Toronto members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada are being asked to support replacing the term “public servant” with “public sector worker” or “public service employee,” arguing the word “servant” carries historical associations with slavery and forced servitude.Blacklock's Reporter says the proposal comes from PSAC's Toronto Racialized Members Committee and will be considered at an emergency resolutions meeting on Sept. 28.“The Public Service Alliance is constitutionally committed to anti-racism, equity and fostering a respectful environment for all members,” the committee wrote to the union's Greater Toronto Area Council.“The term ‘servant’ carries significant historical trauma, systemic baggage and painful connotations deeply rooted in the history of enslavement and forced servitude of Black communities.”The resolution calls on PSAC to replace “public servant” throughout its constitution, internal regulations, future communications and policy statements with “public sector worker” or “public service employee.”It would not alter statutory terminology required in legal, grievance or tribunal proceedings before the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board.If Toronto members approve the resolution Sept. 28, it would be forwarded for consideration at PSAC's 2027 national convention..PSAC was formed in 1966 through the merger of the Civil Service Federation of Canada, which represented about 80,000 workers, and the 35,000-member Civil Service Association of Canada.The Civil Service Association was co-founded by James Best, a Black Nova Scotian who became its first president in 1957. Best later served as assistant deputy labour minister before being appointed Canada's first Black high commissioner in the foreign service in 1985, serving as envoy to Trinidad.Claude Edwards, an RCAF combat veteran who became PSAC's first president, described delegates at the union's founding convention in Ottawa as “responsible public employees” committed to “speaking with one voice for all civil servants.”Edwards died in 2010 at the age of 94.
