8 in 10 Black Canadians say they still face discrimination at work: report

According to a KPMG survey, 81 per cent Black Canadian respondents experienced some form of racism or microaggression in the workplace over the past year.  

While Canadian companies have made some progress in making the workplace more diverse and inclusive, eight in 10 Black Canadians say they still face some form of discrimination at work, a new report by KPMG has found.

The accounting firm’s survey, released for Black History Month, said 81 per cent respondents experienced some form of racism or microaggression in the workplace over the past year.

“In our third survey in as many years, Black Canadians feel that Corporate Canada is making headway in meeting their 2020 commitments to end anti-Black racism, create more inclusive workplace environments and promote more Black people to leadership roles,” says Elio Luongo, CEO and senior partner, KPMG in Canada.

“However, despite these efforts, more than 80 per cent of Black Canadians faced racism in the workplace last year, nearly a 10 per cent increase from what we found a year ago.”

More than half of the respondents (53 per cent) said they faced less racism than they did in previous years, while 15 per cent said they faced the same amount of racism or microaggression and 13 per cent said they faced more racism.

Rob Davis, KPMG Canada’s chief inclusion, diversity and equity officer, said Canadian companies should not take any progress for granted.

“My advice to companies is double down, take a hard look at your governance structure, your policies, your talent hiring. A really critical part of it is retention,” he said.

While 83 per cent felt valued and respected in the same way as their non-Black colleagues, an increase of five per cent compared to last year, 78 per cent feel they have to work harder than their non-Black colleagues to be valued and recognized in the same way. This varies by profession but is more acute in engineering (93 per cent), financial services (91 per cent), and architecture and urban planning (86 per cent) than technology (60 per cent).