Physical/Mental Disabilities/Trans/Visible Minority? Have We Got A Job For You!!!!

"[Positions are] designated to candidates who self-identify as women with a disability or gender equity-seeking persons with a disability."

"The preference given to equity-deserving groups in recruitment processes is based on self-identification." 

"[To qualify as] racialized [applicants must identify as] non-white."

"[Members of a] gender equity-seeking [group must confirm that they] identify as anything not fitting cultural norms around gender identity, expression, and/or sexuality."

"Disabled [applicants include anyone who self-identifies as having] a chronic, long-term or recurring physical, sensory, mental, learning or intellectual impairment." 

Dalhousie University position-seeking criteria

DEI isn’t just widespread, it’s practically ubiquitous, encompassing 98% of all academic job postings. Aristotle Foundation

 

It starts with Canada's Liberal government's grants into research chairs at Canadian universities. Men who are able-bodied are by virtue of their unqualified descent from 'colonial powers' regardless of the time that has passed from that distant past, are considered themselves to be 'colonialist imperialists', thus ineligible for positions in science at Canadian universities funded by government largess. These $100,000+ plus positions are simply off limits to any candidates who do not fall into the prescribed categories of women with disabilities, or gender equity-seeking individuals with disabilities.

 

In their peerless wisdom, government has decreed -- and universities have agreed -- that positions in leading science chairs within academia cannot be filled any longer with people qualified in their field of science. They must move on elsewhere to make room for replacements who will tackle complex scientific formulae from the perspective of queers, Indigenous and female perspectives. At Dalhousie, one of the most deeply equity-involved universities in Canada, the search is on to find the ideal candidate to apply artificial intelligence to 'healthy aging', within the new focus of using artificial intelligence in research and development.

 

To be fair, candidate screening based on colour or sex has become standard practice at universities right across Canada. Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy's January report reviewed 489 academic job postings in Canada, to find that 98 percent contained a condition that "directly or indirectly discriminated against candidates". Dalhousie was identified as one of the most enthusiastic practitioners of identity quotas in hiring. Multiple positions explicitly turning way candidates based on race, gender or sexual identity have been advertised by Dalhousie in the last year. 

 

prioritizing DEI over excellence

From the school's Canada Research Chair in marine carbon transformation,  another in Indigenous prosperity and economic reconciliation, another in observational chemical oceanography, yet another on engineering where applicants are required to generate new technologies to work in deepwater ocean environments, candidates must have an Indigenous, 'racialized women' or 'racialized gender minorities' background to succeed in convincing Dalhousie they would be the ideal candidate for the job. 

 

There is the risk at Dalhousie, as at other universities across Canada, that a share of the federal government's financial support for science funding will be withdrawn unless some  hires remain based on these characteristics. Canada Research Chairs represent funding to the tune of $310 million annually and remain bound to strict quotas on researchers' colour pigment and gender. By the timeline of December 2029, it is expected that 50.9 percent of all Canada Research Chairs be comprised of women and gender minorities; 22 percent visible minorities; 7.5 percent people with disabilities, and 4.9 percent Indigenous.

 

The origins of 'equity quotas' in hiring practises began in the United States where the widespread method of identity-based quotas was eventually hobbled when legal challenges conducted under the terms of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in any program that receives federal funding, led to its cessation. In Canada, Section15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly permits discriminatory hiring as long as the practice ameliorates "conditions of disadvantaged individuals".

 

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 e

To measure the prevalence and severity of DEI in academic hiring, we reviewed approximately 50 active, academic job postings from the largest public university in each Canadian province. The review was based on eight research questions that each gauge a different DEI strategy—from acknowledging DEI ideologies, to compelling intellectual conformity, to reverse racism (e.g., excluding white males from applying).

All 10 universities sampled—and 477 of the 489 job advertisements reviewed—employed some form of DEI requirement or strategy in filling academic vacancies. In other words, 98 percent of the academic postings directly or indirectly discriminated against candidates and/or threatened academic freedom.

Some noteworthy instances include the following:

• All University of Toronto job postings and 96 percent of Dalhousie’s mentioned or implied a candidate’s “contribution to DEI” was an asset.
• McGill and the University of Saskatchewan required all applicants to complete a DEI survey.
• Nearly two-thirds of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) and 55 percent of the University of Manitoba’s job postings required candidates to submit a DEI statement or essay.

Interestingly, the institution most likely to exclude candidates outright was also the least likely to employ any DEI strategies. At UBC, nearly one out of every five academic job postings explicitly restricted the job to a particular race, ethnicity, group identity, or other inherent trait. However, it was also the university least likely to call for specific DEI strategies; they were absent from 12 percent of UBC’s postings.

Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy