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How are organizations moving towards reconciliation and building organizational cultures that support Indigenous inclusion? In late 2021, the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) and Indigenous Works (IW) launched an innovative CCDI-IW Partnership which brings more focus on Indigenous inclusion in the workplace called the DreamMakers Council (or DM Council). By combining our resources and research, we bring our mutual Employer Partners new models and training solutions to meet this goal. Currently with close to 50 DM Council organizations, participants build community with other like-minded organizations to increase understanding of organizational strategies and efforts to advance Indigenous inclusion in the workplace.

In 2022, we interviewed five members of the DM Council to create case studies that were presented at the DM Summit in December 2022. The Summit allowed members to meet each other and discuss their experiences virtually. It was a success as members shared highlights of their key learnings on their organizational journey toward truth and reconciliation. Many of the case studies emphasize the importance of ongoing learning and making meaningful action which is demonstrated in the snippets below.

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Quotes from the DreamMakers Summit report

“The leadership team at Atuka has acknowledged that being a Canadian company comes with a responsibility to Indigenous communities and reconciliation. As a company of knowledge seekers, Atuka is committed to ongoing learning to continue on the path to reconciliation.”

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“Reconciliation starts with truth. One way that Farm Credit Canada is trying to move toward reconciliation is by understanding the history of the organization itself. This truth telling enables FCC and its employees to deepen their shared commitment to a different path forward.”

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“Through engagement surveys, Home Hardware is gaining a better understanding of the diversity of their workforce and priority areas. They are moving away from asking, “are we responsible?” and are instead asking, “how do we take action in a meaningful way?”

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“To support BC Hydro’s move toward true and lasting reconciliation with Indigenous People, BC Hydro acknowledges past wrongs, listens to Indigenous perspectives and seeks shared understanding with First Nations communities and governments.”

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“Definity advocates for ongoing learning on IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) and Indigenous inclusion to avoid performative activism. They share a monthly IDEA calendar with employees and post a personal reflection on truth and reconciliation to support growth and learning year-round.”

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The DM Council has already fostered a group of organizations that are making positive changes to their workplaces. It is an amazing opportunity to build community and find the support that your organization needs to further your own goals of reconciliation.

To find out more about joining the DreamMakers Council, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected] with ‘DM Council’ in the email subject line.

by Sarita Naa Akuye Addy, PhD

This year’s Black History Month saw a lot of organizations and individuals taking the time to celebrate the history of the Black community and to acknowledge the achievements made towards North American society. Several organizations made public the special activities they rolled out to celebrate Black History. It is important to remember that Black employees are Black people all year round, and anti-Black policies and practices impact us every day. And so, to move beyond sporadic and performative organizational allyship, here are some questions to ask yourself and your organization:

Are you working to address unconscious anti-Blackness?

Doing the work of being anti-racist is not as simple as embracing the physical characteristics of Black folks, like accepting Black hair or accepting different African diasporan English and French accents. Nor is it jiving with the manifestations of the various cultural identities of Black peoples. Rather, addressing unconscious anti-Blackness involves interrogating some actions and attitudes that you may be comfortable sitting with regarding Black people:

• Do you excuse the casual racism of people in your circle, instead of addressing the harm in their language and attitudes?
• Are you comfortable seeing Black people in lower and mid-level roles, but never in higher roles, despite their best efforts?
• Why are you not uncomfortable when proposed policies and practices will disadvantage Black communities and their families?
• Do you feel that the urgency attached to initiatives designed to remove barriers for Black folks is overly exaggerated?
• Are you comfortable when a Black person is tone-policed or is pressured to tone down aspects of their identities to get ahead?
• Do you claim allyship to your coterie of Black colleagues or friends and not use your professional or personal network to help advance their careers or goals?

This exercise is not reserved only for those who are new to the anti-racism journey. A big part of doing the work is to first understand your unconscious anti-Blackness, find where it springs from, and actively question these thoughts.

Do you understand how your industry perpetuates anti-Blackness? What are you doing to address it?

Building an anti-racist workplace means checking your anti-Black biases constantly, but also that which is wired into the industry or sector that you operate within. Systemic racism exists in almost all aspects of our social institutions. However, it does not show up in the same ways.

Take the time to learn and understand how it shows up in your field. How it shows up in the educational setting may be quite different than how it shows up in the tech field or entertainment industry. So, what are the ways in which your industry practices disadvantage Black employees? How does the recruitment, promotion and standard operational practices and policies leave out your Black employees or colleagues? If in doubt, dig into the history of your industry’s practices and culture or ask your Black colleagues. Desist from applying a generalized approach to addressing anti-Blackness in your workplace.

Once you understand how these attitudes show up, what are you doing or what have you done to address it? What are the resources you have at your disposal to change that status quo?

Is your organizational culture truly inclusive?

A workforce that is made up of different races and cultures does not translate as diversity of thought. When we bring Black people into an organizational paradigm that is culturally White-leaning without changing the organizational culture, we risk harming Black employees. Ask, what aspects of organizational culture need to change so that Black employees can feel included? Does the organizational culture consider the inclusion of various cultural perspectives? Consider who is getting promoted, who is not getting promoted and why? What are the systems/criteria in place that prevent Black folks from getting promoted? Inclusion is about transformative change that enables everyone including Black folks to be authentic in their workplaces.

Issues that affect us shouldn’t only be highlighted and addressed cosmetically during and prior to Black History Month and should be work that is done all year around. Without truly understanding how we unconsciously perpetuate anti-Blackness and how the standard operating principles of our industries promote racism, we will continue to harm Black employees all the while claiming to be championing their cause. The insidious thing about systemic racism is that it can survive on its own and does not need people to enforce it, especially when it is implemented under the guise of fair and neutral policies everyone must abide by. And so that is why addressing anti-Blackness requires people who understand the systemic nature of anti-Blackness, and not simply people who have a history of implementing social programs and initiatives.

Anti-racism work needs to be done with true intention and a profound desire to see transformative change. When organizations overly focus on the grand strategic plan without checking long-held biases, even the best plans and programs can be undermined by individual and systemic actions and inactions.

March 20 is International Francophonie Day. It celebrates the French language across the world and cooperation among French-speaking nations and groups. According to the Observatoire démographique et statistique de l’espace francophone, there are approximately 321 million speakers of the French language in the world, as of 2022.

Of course, French is one of Canada’s official languages. According to the 2021 Census, 29.2% of Canadians can speak French. Moreover, 11.2% of Canadians speak only French of the two official languages, and 18% of Canadians speak both English and French. Interestingly, a greater proportion of Canadians who speak both English and French at home have French as their first language. Indeed, in 2021, 47.6% of Canadians with French as a first language also spoke English, while 9% of Canadians with English as a first language also spoke French.

I have worked as a French as a Second Language (FSL) teacher with folks who have English as a first language, or other languages as their first language. I have heard firsthand how difficult learning French can be for some folks, especially when it comes to practicing the language with first-language French speakers in Canada. So, to celebrate International Francophonie Day, I would like to share some tips to speak French with French Canadian speakers that folks might not learn in classes that teach “standard” French.

Canadian French has particularities stemming from centuries of history and presents variations based on geography – it is not a monolith. In Canada, French is often spoken in ways that are not considered “formal” or “proper” French, and hence, might not be taught in the classroom. This can make it difficult for FSL learners to understand the French that is actually spoken every day around them, especially in the familiar register, when it is different from what they are learning. Here are four characteristics of spoken Canadian French for FSL learners in Canada.

Please note that I will make generalizations about Canadian French in this text. It is completely possible that they do not apply to every Canadian French speaker. They are meant as tendencies or “typical” characteristics of Canadian French speakers. Moreover, these tips are not useful for formal communication – do not use these in a school essay or a work report!

1. Closed questions and the redundant “tu”

You may have learned that there are two ways of transforming a statement into a yes/no question in French:

• Reversing the subject pronoun and verb: “Tu aimes le chocolat” becomes “Aimes-tu le chocolat?”
• Adding “Est-ce que” in front of the statement: “Tu aimes le chocolat” becomes “Est-ce que tu aimes le chocolat?”

In informal conversation, we seldom use the first method in Canadian French. We are more likely to use the second. While we will understand what you are asking if you use the first method, it might sound a little bit “off” to us. Moreover, there is a third method used in informal Canadian French.

• Change of inflection (with or without the redundant “tu”): “Tu aimes le chocolat” becomes “Tu aimes le chocolat?” with a higher inflection at the end of the sentence. Also, French Canadians often add a redundant “tu” pronoun after the verb, regardless of the grammatical person of the subject. For example: “Tu aimes-tu le chocolat?”

Other examples:

• “Ça va-tu bien?” [“Are you well?” – literally “Is it going well?”]
• “Il est-tu gentil?” [“Is he nice?”]
• “On mange-tu au resto ce soir?” [“Are we eating at the restaurant tonight?” It could also mean “Should” or “Could we eat at the restaurant tonight?”]
• “L’examen, je l’ai-tu passé?” [The exam, did I pass it?]

This can be particularly confusing for FSL speakers when the subject of the sentence is not the second person singular. The “tu” is added for emphasis or to mark the informal tone of the question. It is not the subject of the question.

2. Using “on” instead of “nous”

If you are learning French, you might have encountered the pronoun “on.” “On” conjugates in the third person singular, like “il” or “elle.” It can have a few different meanings.

• “On” is sometimes an impersonal pronoun. It does not refer to any specific person. It might be used to make general statements, and can be equivalent to “it” or “one” in English. For example:
• “On ne connaît pas le résultat de l’élection” [“The election result is unknown” or “Nobody knows the election result.”]
• “C’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron” [“It’s by smithing that one becomes a blacksmith” – an idiomatic expression akin to “practice makes perfect”]
• “On” can refer to an unknown person, not the speaker or the person spoken to. It can be equivalent to “someone” in English. For example: “On cogne à la porte.” [“Someone is knocking at the door.”] French Canadians are more likely to say “Quelqu’un” (“Someone”) instead of this meaning of “on.” As in, “Quelqu’un cogne à la porte.”
• In informal language, “on” can take the same meaning as “nous” – the first person plural, a group including the speaker. To note, even when it means “nous,” “on” is still conjugated in the third person singular. For example: Instead of “Mon ami et moi, nous aimons le café.” – “Mon ami et moi, on aime le café.” [“My friend and I, we like coffee.”]

French Canadians tend to use “on” instead of “nous” in informal or spoken communication. It can be challenging to determine which meaning of “on” is being used. Pay special attention to the context of the statement or ask follow up questions.

Moreover, it can sound odd for Canadian French speakers to hear someone use “nous” in an informal context, as many are more used to hearing “on”.

3. Using “futur proche” instead of “futur simple”

In a formal French class, you may have learned the “futur simple” verb tense to describe the future. “Je serai”, “tu auras”, “il ira”, etc. That tense is mostly useful for formal conversations and in writing. In every day informal conversations, Canadian French speakers are more likely to use the “futur proche” tense (literally, “near future”). “Futur proche” uses the verb “aller” (“to go”) in the present tense, followed by an infinitive verb, like “Je vais être”, “tu vas avoir”, “il va aller”, etc. It’s akin to using “going to” to indicate the future in English.

Both “futur simple” and “futur proche” are used to express something that will happen in the future. They are often used interchangeably, but there can be a slight difference in meaning, where “futur proche” is usually more definitive, the plan is already in action, or it is more sure to happen.

For example:

• “Elle soumettra son rapport à sa gestionnaire” [“She will submit her report to her manager” – as in, when the report is ready, she needs to hand it to her manager; that is how the process is supposed to go.]
• “Elle va soumettre son rapport à sa gestionnaire” [“She is going to submit her report to her manager” – as in, the report might already be completed, and she will hand it over very soon.]

Canadian French speakers often use “futur proche” for either meaning in informal conversations. What’s convenient, too, is that, for “futur proche”, you only really need to remember the present tense conjugation of “aller”, instead of the “futur simple” conjugation of every verb. It’s similar to English in that sense.

Again, if someone were to use “futur simple” in an informal conversation, that might sound odd to a Canadian French speaker. We will likely understand the meaning but might be confused by the formal tone.

4. Detaching the subject with added pronoun

In French, much like in English, it is common to detach the subject (or sometimes the object) from the sentence, isolate it at the beginning or end of the sentence with a comma, and add a corresponding pronoun in the original sentence. We often do this for emphasis. For example:

• “Ce projet, il est très difficile.” [“This project, it is very difficult.” Here, the subject is detached and repeated.]
• “La diversité, c’est le mélange de différentes identités.” [“Diversity, it is the mix of different identities.” Here, the subject is detached and repeated.]
• “Je la connais, Annie.” [“I know her, Annie.” Here, the object is detached and repeated.]
• “Moi, j’aime ça, les jeux de société.” [“Me, I like that, boardgames.” Here, both the subject and the object are detached and repeated.]

French Canadians tend to detach elements from sentences and repeat them with pronouns pretty often. If, in a formal French class, you learn basic sentence structure as Subject, Verb, Object, which is correct for the most part, it can be confusing when there are added elements in everyday speech. Listen carefully and try to identify the added pronouns. The things they replace are often right next to them in the sentence.

Practice makes perfect!

Learning a new language is never easy. Many experts will tell you that the best way to learn a language is to practice it every day and engage in conversations with other speakers. Be open to learning things outside of a formal classroom setting – since you will most often use the language outside of the classroom anyway! Hopefully, the tips I provided will help you understand Canadian French a little better.

On International Francophonie Day, we celebrate all variations of the French language. If you are learning French, you are a Francophone, too! Take some time to celebrate!

Joyeuse journée internationale de la Francophonie!