Most Albertans are blissfully unaware of the University of Calgary’s recently announced “Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative”, a plan to hire 45 new professors over the next three years who must all must be members of what are now called “equity-deserving groups.”.Who are these fortunate people? The answer in the press release should sound familiar: women, Indigenous people, racialized/visible minority persons, and persons with disabilities. But the question remains: Will these new hires be going to specific individuals who have been the victims of past discrimination and will now receive what they otherwise would have been given based on merit?.While the press release is unclear, the job openings posted in the weeks following the announcement for the first of those 45 new academic positions make the policy plain. The first was posted on November 16 and is a full professorship with tenure at the Haskayne School of Business. It is “only open to qualified women candidates”. The second, also by the Haskayne school, for an assistant, associate or full professorship, is “only open to qualified Black scholars”. These, the posting adds by way of example, could be “Black Pioneer”, “African”, or “Caribbean.” The third job opening is from the Faculty of Nursing for the position of Director, Indigenous Initiatives. It is “only open to qualified Indigenous scholars (First Nations (Status, Non-Status), Métis, or Inuit.)”. Ted MortonTed Morton .The new U of C policy is a loud and proud declaration of the new social justice/identity politics ideology. It has nothing to do with compensating specific professors who suffered past incidents of discrimination. Nor is it about ensuring equality of opportunity going forward..The key to this new policy is the concept of “equity gap.” As applied at the University of Calgary, this means that there should be statistical parity between these groups in the university’s faculty and their “percentage” of Canadian society at large. When the former doesn’t mirror the latter, this is deemed an equity gap. And policies like that adopted by the U of C are deemed necessary to resolve the “under-representation” of the designated groups..Such parity has never been achieved anywhere in the world and never will be. In diverse, complex, large, multi-racial, immigrant societies like Canada, there are far too many variables that affect career choices and success. Perfect statistical parity among all measured groups is no more attainable in university faculties than it is on sports teams or in the neighbourhoods we all live in. But because the goal can never be achieved, it means that the policies aimed at achieving it can never be relaxed. This in turn ensures that the power and salaries of the bureaucratic equity gatekeepers won’t end either..But its consequence for our universities — and by extension, Albertans as a whole — will be negative. More qualified candidates for faculty hiring will be passed over in favour of applicants from “equity-deserving groups.” Not only is this unfair discrimination against the more qualified candidates, it will also undermine the competitiveness of our universities — both nationally and internationally..Welcome to the new woke world of “social justice.” It’s been taking over the universities, law schools, and human rights commissions for the past two decades. And now it’s coming after the rest of Canadian society. The rapid growth of this new woke/equity culture explains why Jordan Peterson recently resigned his tenured, full-professor position at the University of Toronto. “My qualified and supremely trained heterosexual white male graduate students,” Peterson wrote, “face a negligible chance of being offered university research positions.”.These discriminatory and unfair effects are not limited to white males. Similar policies in the United States are now being challenged by Asian-American families. They have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court with data proving that their more qualified children — university applicants with higher grades and higher scores on standardized tests — are being passed over in favour of applicants from “equity-deserving groups.” This is not just unfair to the better-qualified applicants. It is increasing rather than decreasing tensions between racial groups..This helps explain why in the United States voters in five states — including such liberal strongholds as California and Washington — have passed referendums that prohibit their governments from using racial preferences in public employment, public education, and public contracting. I have no doubt that a large majority of Albertans would choose the same..The sort of reverse discrimination now being launched by the U of C is not a path that Alberta needs to go down. Over the past six decades, families from all over Canada — and all over the world — have come to Alberta for better opportunities. More importantly, they have stayed. And they stayed because they have prospered..Many of these recent immigrants chose Canada precisely to escape societies where government policies treat racial, ethnic and religious groups differently — policies that are tearing apart their native countries. Thankfully, some new Canadians who have lived through such events are declaring that they don’t want their adopted country to enact policies that identify and treat people according to race. On a personal note, I am happy to report that a disproportionate share of my best students were second-generation Canadians. They were proud of their heritage, but they were happy to be in Canada and not where their parents came from..Alberta has prospered largely because it has been a classic meritocracy. With increasingly rare exceptions, Albertans don’t care where you’ve come from or what colour your skin is. At some point, all our families came from somewhere else. We care if you can do the job and do it well. If you can, you’re on our team. This culture has contributed to building the most productive and prosperous province in Canada..The more diverse we become, the more imperative it is that the government treat everyone equally. It is not only morally right. It works. In Alberta it has worked for the past six decades. And it will keep working if we give it the opportunity. The U of C’s new “inclusive” hiring policy is a huge step in the wrong direction..A longer version of this article recently appeared in C2C Journal..F.L. (Ted) Morton is professor emeritus and an Executive Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is also a former minister of energy and minister of finance in the Government of Alberta.
