Date of Publishing:

Section 1: Institutional GBA+ Capacity

This year NSIRA named a Champion for Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. The Champion worked to create a culture of inclusion by holding staff discussions on anti-racism and themes related to diversity.

In complaints investigations, NSIRA followed a well-documented process in all cases to ensure equal access to justice for all complainants. It began efforts to study how to systematically analyze complaints data from previous years to look at demographic trends, including race. In this regard, it is working jointly with another review body to leverage relevant academic expertise to assist NSIRA in collecting the right kind of data in future complaints investigations to assist with this analysis. The aim is to gain insight into communities most impacted by national security activities, which can assist NSIRA in guiding its outreach and engagement priorities.

NSIRA’s program of planned and ongoing reviews also takes into account the potential for national security and intelligence activities to result in unequal outcomes for visible minority groups. Ongoing reviews of the Canada Border Services Agency’s targeting practices, as well as the use of biometrics in the national security and intelligence context, focus specifically on understanding the impacts of these activities on diverse communities.

NSIRA continued to hire a diverse group of employees with a mix of experience and skills to fulfil its unique mandate. NSIRA conducted blind resume screening and testing as part of its hiring practices. NSIRA has only six executive positions, two of which are classified in the Law Manager (LC) group. Since April 1, 2020, five positions were staffed, of which 60% of the appointees self-identified as a member of an employment equity designated group. As well, four management positions (e.g., EC-07, FI-04, etc.) were staffed in 2020–21, all with members of an employment equity designated group.