OPINION: Senate administration’s efforts on diversity should be applauded

The Senate has come a long way since the early 2000s. Back then, Conservative Senator Donald Oliver charged that the Senate’s administration—and the public service, in general—was rife with systemic racism.

“The Senate’s lack of diversity is so glaring and so problematic to the future of our institution that it heightens the desire of many Canadians to have our Upper Chamber abolished because it is irrelevant and unrepresentative of Canada’s cultural mosaic,” the Tory Senator told The Hill Timesback in 2005, after a report that there were zero visible minorities appointed to senior- and middle-management positions between 2000 and 2004.

Today, the numbers are better, and work is continuing to improve them even further, thanks to a joint effort that includes a subcommittee led by Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer.

But there’s still so much to be done, and it’s nice to see that the Senate is openly making strides.

Read the full editorial on the website of the Hill Times.