Where we stand: Three leaders on being a Black person in corporate Canada - and what needs to change

Dennis Mitchell, CEO and CIO of Starlight Capital, seen here at the Albany Club in Toronto, on Feb. 28, 2019.Last week I got a call from a young man of colour that I mentor. He was despondent. He said, “It doesn’t matter what I achieve, a number of people out there will still see me as a threat and may kill me over something as simple as a counterfeit $20 [bill] or reaching for my licence or registration in the car.

When you’re putting together a work force, you want people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Business is a series of optimizations – figuring out the right capital structure, the right product mix or the right price. If your work force is diverse, you can pull the answers from a wider range of knowledge and experience.But you’re never going to have a diverse work force if you’re always hiring and promoting the people you went to Upper Canada College with. Cast a wider net.

I am a professional engineer. One of the beauties of being a licensed professional engineer with APEGA [the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta] is I get an annual salary survey, and that salary survey tells me every year how much less I make than my male peers because I’m a woman. I would also love to know how much less I make because I’m a woman of colour. There’s no data for that.

I was 15 years old when [Michael] Wade Lawson was killed by Peel Regional Police in 1988. I knew Wade. His mother [Evelyn Lennon-Lyon] was my hairdresser. I knew Wade because he’d be there, mowing the lawn at the salon.I don’t know that the majority of business leaders across Canada can point to an incident at 15 years old and say, “I know someone who has been murdered by the police.” I just don’t think that’s a common lived experience.Kevin Johnson, CEO of MediaCom Canada.

globebusiness I will tell you what needs to change, promotion because of colour (not white) and resolution of complaints for ALL not just non white

globebusiness Not everyone or just anyone is cut out for corporate jobs it takes a lot of training and time we should not throw people in jobs they can't handle black or white,.

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