Briefs and Reports

In 2015, Zaa Joseph, Indigenous Initiatives Advisor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), attended the CAUT Aboriginal Academic Staff Forum in Winnipeg, where he met Anishinaabe scholar, Andrew Judge, Assistant Professor of Anishinaabe Studies at Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig.

Closing data gaps related to the status and experiences of Indigenous and equity-deserving groups in academia is needed to identify and address where there may be systemic biases and discriminatory practices.

Proposals for an on-campus childcare centre at St. Boniface stretch back to the early 1980s, but the most recent chapter of the story, of what turned out to be a spectacularly successful advocacy effort, began with a pitch to the board of governors in 2015.

In the run-up to the 2017 contract negotiations (and ultimately a strike at all 24 Ontario community colleges), OPSEU’s CAAT-A (Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology – Academic unit) executive realized that locals had to engage in extensive capacity building and outreach with their members in order prepare for what was expected to be an intensive round of bargaining.

Equity in compensation is critical to the realization of overall equity in employment. Associations must work to identify and eliminate discrimination in compensation in ways that go beyond simple comparisons of wages between men and women.

Brief summaries of pay equity initiatives undertaken by Canadian post-secondary institutions, based on publicly available information.

Discrimination in compensation can only be remedied by the periodic implementation of comprehensive studies within each post-secondary institution, using non-discriminatory measures in order to identify the internal inequities and equalize compensation.

Sample self-identification survey based on promising practices in the post-secondary education sector. It is intended to support academic staff associations in their advocacy for the collection and analysis of equity data.

Keeping in mind that best practices around self-identification surveys are always evolving, here are some resources for further consultation.

Concerns about privacy, confidentiality and legality are often cited as obstacles to ensuring the collection and sharing of comprehensive data on the workforce. Below are some common challenges related to confidentiality and actions that can be taken to overcome them.