DEI isn’t dead yet

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulates more than 2,000 broadcasters, most of which post news on their websites. It was directed by cabinet just over two years ago to “make any changes to its regulatory framework that are necessary” in order to advance the profile of Indigenous people, official language minorities, equity-seeking and ethnocultural groups.” Equity-seekers include “Black and other racialized persons, persons with disabilities, members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities, women, members of other equity-seeking groups, and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds.” The order-in-council mentions “equity-seeking” 11 times and Indigenous an astonishing 44 times. 2SLGBTQI+, while definitely comprehensive, is relatively under-represented with only six mentions. Not surprisingly, the major broadcasters all appear to have CRTC-pleasing DEI policies. Take Bell Media, for example, which, through its Inclusion and Representation Plan, plans on commissioning 50 percent of its original programming from “under-represented groups.” The “arms-length” regulator is also instructed to report on its progress in this regard, which, seeing as it was assigned to oversee implementation of the Online News Act, probably explains why the group chosen to manage the distribution of Google’s $100 million fund—the Canadian Journalism Collective—recently asked recipients about the demographic makeup of their newsrooms. There are 404 corporations, many of which operate multiple stations and newspapers, approved to collect from this fund. Then there’s the CBC. Those who monitored its CRTC license renewal hearing in 2021 will recall that diversity was the primary theme for Canada’s largest news organization, which is all-in on DEI or, as the CBC calls it, EDI—equity, diversity, and inclusion. Its goals with its 2022-2025 plan were to make sure “half of all new hires for executive and senior management positions at CBC/Radio-Canada will be Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, or people with disabilities, retention and promotion rates for Indigenous Peoples, racialized people or people with disabilities will be doubled” and “by 2025, at least one of the key creative roles in all English- and French-language programs will be held by someone who is Indigenous, racialized, a member of LGBTQ2+ communities, or has a disability.” It appears that the broadcaster has blown past its goal with 84.1 percent of new hires now being “Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and racialized people”. Whew. Clearly, DEI is not under threat in Canada. The government, its regulator, and its media funding arms are all making sure of that. To be clear, if you are operating a media company and you aren’t working to make sure your staff represents and—this is very important—thinks like the community you are trying to serve, you are a fool and will fail. Yet there are many, including women and others from “equity-deserving” groups, who will argue that, despite its multiple “EDI” initiatives, the CBC lacks the intellectual wingspan to properly serve the constituency that funds it and, even while it may look like it has changed, hasn’t really changed at all. Many years ago, when the demographics of the city I worked in—Calgary—were obviously shifting, those of us in newsrooms tried to keep up, but not because the government told us to. It wasn’t easy. Journalists, despite their largely progressive worldviews, can be extremely hidebound in their ways—but adaptation was considered necessary to remain relevant. The bottom-line belief was that the greater the intellectual diversity (which backgrounds influence) within a newsroom, the more likely it is that the quality and appeal of reporting and commentary would improve. Like any business, journalism must embrace merit and simultaneously aspire to be as diverse in terms of gender, race, etc., as the audience it serves. But only because it is very obviously common sense and absolutely not because it pleases the government and its tentacles, none of which have any business engineering the makeup of the nation’s newsrooms.