'I'm very thankful to be Canadian': attendees at diversity conference react to political shift in the U.S.

The mood was different at a conference in Sudbury on Thursday focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Three days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end what were termed "radical and wasteful" diversity, equity and inclusion programs in that country's federal agencies.

On Tuesday, a memo was sent out to U.S. federal agencies that all federal employees in DEI roles would be put on leave.

American corporations like Meta and Amazon also followed suit, cancelling their own diversity programs.

"I'm very thankful to be Canadian," said Carrie-Lynn Hotson, the owner of Sudbury-based Inspiring Organizational Growth, in reaction to the news south of the border.

"I think that we are a more inclusive country to begin with, and I think we're also being much more strategic."

Hotson works with businesses and organizations to help them become more inclusive in their workplace culture and hiring practices.

She said more inclusive organizations perform better because they open up their pool of potential job candidates, and bring in more diverse ideas.

"I also became a Cambrian College professor and so many of my students are your next employees," she said.

"They are not looking at employers just for, 'How much money do I make?' They are looking at employers to say, 'How truly inclusive are you?'"

The executive order Trump signed said DEI initiatives diminish "the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society."

But Hotson argues that the idea of merit is often steeped in biases. 

"A lot of times your job descriptions are based on socioeconomic assumptions that you need to have had five years of experience in a similar job to what I did to therefore be available and be able to do the job that I do," she said.

She said some employers are "thinking outside the box" and are training new employees who don't necessarily have as much work experience.

Megan Pilatzke, an inclusion specialist with an organization called Specialisterne, said DEI initiatives give opportunities to people who would be overlooked in the workplace otherwise.

Specialisterne works with employers to be more inclusive of neurodiverse people.

Pilatzke, who is autistic, said that 85 per cent of neurodiverse Canadians – which includes autistic people – are unemployed. 

"Unfortunately, a lot of these folks that are making these decisions are being told that these [DEI] initiatives don't work by people who do not experience disabilities," she said.

"They do not experience barriers, and I would ask them kindly to please start talking to people with lived experience, and ask them about the barriers they've been experiencing."

Robin Bower, the diversity, equity and inclusion manager at a Sudbury-based organization called Spark Employment Services, said the point of DEI initiatives is to reduce barriers so anyone with the right skills can gain employment.

"What it does is it brings people with different merits to the forefront," he said.

Spark Employment Services organized the EDGE+ Annual Conference in Sudbury.