Trudeau's Immigration Minister, department hush on whether 'racist managers' fired or demoted

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino would not comment Thursday on an internal report documenting racist hate speech by managers in his department. Mendicino publicly stated all Canadians must do the "hard work" of fighting bigotry.

"The government is committed to addressing racism in a way that is informed by the experience of racialized communities and Indigenous peoples," Mendicino said in the Commons on November 2. "This is hard work, not just for Parliament but for all Canadians."

The report Anti-Racism Employee Focus Groups depicted the Department of Immigration as systemically bigoted, reported Blacklocks. "The problem is so deeply rooted in the organizational culture," it read.

Focus Groups documented incidents where managers asked to pat Black employees' hair, referred to "sectors of the department where the representation of racialized employees is high as 'the ghetto'" and made "widespread internal references to certain African nations as the dirty thirty."

The report cited cases where managers said Mexican emigrants "just come here to collect social insurance," told a Black employee "their afro looks unprofessional," made "lewd comments about physical characteristics of 'Black girls' while speaking to a Black female employee," and greeted one staffer with the remark: "Salut, ma noire" ("Hi, my Black").

Managers also depicted Indigenous people as shiftless, including "a manager saying Indigenous people are lazy" and one supervisor "saying colonialism was good and if 'the natives' wanted the land they should have just stood up."

Mendicino would not reply to repeated requests for comment Thursday. His department would not say if any managers were demoted or fired due to the report despite the minister condemning racism by others.

"My message is that we are with you, and we will condemn any and all examples of hate and racism in its many forms," Mendicino testified last May 8 at the Commons human resources committee. "This is work that I know our government has stood for, and I hope that all members of our House will join us in condemning these things. There is no place for racism or hatred in any form."

"It's about combating the discrimination and stigma we see far too often," Mendicino testified in 2020 at the Commons immigration committee in observance of World Refugee Day.

"For hundreds of years, even before the Residential Schools, Indigenous peoples faced discrimination in every aspect of their lives," Mendicino told the Commons in 2020. "Our government firmly believes we must acknowledge the injustices of the past and envision a new relationship based on the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples."

Focus Groups said derogatory remarks by managers were so commonplace in Mendicino's department "participants do not believe there are currently any consequences for racism and racist behaviour at the Department of Immigration." The report added: "Participants agree they do not feel they are in a safe environment to speak out against racism."

"Some who have had the opportunity to be present for management meetings share there is 'an obvious' internal code in operation," said the report.