Local resident victim of racial discrimination
Posted Jul 29, 2010 By Ashley Kulp
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Tweet ThisEMC News - All Sarah Landriault wanted was a job.
However, the Kemptville resident got more than she bargained for July 19 when she was blocked from applying for a position while visiting the federal government's job website because she is Caucasian and not a visible minority.
Upon viewing an administrative assistant position with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Landriault felt she met all of the qualifications for the job and went through the application process only to have an error message pop up. Thinking she must have made a mistake in submitting her criteria, she reapplied only to have that same message come up again. This time she took a closer look at the message and was shocked to see that she was being barred from applying because she was white. (The application had asked her to indicate whether she was white, Aboriginal or a visible minority).
"I was totally dumbfounded. I was flabbergasted," Landriault remarked during a recent interview with the EMC, noting that she also searched the site for similar jobs and found another one looking for aboriginal residents only in a position with Revenue Canada. "...I'm being singled out for something I can't change."
The criteria Landriault was met with stated that applicants had to meet at least the first requirement which said the job was open to "members of the following employment equity groups: Aboriginal persons and visible minorities." The site described a visible minority as an individual who is "non-white in colour/race, regardless of place of birth."
Later that night, Landriault took to her blog to vent her frustrations, where her comments made an impact and the issue was picked up by national media.
"The issue comes down to the fact that you can't be partially racist. There's no such thing," she said. "...In the end, my skin colour shouldn't matter if I'm qualified. It's very insulting."
The mother of three, who has made headlines in the past while advocating for the rights of parents who choose not to use daycare, hasn't had a lot of luck on the job hunt. With her children in school full-time now, Landriault decided to try and enter the workforce again. While she loves living in Kemptville she admitted there aren't a lot of high-paying jobs available in the community, mostly part-time and full-time positions for little more than minimum wage.
"I've worked part-time at businesses in Kemptville over the years, but thought I'd branch out to Ottawa since I can't keep living on $10.25 an hour," she explained. "The government is more family-oriented and flexible with vacation time, so that's why I was looking there."
"Walmart's coming and that's really great but they're still minimum wage and part-time hours there," Landriault continued. "Where are the companies that can move in here and give us decent paying jobs? Where is that in our infrastructure program?...Where are our factories? Where are our industries? There is room here for plants."
While Citizenship and Immigration declined to speak about the matter, other politicians have come forward to make their views known, including federal immigration minister Jason Kenney, who has said that he's offended by the situation.
Then on July 22, Landriault told the EMC she had been contacted by federal treasury board president Stockwell Day, who will be asking for a review of racial hiring.
"He told me he's going to do everything he can to fix this and not leave any minorities out and not have any race excluded," Landriault commented. "He said that he'll move as fast as they can, which is kind of cool."
While she's hopeful that something will be done, Landriault also realizes it could be a long process. "It's going to be a long while before something is done," she said.
Though this experience has been a setback, Landriault is continuing to submit applications and hand out resumes. She's been keeping her skills up but says the job hunt has been tough.
"I am completely happy in my family life, but professionally, I am completely depressed," she said.
"I just want a job. Hydro keeps going up and I need to pay my bills," Landriault concluded.
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