CMHR announces workplace review after multiple complaints of racism By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:45 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020 Last Modified: 1:03 PM CDT Thursday, Jun. 11, 2020 Updates

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Days after 15,000 demonstrators marched to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to protest racial inequality, the iconic Winnipeg institution says it is confronting its own issues of racism in the workplace.

"We will be hiring an external person to review and listen to the personal experiences of any current and former staff person, including the experiences shared on social media, and to offer other ways to participate," CMHR president and chief executive officer John Young said in a statement Wednesday.

For days, current and former employees had railed on social media against museum officials for not addressing complaints of racism made by Black, Indigenous, and people of colour staff. Some said when they tried to get management and human resources to act, they were ignored, chastised or singled out as troublemakers.

"Black employees have been bringing forward these issues to every level of management since the opening of the museum," Thiané Diop said on Facebook.

As part of the museum’s response, Young wrote on the CMHR’s Facebook page: "Too often, voices breaking the silence on racism are marginalized, ignored or dismissed. As an institution dedicated to human rights, the museum seeks to amplify those voices. But it is also the museum’s responsibility to listen when issues are raised about its own practices and take action to address them."

 

 

The statement outraged former employee Julie White.

"I remember being in a typical, highly tense CMHR meeting with management HR, yourself and the V-P, and your V-P actually told me that when we brought up concerns about racism, it made them feel unsafe," White posted on Facebook. "I had to remind them that it was not our responsibility to make them feel safe, it was the other way around."

On Wednesday, both White and Diop said they weren’t prepared to be interviewed by media.

"I’m accountable to make sure we do better," Young told the Free Press in an interview Wednesday,

Young said he’d heard about "a few" of the workplace complaints of racism, but not all of them. He said he didn’t want to get into details about specific cases.

The Winnipeg-based museum plans to “transparent throughout, sharing with all staff the results of the investigation and audit and the action plan.”

"Some of these complaints have come up through human resources," he said. "We have a process that responds to them. The process is similar across institutions.

"Our action going forward is to have a review of those processes."

When asked why he didn’t act if he knew about the complaints and how they were being handled, Young said any corporation or institution has a distribution of job responsibilities, but the buck stops with him.

"I hold myself accountable," he said. "We have a high standards and expectations."

Complaints by former and current employees on social media "are outcomes of frustration and kind of a call to action," Young acknowledged.

The CEO said the museum is hiring an external organization to do a comprehensive audit of workplace practices and policies around diversity, respect, anti-racism and non-discrimination. It will use the results to develop an action plan.

"I want to be clear that while accountability for this plan lays with the leadership team, its development and implementation will be done in partnership, working with people," Young said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The Winnipeg-based museum plans to "transparent throughout, sharing with all staff the results of the investigation and audit and the action plan."

In October, the Free Press asked Young about the lack of diversity in management at the CMHR, following a report in the journal Museum Management and Curatorship. The 16-page article said of the 26 managerial and executive positions on the CMHR website, just one was occupied by a person belonging to a visible minority.

At the time, Young said the CMHR was actively trying to recruit and retain a diverse staff — as are many other institutions and corporations, and it is an "important issue."

In an Instagram post Wednesday, one of the authors of the museum journal report called for the CMHR to launch "a truth and reconciliation process led by past and present Black and Indigenous employees who have been victimized by the institution," and to include other people of colour.

"We need to heal and the CMHR needs to face the truth out in the open," said Armando Perla, a curator who was one of the CMHR’s co-founders, in an Instagram post. Perla declined a request for an interview on Wednesday. According to his social media posts, Perla, who identifies as a queer man, experienced homophobia while employed at the museum in Winnipeg and was marginalized for speaking up.

Young said he hopes those with grievances will be willing to take part in the museum’s review process.

"I think it’s important that we acknowledge the statements made and we need also to acknowledge the frustrations and courage demonstrated. We do intend to seek the opportunity to include a variety of perspectives," he said.

"It would be a perfect world if we could solve these challenges tomorrow. It’s a long road."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca