First, his goal was to transform Canada’s military culture. Public service is next

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OTTAWA – Corporate boardrooms. Military barracks. Federal government offices.

They are not places with a reputation for encouraging diversity.

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Anita Anand has been trying to change that.

Ensuring that people of all backgrounds feel accepted and heard regardless of location is a mission that has followed her at every stage of her life and career, she said in a recent interview.

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“This is a very personal issue for me,” said Anand, who is the first person of color to pull the strings of the federal government as chairman of the Treasury Board.

“I still walk into rooms and look at tables that aren’t diverse.”

An example: In February, Anand attended an information session on mental health counseling for black public service workers.

There were no black employees in the room, he said.

“I said to the people reporting to me, ‘Why aren’t there any black individuals in front of me?’ This is not acceptable.”

Part of its mandate is to dismantle systemic barriers in the federal public service that allow harassment, bullying, racism and other forms of workplace discrimination and violence to fester.

It has to happen at all levels, he said.

“In fact, we want to make sure that we see diversity in the briefing rooms for the minister, at deputy minister and deputy deputy minister level.”

Anand is no stranger to what racial discrimination can mean.

Before becoming Member of Parliament for Oakville, Ontario, in 2019, she worked as a lawyer and law professor.

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In one workplace, he said, people often asked him if he was in the accounting department.

“That caught my attention because there were more South Asians in the accounting department than in the law school,” he said.

“I was often confused with other Indian women who worked in the same work environment as me.”

Instead of focusing on those events, he said he has put much more energy into understanding how to improve the situation.

That included working at the United Nations, writing a thesis on racial discrimination in Canada, and researching the number of racialized people on boards of directors when she was a professor.

“At every stage of my life, I have tried to incorporate my views on diversity and inclusion into everything I do,” Anand said.

“It’s not that I have to try to do it. “It’s a natural part of my way of thinking.”

Anand said it’s difficult to pinpoint a moment when he became aware of his own racial identity.

“I’ll just say it was very hard for me growing up.”

His Indian parents met in Ireland in the 1950s as doctors, married in England, and then lived in India and Nigeria before emigrating to Canada.

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“They raised their three daughters in a predominantly white province with very few South Asians when they moved,” she said.

“We had a wonderful upbringing in Kentville, Nova Scotia, but the fact that I was racialized never left my conscience. “There weren’t many people who looked like my sisters and me at my school.”

Part of their goal now is to ensure that racialized children can see themselves in all types of jobs, including high-ranking government and military positions.

As defense minister, Anand said she told her team that cultural change was a dossier that “shouldn’t leave the center of my desk.”

In the months before she took the file in the fall of 2021, a series of senior military leaders were accused of sexual misconduct.

And just over half a year into her tenure, Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor released the results of an external review and said the culture within the Canadian Armed Forces was “deeply flawed.”

Anand accepted Arbor’s recommendations for change, admitting in a statement marking his anniversary in May 2023 that “change does not happen overnight and will not continue without effort.”

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She was assigned to oversee the public service last July.

About 80,000 people are in the Canadian Forces, Anand said, but the figure is closer to 275,000 for the entire public service.

The problems of that larger group appear to have gone unnoticed, Anand said.

“Maybe it’s the cases (of sexual misconduct), maybe it’s clearer because of the hierarchy that is so evident in the uniforms and insignia of the Canadian Armed Forces, compared to the public service, where we don’t wear uniforms.” , said. .

“But the problems are palpable.”

A panel of experts the Treasury Board tapped to help with workplace culture recommended major changes, including instituting mandatory training on racism, discrimination and harassment.

The panel also said employees should be provided with mental health counseling support and that managers should be trained in trauma-informed leadership.

As he reviews the recommendations, Anand said he will develop a path forward, with an action plan ready before the summer.

It won’t leave the center of your desk, he said.

“This is not something I need to worry about if I will remember it,” Anand said.

“It’s a function of who I am.”

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