Another distinction between Canada and the U.S. has emerged early in Donald Trump’s second term as the U.S. president.
Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the pace at which Corporate America is abandoning or scaling back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) has accelerated.
As this space noted earlier, the U.S. anti-DEI trend began last summer in anticipation of a November ballot-box victory by Trump. The past and future president made no secret on the campaign trail last year of his disdain for “woke” DEI programs. He has since attempted to outlaw DEI in both the public and private sectors.
Scores of Fortune 500 companies have dropped or de-emphasized their DEI programs. They include Walmart, McDonald’s, Walt Disney, Ford Motor, Goldman Sachs, Molson Coors, Target, social media giants Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and PepsiCo, which only last year said in its investor report that DEI is a “competitive advantage”
Some prominent U.S. non-profit organizations with ties to the federal government have also scrapped DEI initiatives, including the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Smithsonian Institution.
By contrast, Canadian corporations and non-profits are, by and large, sticking with their DEI commitments. They include Canadian Tire, Loblaw, Royal Bank of Canada, Magna International, Deloitte Canada, Meridian Credit Union, Enbridge, and non-profits such as the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).
Some Canadian organizations that have adopted DEI as a tool for improving their own performance implore others to adopt their example.
Burnaby, B.C.-based BCIT, for instance, says “One of BCIT’s core values is to ‘Champion Diversity and Inclusion’, and to that end we have a comprehensive set of resources that will serve not only as a starting point in creating awareness on DEI, but also to enable advocates of DEI, as they seek to educate our community.”
As a rule, Canadian employers don’t use the DEI label for their diversity goals and never did. The term is usually associated with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the U.S.
But by whatever name, most large Canadian firms that adopted DEI practices in recent years are staying the course.
They remain dedicated to creating workplaces that reflect Canada’s multi-dimensional reality by continuing to recruit and promote women, people of colour, people of varied national, ethnic and sexual identities, and people with disabilities.
Those programs strive for greater representation in senior management of people with diverse backgrounds.
Calgary-based Enbridge, the pipeline giant with more than $43 billion in 2023 revenues and 11,500 employees, describes its values as “safety, integrity, respect, inclusion and high performance.”
Like most companies that see DEI as a means of improving bottom-line performance, Enbridge says of its commitment to inclusion that “We create an environment that welcomes, respects and fosters inclusion — where everyone feels they belong. We believe in a workforce of talented people with different ideas, backgrounds and points of view as an advantage.”
Meridian is Ontario’s biggest credit union, with more than 360,000 members. Meridian’s commitments to its 2,200 employees include “fostering an atmosphere of inclusivity, cultural understanding and empowerment” for Black and Indigenous persons and people of colour and creating “a space for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and allies to network and collaborate.”
If the recent anti-DEI movement in the U.S. is a backlash against what its adherents regard as political correctness gone too far, Ottawa tech giant Shopify’s retreat from DEI in February sparked a counter-backlash.
In response to Shopify’s high-profile abandonment of DEI, nearly 400 tech entrepreneurs and executives signed an open letter criticizing that DEI retreat.
The letter warned of business policies “that move us closer to the divisive politics of our southern neighbour,” and said that in Canada “We must not tolerate, platform or profit from hate.”
Shopify does much of its business in the U.S., where it is exposed to Trumpism. But so does Magna. And Magna remains committed to “diversity and inclusion.”
“D&I is not just about recognizing the difference between us all, but accepting, embracing and celebrating them as the true gifts they are intended to be,” says Magna CEO Swamy Kotagiri. “We can all be a positive force.”
In its stated mission of “advancing social equity,” Loblaw, one of Canada’s biggest employers with a workforce of 220,000 people, says “We are determined to build a diverse, inclusive workforce, and support the health of women and children, who are the building blocks of prosperous communities.”
Costco is among the few major U.S. companies to fight an anti-DEI movement that targeted the firm with a shareholder proposal calling on Costco to examine its DEI initiatives for alleged reverse discrimination.
The proposal was voted down in January on the recommendation of management, which said “A diverse group of employees helps bring originality and creativity to our merchandise offerings.”
DEI is simply a bid to attract top talent and enthusiastic customers regardless of background. That makes it one of the more agreeable expressions of the profit motive.
