An internal report said senior management at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is so racist cabinet should appoint an ombudsman to investigate employee complaints, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“Some people do need to be fired,” said one IRCC staffer in a report. .Pollara Strategic Insights said participants “consider the only trustworthy mechanism for reporting and escalating incidents of racism at the department is through an external entity which many liken to an ombudsman.”.“They want an independent body that can receive and investigate complaints anonymously and is given the power to impose consequences and report on case numbers,” said Pollara. .It said participants feel there is an urgent need for strong action to investigate and deal with employees and managers in the international network whose racist behaviour and communications continue to create a toxic environment in offices abroad and affect how it is represented in foreign postings. .IRCC employees said their supervisors “have no realization of how racist they are.” .“We need to weed these people out,” said another employee. .A 2021 study censured department managers for crude bigotry at work. It said supervisors referred to cubicles where black employees worked as the ghetto and nicknamed African countries the dirty thirty. .Other managers asked to pat black employees’ hair, discussed perceived sexual attributes of black women, complained Mexican immigrants come to collect social insurance and told staff indigenous people are lazy and that they should have stood up for their land if they wanted it. .The House of Commons Immigration Committee cited the IRCC in a November report for uneven treatment of foreign students and visa applicants depending on their country of origin..MPs were told a Canadian visa office in Sydney had a 17% rejection rate, but an office in Chandigarh, India, declined two-thirds of them. .Former immigration, refugees, and citizenship minister Marco Mendicino stayed silent on the allegations of having racists in his ministry in 2021..READ MORE: Mendicino mum on racism allegations.Mendicino would not talk about an internal report documenting racist hate speech by managers. .He said all Canadians must do the hard work of fighting bigotry..Findings were based on 15 focus groups run by Pollara with IRCC employees. Management paid $99,779 for the study.
