Quickly, Bambi would like to discuss the following CBC article entitled “Academic says universities too worried about bad PR to deal with systemic racism”:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/bad-pr-systemic-racism-universities-1.5629591
First, the CBC article above is incomplete if it does not mention an open letter by Dr. Haskell and Dr. McNall, in response to their Wilfrid Laurier President, Dr. Deb MacLatchy, claiming that her institution suffers from “systemic racism”. You can read this excellent letter here: bit.ly/2ZgGmEu
Second, Dr. Kofi Campbell, Vice-President Academic and Dean of Renison University College, featured in the CBC article today wrote about this topic in May, 2020:
Last but not the least, merit–AND merit ONLY–is what should matter the most in a hiring process, whether it is for a private company or for a university.
In its aspiration for more justice, Canada must not get into the trap of quotas, as Lebanon has sadly done with religious affiliations.
Canada can ensure equality of opportunities for all (winning conditions of success) without falling into the trap of thinking that equality of career outcomes is desirable or realistic.
We do not do a favour to people of a certain minority by letting them think (or letting us think) that they earned their position because of quotas and not of merit.
Bambi is convinced of the above, especially after seeing the outcome of a quota-based system: Sectarianism failed everyone in the Lebanese public and semi-public sectors.
There too, initially, the idea was meant to be a noble and fair one to citizens from all their diverse groups. Despite this, the quota-based system failed the whole Lebanese society.
It is ironic that the people of Lebanon are increasingly denouncing such system whilst some in Canada seem to want to make us move into this direction.
Bambi thought that she has left this behind when she immigrated to Canada ☹.
Why is the Canada of 2020 pushing for such a change now?
