Privy Council Office workers face culture of 'racial stereotyping': internal report

Black, Indigenous and racialized employees in the Privy Council Office are regularly subjected to a culture of «racial stereotyping, microagressions and verbal violence,» according to the findings of an internal report.

The damning report — obtained by the Coalition Against Workplace Discrimination through the Access to Information Act and released by the coalition Monday — said the office does not have a grasp on the scope or impact of the discrimination that those employees face.

There are also «significant material barriers to meaningful representation and inclusion» in the workplace, it says.

The Privy Council Office's 1,200 employees make up the lead branch of the civil service, providing support for the prime minister and cabinet in executing policy directives across the federal government.

According to the report, Black employees reported managers using the N-word «comfortably in their presence» and later expressing surprise at «not knowing» it was a pejorative term for Black people.

The report also says managers made Islamophobic remarks and «feigned innocence when white employees have unfairly advanced at their expense.»

The report's author, Rachel Zellars, said one of her key findings was a culture that «discourages reporting,» with employees widely noting that «accountability mechanisms are currently non-existent.»

Zellars compiled her report after speaking with 58 employees in the office from November 2021 to May 2022.

«When we received this report, it was shocking,» said Nicholas Marcus Thompson, president and CEO of the Black Class Action Secretariat, at a Monday press conference after the report was released.

«This is