Uncategorized

Canadian’s are known for being nice. Using ‘Please’ and ‘Sorry’ is core to our vernacular. An important part of Intercultural Competence is an understanding and reflection on your own culture – and for the majority of Algonquin’s employees that means Canadian. Want an insider/outsider perspective? Check out the overview of Canadian culture provided by Global Affairs Canada. But this cultural identity of being nice and polite doesn’t mean we are warm and open to strangers, which may come as a surprise to many Canadians. And when we think about what this means in relation to inclusion and belonging, being nice and polite just doesn’t suffice.

Earlier this fall I read an op ed in the Toronto Star on just this subject ‘Canadians are nice and polite. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to make friends here’. The author is a International student from China, speaking about his experiences integrating into Canadian life. “Soon I learned that in Canada, smiles and cordiality — often masking indifference and distance — are no recipe for forging meaningful connections. Sometimes, they can be an obstacle.” This article brought back an experience I had earlier in my career when a colleague dropped off a bossa nova CD that I had admired at her desk. I was a bit confused as to why she was giving this to me. In our conversation it was revealed that she was moving back to Brazil. I’ll never forget what she told me when I asked why. She said “I’ve been here over a year now and you are all very nice but I don’t have any friends. We have never once been asked by anyone to come over to enjoy a meal.”

This experience of loneliness is also alive and well on our bustling campuses. The Manager of International Student Integration presented on ‘The Secret Life of International Students’ during the PD on Intercultural Competence. [register here for the February 2020 workshop if you missed it!] Anna Choudhury dispelled the myth that international students settle in well to Canada because we are so diverse. The number one challenge that international students (in Canada, the US, Australia and the UK) identify is not being able to make local friends. Group work also ranks high on the list. These two things are actually related, as international students struggle with group work and making friends with Canadians due to different sociocultural norms: how social groups interact, how authority is divided or assigned, having sociocultural ‘currency’ – so shared experiences with Canadians students, the music, movies, tv shows, figures of speech, jokes based on knowledge of local and national identity and current or historical events.

So what? Well, recognizing the experiences of New Canadians, new colleagues and international students is an invitation to find ways to build connections to others that goes deeper than politeness. Reach out, check-in, invite that new colleague over for dinner; refer that domestic student to the International Student Centre to mentor a international student – friendships and belonging are good for all of us.

Pop Quiz – What do these pictures have in common?

If you guessed they all depict different aspects that inform preference for personal space – you get an A! If not, read on for more info.

Personal space — how close we stand to and how we position ourselves next to our colleagues, our friends, strangers — varies widely between countries, and gender matters too. Sociologists have studied the whys and how’s, and they’ve come up with some theories about why these social norms exist. And there is specific etiquette when it comes to people with disabilities and mobility devices.

To understand how culture defines our preferences for appropriate personal space, we will turn to the work of Sorokowska et. Al (2017) published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. In this study, researchers looked at 9,000 people in 42 countries to understand exactly how personal space is defined. I’ve borrowed this great graphic from the Washington Post that depicts their findings. Argentina has a preference for “close-talkers” – people who stand 2.5 feet away from strangers when chatting. If this sounds uncomfortably close, you might be more at ease with the cultural norms in Romania – there, residents like to stand a spacious 4.5 feet away from strangers. Pay attention to the subtle movement of others closer to you or further away, and ask yourself if you are doing a ‘cultural dance’.

But, as with everything in the Diversity and Inclusion realm, its not quite as simple as explaining everything through only one lens. Gender plays a role in how you prefer to position yourself in a conversation. The work of Deborah Tannen revealed that in conversation every age, the girls and women faced each other directly, their eyes anchored on each other’s faces. And conversely, at every age, the boys and men sat at angles to each other and looked elsewhere in the room, periodically glancing at each other. Look around you this week to see if you can observe this phenomenon.

Lastly, I read a powerful article from the BBC this week entitled ‘Spikes – and other ways disabled people combat unwanted touching’. In it a Canadian women recounts her experiences being touched or grabbed by a stranger without warning or consent – which is still an all too-common experience for many people who use mobility devices. Although people believe they’re being helpful with their actions, an invasion of personal body space can be frightening. It was a great reminder of respect and etiquette for people who use mobility devices. If you are having a conversation with a person who uses a wheelchair, if at all possible put yourself at the person’s eye level. If you are not able to, that’s ok. Never lean on or touch a person’s wheelchair or any other assistive device. A person’s assistive device is part of the person’s personal space, and it is jarring or disturbing for anyone to have his or personal space invaded. To learn more check out this EARN tipsheet on effective communication for people with disabilities.

As always, I’m happy to talk about any of this, probably looking directly at you a comfortable 3.1 to 2.3 feet apart.

The primary dimensions of diversity that define each of us is by-and-large fixed e.g. our race, gender, sexual orientation, age. However this is not the case with physical ability. Although some of us are born with a disability, any one of us may become disabled at some point in our lives. That means that addressing the barriers faced by people with disabilities – including attitudinal, systemic, physical, communication and technology based – should be top of mind for everyone. It’s a very self-interested reason we should all be working to make our workplaces inclusive and accessible for everyone – because it could mean inclusion for you or your family members if it doesn’t already.

The Rick Hansen foundation and Angus Reid have just completed some research to understand this very phenomenon; that Accessibility is a source of future anxiety and a significant consideration for Canadian consumers today. Here are some key findings:

• Approximately one-quarter of Canadians (24%) self-identify as having a mobility, vision or hearing disability or challenge; further, 47 per cent say they spend time with or help someone who is dealing with these difficulties.
• Accessibility is an issue Canadians anticipate will have a growing presence in their lives in the coming years. The research found that more than two-thirds of Canadians express concern that someone in their lives, or themselves, will face accessibility challenges over the next decade or so.
• Three-in-ten Canadians – the equivalent of roughly 9 million adults – say that accessibility is a consideration for them when they’re thinking about which places they will go to and which they will avoid.

This week saw a variety of important celebrations for our community. This week’s blog will let you know a bit about the significance of each event, and share some words from Leadership for you to reflect on.

Monday September 30th is Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School (1891-1981) Commemoration Project where, former student Phyllis (Jack) Webstad told her story of her first day at residential school when her shiny new orange shirt, bought by her grandmother, was taken from her as a six-year old girl. The date was chosen because it is the time of year in which children were taken from their homes to residential schools, and because it is an opportunity to set the stage for anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the coming school year. It is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come.

September 30^th was also the launch of Algonquin College’s very own Campus Pride Week. This week was selected to maximize student involvement and inclusion. June is recognized internationally as Pride Month to coincide with the Stonewall riots; Pride in Ottawa is in late August because of the We Demand protest, which took place on August 28 1971.

Tuesday October 1st marked the start of Disability Employment Awareness Month (DEAM). This is an annual awareness campaign that takes place each October. The purpose of Disability Employment Awareness Month is to promote employment inclusion for people with disabilities and celebrate the many and varied contributions of workers with disabilities.

Each year on October 4^th communities across Canada come together to honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). As we do so, we remember the lives of sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers tragically taken from us. This vigil is known as ‘Sisters In Spirit’. Here at AC, Project Lighthouse and the Mamideoswin hosted an event on October 3rd.

I’d invite you to take a moment and reflect on the word’s Diane McCutcheon, Vice-President Human Resources shared to a group of staff and students on Monday:

Thank you, everyone, for coming outside to join us as we raise the flag to signify the start of Algonquin College’s Pride Week. As many of you know, each colour on the rainbow flag has a different meaning: red means life, yellow means sunshine, green means nature, blue means harmony, and purple means spirit – and orange means healing. That is the colour I’d like to bring our minds to. Today, September 30^th, is also Orange Shirt Day. This is also a day to commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation. Oppression is experienced uniquely by each individual and group with its own context, but the work required to heal is found in our common humanity. Whether you are wearing an orange shirt, or flying your rainbow flag, Algonquin College recognizes the important place our institution and our people can play in the healing process.

“My theory about power is that you never feel powerful, you only feel comfortable…So I think self-checking means asking ‘Do I feel really comfortable?’ And if I do, I’m probably holding some power that I’m not too aware of”

Dan Taeyoung

If that quote made you pause, I want to make sure you don’t miss a thought provoking documentary released this week on Netflix. “Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea.” One of Chelsea Handler’s opening lines set’s the stage for what she explores in this hour long doc – “I’m clearly the beneficiary of white privilege and I want to know what my personal responsibility is living in the world today, where race is concerned.” This is another opportunity to learn about the experiences of others. (for those of you who are not familiar with Chelsea Handler – her language is not family viewing).

Hopefully that is enough to get you to switch on the TV this weekend, but just in case you miss it here are my favourite insights from the documentary:

• “Consider the metaphor of the fish in water, who doesn’t know what water is, and if you were to point it out, they wouldn’t know what you were talking about.” Tim Wise
• “privilege is the opposite of oppression”
• “The intersection of voting rights with white privilege go very much hand-in-hand.” Chelsea Handler
• “Racism is lead by ignorance” Jelly Roll
• “…its when you go to your white job, or when you see your white friends, it’s about advocating in all spaces, even times when it makes you uncomfortable” White People 4 Black Lives
• “These conversations [about white privilege] need to get messy and need to be uncomfortable. And if we don’t actually get into the messiness and work to build together then we wont actually get to the change that I think is really possible.” Kamau Bell & Rashad Robinson

We believe in the pursuit of knowledge and valuing equity and diversity here at Algonquin. We also recognize that historical and persistent barriers to equitable participation exist in society and within the College. Today’s Friday Facts is an invitation explore that intersection – for white employees to learn about the experience of racialized colleagues.

As a white individual, you can start to learn more about what it feels like to live and work when you’re not white. Try listing to this podcast The Code Switch Guide To Handling Casual Racism. Awkward comments. Rude questions. Casual racism. What do you do when it happens in your presence? The mental calculus is hard enough. It gets even harder when the comment is coming from your friends or family. Gene, Shereen, and Karen from Code Switch along with special guest Nicole Chung share stories and search for solutions. This discussion offers great cultural commentary that offers a window into the racialized experience, and can offer a playbook for talking about race honestly, even when you’re worried about saying something stupid or stepping on a land mine. They model the sort of honest conversations and behavioural insights we need more of in the workplace.

And for any of my academic colleagues who wan to pull this learning into the classroom, check out this article It’s Still Good to Talk About Race and this toolkit from Tolerance.org Let’s Talk!: Discussing Race, Racism and Other Difficult Topics with Students.

Have you read any other great books, heard any podcasts or videos that provide insight into the experience of race at work?

I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that you have a holiday on Monday. It’s Labour Day, the first Monday in September, which has been a statutory holiday in Canada since 1894. It originated in the first workers’ rallies of the Victorian era. This week’s Friday Facts is a reminder of the important historical and ongoing role that Organized Labour plays in advocating for, and securing, human rights in the workplace.

• Women’s Rights: Not everyone remembers that paid maternity leave benefits have only been around since 1971 in Canada. Before that, a new mother had to quit work or return to work quickly if her family depended on her income. And while the federal government, through the unemployment insurance program, introduced limited 15 weeks of paid maternity leave in 1971 at 66% of a mother’s previous salary, it was only a short time later when unions began negotiating longer paid maternity leave with higher levels of benefits for their members that topped up the portion of salary paid by unemployment insurance benefits. And unions also began negotiating guarantees that women could return to the jobs they held before their maternity leave, paternity leave, and leave for parents who adopted children. In 1981 after a 42-day strike, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers won postal workers across Canada 17 weeks of paid maternity leave. The concept of longer periods of paid maternity leave than was available through unemployment insurance benefits soon became mainstream and expanded across the country. (Canadian Labour Congress)
• Rights of New Canadians: On March 17, 1960, five Italian immigrant workers, Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Battista Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, Alessandro and Guido Mantella, climbed 35 feet underground to continue their work on a tunnel at Hogg’s Hollow, under the Don River near Old York Mills Road and Yonge Street in Toronto. The tunnel was just six feet in diameter, and the men had to crawl underneath a 36 inch water main running through it to pass each other. They hadn’t been equipped with hard hats or flashlights. When a fire broke out, they were trapped, unable to see their way out, blocked anyway by smoldering cables on one side and a cement tunnel support wall on the other. They died of carbon monoxide poisoning and suffocation from inhaling smoke, sand and water. The tragedy became the catalyst for reforms in occupational health and safety. Unions led the fight to get the Ontario government to take workplace health and safety seriously, leading to the passing of the Industrial Safety Act. (Canadian Labour Congress)
• 2SLGBTQ+ Advocacy: In 1991, Delwin Vriend worked in Edmonton as a full-time chemistry laboratory coordinator at The King’s College. Openly gay and equally open about his same-sex relationship, his supervisor ordered him to “quit or be fired” after the college adopted a statement of religious belief that targeted workers like him. Vriend refused and the college fired him. Wronged, he contacted the Alberta Human Rights Commission to file a discrimination complaint but was refused because sexual orientation was not written into the Alberta Human Rights Code and, therefore, not protected. Denied justice, he sued the provincial government and the Human Rights Commission. In 1994, an Alberta court ruled in Vriend’s favour. Echoing previous court rulings on the matter, the judge ruled that sexual orientation should be “written in” as a protected class under human rights law. The province’s Conservative government appealed, and in 1996, the Alberta Court of Appeal overruled the decision. Vriend appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, joined by the Canadian Labour Congress as one of the intervening parties. He won his case. With its decision, the Supreme Court read-in sexual orientation as a prohibited ground for discrimination. (Canadian Labour Congress)
• OPSEU has endorsed the Charter of Inclusive Workplaces and Communities for their members. It sates that “Discrimination in all its forms, including racism and Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, xenophobia and bigotry threatens our country’s rich social fabric, including the workplaces of OPSEU members and other workers, and the communities in which we live. Dividing people because of race, religion, ancestry or any other difference that undermines human rights serves only to weaken our unions and our society.” Read more here: https://files.constantcontact.com/222b1283101/4c282966-8abb-4df1-abd0-b8a7770d53e0.pdf

Inclusion is everyone’s role here at Algonquin College, and our collective agreements state that: “The College and the Union recognize a shared commitment to achieving employment equity in the College”.

Enjoy your long weekend!

You may have noticed some signs going up in our washrooms that remind everyone that Algonquin College respects everyone’s right to choose the washroom that is appropriate for them. This includes anyone who identifies as a trans person, transsexual, two-spirit, non-binary, genderqueer and/or gender diverse.

As we near the end of Capital Pride Week, and mark the start of a new semester, it’s an opportune time to make sure all of our campuses are safe, for all of our students and staff, in all of our spaces. The safety and comfort for trans and gender diverse people in gender segregated spaces is an ongoing issue. Washrooms should be safe spaces where anyone, regardless of gender identity or presentation, can use the toilet, wash their hands and check the mirror.

There are two great reasons why HR and Student Support Services are seeking to build awareness around this issue.

1. Gender Identity is protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code, and they provide clear guidance on the issue: “Everyone has the right to define their own gender identity. Trans people should be recognized and treated as the gender they live in, whether or not they have undergone surgery, or their identity documents are up to date. Trans people should have access to washrooms, change rooms and other gender specific services and facilities based on their lived gender identity. Organizations should design or change their rules, practices and facilities to avoid negative effects on trans people and be more inclusive for everyone. Trans people and other gender non-conforming individuals should not be treated negatively while at work, at school, trying to rent an apartment, shopping, eating a meal in a restaurant, using health care services or shelters, dealing with law enforcement and justice services, or at any other time.”
2. We need to live our values of Caring and Respect. We invite you to take a few minutes and watch Ivan Coyote’s TED Talk entitled ‘We All Need A Safe Place to Pee’. Ivan talks about the impact and importance of safe public washrooms through a powerful story of their lived experience. They advocate for single stall washrooms, but we want to make sure that all of Algonquin’s washrooms are a safe place.

Wait! Won’t this invite potential harassment in women-only spaces such as washrooms and locker rooms?

• In the U.S., there’s not a single reported instance washroom voyeurism occurring in states with legal protections for trans people.
• Research into 17 American school districts with protections for trans people, which collectively cover more than 600,000 students, found no problems with harassment in bathrooms or locker rooms after implementing their policies.

This week saw India celebrate its Independence Day – August 15^th – in celebration of the day in 1947 when the United Kingdom legislated India’s sovereignty. As one of AC’s larger source countries for international students, and by special request, I’m going to share some tidbits that highlight the state of Diversity in India.

• Although the caste system was banned by the constitution, there are approximately 3,000 castes in India, with each one being a social unit in itself. Not dissimilar to Canada’s Human Rights Act, India has (since the 1950’s) legislative protections to protect members of casts that face social injustice.
• According to the 2001 Indian Census there are a total of 122 major languages and 234 identifiable mother tongues. Of these, 29 languages have more than a million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers.
• Women are playing a significant role in the expansion of the Indian software industry, constituting 45% of the workforce (Budhwar, Saini, Bhatnagar 2005). This is significantly higher than in Canada, where women in Information and Communications Technology has remained at 25% for the past decade (ICTC, 2017).
• India has 29 States/regions and 7 Union Territories.
• In 2014, the Supreme Court of India recognized the transgender as a third gender, and as a protected gender identity to ensure admission in educational institutions and given employment. However, until 2018 homosexuality was Illegal. On Sept. 6, 2018 the Supreme Court of India emphasized that homosexual persons have a fundamental right to live with dignity without any stigma attached to their sexual orientation and are entitled to equal protection under the law. Despite these advances in legal protections, full social inclusion is still not achieved.
• Regarding religious diversity as reflected in the 2001 census, Hinduism is professed by majority population and comprises 80.5%, and the second major religion comprises 13.4% of Muslims (Islam), 2.3% as Christians, 1.9% as Sikh, 0.80% as Buddhists, 0.4% are Jain. Other than these six religions there are many tribal religions.
• Women in India are entitled to maternity leave, and employers with 50 or more employees are also required to provide daycare facilities to women returning to work following maternity leave.

This weekend there are two important Islamic holidays, so I thought I’d share a bit about them and workplace accommodation. Muslim holidays based on Lunar Calendar and observances may vary by a day before or after from dates given, depending on the community.

Saturday August 10^th – Day of Hajj

Hajj is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca and is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad. During the preceding week, thousands of Muslims travel to Mecca (a holy monument in Saudi Arabia) in order to undertake a series of rituals. The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be undertaken at least once in their lives, for all those fit and able.

It is not uncommon for managers to receive a request for time off for an employee to complete the Hajj. An employee may request time to complete the Hajj more than once as many men will accompany female relatives on their pilgrimage. Here at Algonquin we have policy HR16 which includes direction in section 2.2 for requests for religious leave.

Sunday August 11^th – Eid-ul-Adha

Eid ul-Adha is the most important festival in the Islamic calendar, with Muslims across the world celebrating the major event. It is also known as the Feast of Sacrifice or Festival of Sacrifice as it commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son to God. Eid ul-Adha is a celebration which involves heavy feasting. One part of the meal will be shared with the poor, another with friends and neighbours, and the final piece with the family that made it. This Eid is different from Eid-ul-Fitr which signifies the end of Ramadan, a time of fasting.

If you would like to acknowledge your colleagues who are celebrating you will find that kind words in any language are welcome, or you can wish them Eid Mubarak (this translates as “blessed Eid”).