Current and former
Global Affairs Canada
employees say the department is not taking their complaints about racial discrimination seriously.
Medina Iltireh, who is Black and wears a hijab, spent more than 20 years at Global Affairs Canada working on the administration of foreign aid programs.
She arrived at Kuwait in 2018 to serve as assistant to the ambassador. At the time, she was excited to represent Canada globally and saw the opportunity to do so as a huge honour.
But the discrimination started soon after, she alleged.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Iltireh said she felt isolated and excluded, leading her to file a complaint against the ambassador after returning to Canada.
In May, a Global Affairs Canada investigation found the diplomat overseeing Canada’s embassy in Kuwait at the time “bullied” Iltireh and “adopted discriminatory practices” against her.
The investigation — which only came about after a court ordered the department to stop dismissing her claims — found the embassy head “failed to ensure that Madina Iltireh worked in a healthy work environment.”
“It was an honour for me. I was so happy because I was chosen amongst a lot of my coworkers. I was so happy to be there and do the job that I was asked to do. What an honour,” Iltireh said Wednesday during a Parliament Hill news conference by the
Black Class Action Secretariat
(BCAS), a non-profit organization advocating for better working conditions for Black public service workers across Canada.
“Instead I faced isolation,” Iltireh added. “I was excluded. I asked myself, ‘What did I do wrong? Why am I getting this kind of treatment?’ The system around me works for those with the right connections, background and skin colour, not for me.”
lltireh said the experience had an impact not only on her, mentally and physically, but also on her family.
“I’m sharing this not for sympathy, but because it’s the truth. This is not just my story. A lot of people, some of who I know who are silent, are feeling the same and went through hostile environments,” she said. “The place I worked at was toxic. It was suffocating, and I don’t know how I worked there for three years (after that).”
The BCAS also cited other cases where workers had complaints dismissed internally.
Nicholas Marcus Thompson
, president and CEO of the BCAS, said roughly 100 former and current Global Affairs staff allegedly faced
racial discrimination
and harassment while working for that department.
He also accused Global Affairs Canada of punishing those who filed complaints about racial discrimination and harassment while promoting those in power, including people who participated in the discrimination and harassment.
“Black and racialized women have borne the brunt of this treatment,” Thompson said during the news conference. “Ambassadors and senior leaders have been allowed to target, humiliate and retaliate against employees with impunity. They are acts of systemic racism and abuse of authority that violate Canadian law and Canada’s international obligations … And it’s happening both here in Ottawa and abroad, where diplomats are meant to be representing Canada on the world stage.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told reporters at a post-caucus scrum on Wednesday that discrimination in any form was unacceptable.
“There are a number of different paths that persons can take in cases of investigations, but, at the end of the day … the employer has to ensure that it is supporting an environment where there is no discrimination that is tolerated,” Anand said.
Sweeping reforms needed, BCAS says
Thompson said sweeping reforms were needed to address the systemic and institutionalized racism that punished those who complained and propped up those in power, not just at Global Affairs Canada, but also the entire public service.
The BCAS has mounted legal challenges claiming racism and discrimination within the public service. It is also appealing a ruling in a broader case involving the entire public service, with Thompson estimating the Federal Court of Appeal will take a year to rule on it.
The foreign service is also undertaking changes aimed at more merit-based promotion and a healthier work culture as part of a broader reform launched in 2022. The Future of Diplomacy initiative has led to public disclosures of cases of wrongdoing at GAC, a streamlined complaint system and a well-being ombudsperson.
But Thompson said those changes didn’t adequately address the needs of Black employees.
“When workers face discrimination, they have a right called effective remedy, and that means more than an apology, which many never received in the first place,” Thompson said.
“It means fair investigations, accountability for those responsible, and real structural change to prevent it from happening again … This is a crisis of leadership and accountability that has gone unchecked for far too long.”
Thompson called on Global Affairs Canada and Anand to take action to resolve the issue.
This would include setting up a resolutions committee of independent experts and representatives to review and resolve outstanding cases of discrimination, harassment and retaliation at Global Affairs Canada.
It would also include setting up independent investigative bodies equipped to handle all complaints of racism and discrimination.
“What we have seen over and over is that those departments that commit the harm, (and then) a branch of that department investigates that harm, and they often appear to be beholden to the management and don’t want to put that department in a liability position,” Thompson said.
“We don’t want to see any more reports and empty promises. We expect action, and we will continue exposing systemic failures across the government of Canada until it happens.”
Anand said she was willing to examine and address systemic issues within Global Affairs Canada.
“We need to have a public service where inclusivity and diversity are stronger because that makes our government stronger, our organizations stronger and our country stronger,” she told reporters.
With files from The Canadian Press
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