Meeting Minutes
PIPSC HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE (HRDC)
Date: March 14, 2025
Place: PIPSC HQ - 250 Tremblay Road, Ottawa, ON + Virtual
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 Mary Lycett - AFS - NCR - Friend of the Committee Richard Gaboton - PIPSC Staff Ressource
|
No regrets.
|
|
Guests: |
|
|
No guests. |
1.Words of Welcome, Presentation |
|
Katie Francis opens the meeting with words of welcome. Sean performed the land acknowledgement. There is a quick round of self-introductions. The Quebec member has unfortunately resigned, the Committee will need to look for a replacement. Jennie Esnard declined the invitation to be Friend of the Committee for this year. The agenda is approved by all. HRDC held a non-official 1 hour meeting for presentation and questions in February 2025. The meeting minutes have been taken by Marielle for this meeting but won’t be published online as per general consensus.
|
2. Committee Plan for 2025 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
2.1 Shedule Katie proposed the following schedule for 2025:
April 25, 2025 is approved by everyone. Chinyere expresses that she needs an Union Leave letter before getting approved for any meetings, therefore having multiple dates booked in advance would be better. Katie proposes another date for June 13 as she isn’t able to make it anymore. The Committee would like to hold a meeting in Toronto on June 30th in order to also attend the Toronto Pride Parade on June 29th. To be confirmed at the next meeting. July 11th is the backup date if the June meeting isn’t approved. September 8 works for everyone. Katie and Marielle will look into the possibility of making this meeting at Madahoki Farm. October 17 works for everyone. The Board of Directors (which Katie is part of) will have a meeting on December 9 and 10. PIPSC AGM is December 12 and 13 (Toronto). The meeting date is still to be determined - December 11 will be further discussed. 2.2 Important dates calendar Katie spoke with someone from the Public Affairs’ team at PIPSC and they would like help from the HRDC to create a calendar of activities for their social media platforms. Niraj mentioned that August 2024 meeting minutes contains multiple importants dates that we could start from (copied below).
2.3 Committee plan for 2025 Katie verifies the information of everyone such as groups and departments and adds the missing information. She presents the bylaws, policies of the Board and terms of reference that apply to the HRDC. Madeeha shared that last year, the Committee’s main goal was to put together a formal process for grievances regarding racial discrimination but they didn’t achieve this goal. Sally emphasizes that racism is the area where they receive the most complaints and we would need a standard/formal approach for dealing with complaints in order to make members feel listened to and accounted for. Members also don’t know who to contact when they are harassed. Members should feel welcome to address their problem with PIPSC and at their workplace. Harry suggests reaching the PIPSC National Training Committee and seeing if there is any training that could be interesting to provide to stewards for them to know how to handle those cases. Discussing EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) at Steward Council would be a good idea. Sally encourages the EROs to have training on EDIA so everyone has the same way of perceiving harassment. Sean voices that stewards should receive mental health first aid training in order to better perform in their role without being expected to be an expert in this domain. Tools should be given to help out their colleagues and resources to reach out to the appropriate person to get help. Katie encourages those training to be online in the interest of getting more participation. (Final version below)
|
3. Equity Caucus Chairs/Update |
|
Sean would like more of the work of the equity caucus to be represented on the HRDC webpage - meeting minutes could be posted or part of the highlights of these meetings be put on the HRDC minutes. Katie also proposed a page of contact for the chair of each caucus. Workers of colour caucus: Harry and Sally expressed interest to chair or co-chair Indigenous Caucus: Sean would be happy to remain chair for another year if the members of the caucus wish for him to continue in this position Workers with Disabilities Caucus: Mary will continue as chair Black Caucus: Chinyere is interested. Din or Jacquie are currently chairing this caucus LGBTQIA2S+ Caucus: Katie to contact Wendy and Goron (current co-chairs) to see if they wish to continue Women Caucus: Chinyere is interested. Farzana is currently chairing this caucus. Madeeha explains that last year, they had some members chairing a caucus that wasn't a member/friend of the HRDC. They joined the HRDC meeting for a couple of minutes to make reports and updates. For remaining spots of Friends of the Committee, the unanimity suggests giving caucus chairs the option of being a friend to participate at each meeting or to attend a portion of the meeting as chair to give an update. 3.1 Update on Indigenous Caucus (by Sean): They ended the year (2024) with two events. His goal is to have two more in 2025 - the first one would be in June for the Indigenous History Month. The second one is still to be determined depending on whether Sean remains in his position or not. The mandate of their caucus is to help support Indigenous awareness activities, provide support for Indigenous members. 3.2 Update on Workers of Colour (by Madeeha): There is concern with how discrimination cases are handled as mentioned previously - they had a lot of discussion about that. The caucus is supposed to meet at least 4 times a year but it would be interesting to have some kind of platform for members to discuss within them outside meetings. She suggests having two co-chairs for this year in order to better manage the meeting minutes and the organization. 3.3 Update on Disability Caucus (by Mary): Last May, during accessibility week, they did a webinar where a couple of hundred people attended - it was well received. Their focus was on accommodation. This year, she would like to make and distribute a survey with the help of PIPSC staff at the end of May. One of the goals of the caucus would be having PIPSC to write an official policy regarding people with disabilities and the accommodation necessary within their office. 3.4 Survey Richard stated that PIPSC did this kind of survey in 2022 and we didn’t have a good response rate and therefore, not a good representation. Chinyere pressed the importance of sharing the results publicly to members. Sally suggests a smaller and precise survey that isn’t overwhelming so people take the time to answer it. Richard spoke briefly about the one conducted in 2022 and shared that doing another one may lead to the same answers as before as concerns and problems didn’t change in two years. All HRDC members agree and they will request the results of 2022 one for further examination and to implement recommendations. Harry second that another survey is a great idea, but in 2-3 years from now. |
4. Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Conference (Richard) |
|
There was a Board motion that members travel to the U.S. be paused due to safety concerns. Therefore, PIPSC won’t be able to send members to the convention as has previously been done. Everyone agreed that despite the situation in the U.S., we should show support and solidarity. Katie will make a special request to the Executive Committee. |
5. PIPSC Report - Support for Gender Transition (Richard) |
|
They formed a working group led by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). They made a guide in 2018 for a Trans inclusive workplace addressed to workers and managers. In 2022, the group updated a PSAC guide based on PIPSC members' experiences. A PIPSC staff working on the Women in Science project was made aware of this Working Group and wanted to collaborate with them. A revision and update of the guide is scheduled for August 2025, the same week of Pride in Ottawa. |
6. Community Partner - Council of Canadians |
|
Niraj participated at a Council of Canadians presentation back in November 2024, in a HRDC meeting, and supported the idea of making them a partner. Chinyere confirmed that last year, they were also all in favor of supporting them. Everyone agreed for Katie to bring this topic up at the next Board of Directors meeting. |
7. Bylaw Revisions and Proposals |
|
Katie explained the process on how the Committee’s members are chosen. Normally, a member is chosen in each region to represent it. In the case of HRDC, she suggested that it may be better to focus on equity instead of region. Ideally, each caucus could choose their representative to be on the HRDC committee. Sean confirms that it would be a great idea as, at the moment, there is no Indigenous representation on the Committee for 2025. As a Friend of the Committee, he can’t vote or participate in the same ways as members of HRDC can. Each equity seeking group should be represented at the table. They are hoping to fix this concern this year. Another raised point was the potential to extend the mandate of HRDC members. They tried last year but didn’t make it in time to present this motion. |
8. Round Table |
|
Harry - He did some research about the Toronto Pride Parade, it would be around $380 for 100 people. PIPSC could invite other members in the region to join and fill the remaining place. Better Together could help with visual material such as flags, buttons, etc. Chinyere - Looking forward to accomplishing a lot this year. Katie - Nothing to add. She thanked everyone for coming to the meeting today. Madeeha - She is concerned about people getting arrested for protesting for Palestine. She suggests that PIPSC members use their voices as it feels like we haven’t really done that compared to other unions. Sean - He suggested working more with the Social Media team this year. Morgan Harris, indigenous woman, was found murdered on March 10, 2025 and we should express our condolences to her friends and family publicly. Niraj - He wishes for PIPSC to be more vocal and representative this year. There was a bit of confusion regarding posting and having things achieved last year as the Communications department at PIPSC was dissolved and PIPSC teams are under reorganization. Sally - Looking forward to achieving as much as we can for members this year. Richard - Looking forward to working with everyone. Marielle will support the translation of meeting minutes for caucus this year (previously handled by designated staff). |
The meeting is adjourned.