Sally – Nothing to add. Dime – As a new member of the committee, he thanks the group for welcoming him. Richard – He tried to organize the Indigenous Trivia and it wasn’t as popular as expected. He hopes to work with equity caucuses for future events. Katie – Next meeting is Sept 8 at PIPSC office. |
The meeting is adjourned.