Date: September 8, 2025
Place: PIPSC HQ 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 Richard Gaboton – PIPSC Staff Ressource Marielle Nadon – PIPSC Admin. Assistant | Mary Lycett – AFS – NCR – Friend of the Committee Sean Stiff – CP – NCR – Friend of the Committee |
| Guests: | |
| Words of Welcome, approval of the agenda and previous meeting minutes |
| Katie opens the meeting with words of welcome and performs the land acknowledgement. Katie presents the agenda. Education and equity is moved to the next HRDC meeting as the presenter isn’t available today. The agenda is carried by consensus. Everyone reviews the previous meeting minutes from June 2025. They are approved without changes by consensus. |
| Equity Caucus update |
Women’s Caucus (Chinyere): They held a meeting on August 28. They had a great turn out and a special guest, and friend of a caucus member, from New York joined to observe the meeting in the interest of starting their own caucus of a similar nature. A guest speaker spoke about pre-menopause and menopause and participants were engaged. The caucus approved the women’s caucus logo. She would like to hold the next caucus meeting in late November or early December. Indigenous Caucus (Sean): Sean is absent today. Workers with disabilities Caucus (Mary): Mary couldn’t join the meeting today. Katie confirms that the caucus met. She will let Mary provide details at the next meeting. 2SLGBTQIA+ (Stacy & Gordon): The caucus met and HRDC updates were shared with the group. Black Caucus (Jennie): Jennie isn’t part of the meeting today, however this caucus hasn’t met yet. Dime will be co-chair for this caucus going forward. Workers of Colour Caucus (Harry & Sally): They haven’t met since the last HRDC meeting but they are looking forward to meeting soon. Labour for Palestine (Madeeha): Madeeha presents a group that is not an official caucus to the HRDC. She observed that it is one of the best attended caucus meetings. She would like to know how to make this caucus official. Katie suggests proposing an international solidarity caucus. Board of Director Meeting (Katie): She brought the 6 HRDC resolutions to the BoD. One motion regarding the language in bylaws is accepted. Another one regarding the selection of members of HRDC prioritizing an equity focus is accepted. Katie asked if a booth at PIPSC AGM would be of interest for the HRDC – everyone agreed that they would like one. They discuss scheduling, programing, and potential items to distribute. |
| Term of References (ToR) for HRDC |
It was brought to Katie’s attention that all the other Committees of the Board have Terms of References except HRDC. Katie made a draft document to be reviewed by all HRDC members by the next meeting in October where they will take time to discuss it. |
| Discussion of Legacy fund scholarships – JrBAA |
The B.C. director brought a request for PIPSC to donate towards the Jr. Black Achievement Awards Society (JrBAA). As this is related to equity, it was handed to Katie for the HRDC to review the request. There was broad support for the initiative. Richard suggests having a discussion with Nick Pernal as it’s part of his portfolio. Nick will be invited to the next meeting. |
| Education and equity |
| Dave Sutherland (TEAM Chair) was on the agenda to ask the HRDC members to discuss equity issues with regards to future training opportunities. Unfortunately Dave was unable to make the meeting, so the committee had a preliminary discussion on the topic. Dave will be invited to the next meeting. Sally mentions that an equity and diversity course should be offered to stewards during their training along with the EROs at PIPSC. Chinyere adds that it could be a training offered by Human Resource too. Katie proposes asking the General Counsel to join the next meeting to discuss how merit criteria are assessed and to provide a better understanding of the policies. Richard explains that he is currently building a folder with recordings of webinars that could be interesting in some training or just to share with members. |
| Discussion on International solidarity |
| At the last meeting, there was a proposal for the HRDC to request that the board put out a statement on International Solidarity. The discussion was reopened by first watching a webinar on issues of international concern. The group had a discussion and agreed to submit to the board a proposed statement, to propose the formation of an international solidarity caucus, and to propose awareness training for areas of rising concern. |
| CRA Accessibility policy (Harry) |
| Doug Mason, AFS group President, asked Harry to get feedback from HRDC on the new CRA accommodation policy. Everyone is in favor. Katie suggests forwarding the document to Mary, which is a good advocate for accessibility and may be able to flag something the group missed. Otherwise, no revisions are needed according to the HRDC. |
| Equity Statement review – to be brought to BoD for Oct. |
| Katie presents the Equity Statement and requests for everyone’s opinion. Harry suggests it to be read at each subgroup/branch AGM and more accessible on the PIPSC website. Everyone to review the document – to be discussed at the next meeting in October. |
| Round Table |
| Harry – He would like to know if anything is being organized for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Katie shares a couple of events that will be held across the country. He also submitted a request for a citation certificate for a member that was previously discussed with the HRDC group. Chinyere – She may not be available for the October meeting but would like to be aware of the booth arrangements and offered to do the scheduling. Madeeha – Nothing to add. Sean – Absent. Mary – Absent. Niraj – Nothing to add. Sally – Nothing to add. Dime – He would like to have a quick meeting with Katie regarding co-chairing the Black Caucus. Richard – Had to leave for another meeting before the round table. Katie – Next meeting to be held on October 17, 2025. |
The meeting is adjourned.