From Talk To Action
I am very excited that this blog marks my first blog by guest bloggers. I am honoured to highlight the work of Mark Sevestre and Shannon Rohan.
Shannon Rohan is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Shareholder Association for Research and Education.
Mark Sevestre is the Senior Advisor and Founding Member of the National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association, and an Advisory Board Member at First Peoples Worldwide.
While their work is focused on corporate boards in Canada, the content can be equally applied to the non-profit boards within our Movement.
In addition, this blog marks the first of a 3-part series on equity work in our Movement. The other two blogs will be coming out in the weeks ahead.
Mark Sevestre
Shannon Rohan
From Talk to Action: The time is now to accelerate Indigenous representation on corporate boards in Canada
Mark Sevestre
Shannon Rohan
Over the past year, corporate governance discussions around diversity and inclusion have taken a necessary and long overdue look at representation of Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) and other underrepresented groups in corporate leadership.
The BlackNorth Initiative – an important voice in this space – calls on corporate leaders to commit to specific actions and targets designed to end systemic racism and create opportunities for underrepresented BIPOC communities across their organizations.
Among these underrepresented communities are Indigenous peoples.
Despite some progress, Canada’s corporate sector has much work to do in accelerating representation and participation of Indigenous people on corporate boards, in management and across companies’ operations including as employees, suppliers and business partners.
More and more Canadian companies and investors recognize the business benefits of building diverse teams that include Indigenous peoples, and advancing the broader goals of reconciliation and anti-racism.
Our latest research on a sample of TSX-listed companies suggests that corporate disclosure practices are generally trending in the right direction as companies slowly recognize the value in tracking and providing stakeholders with information about reconciliation and Indigenous relations.
For example, of the 78 companies sampled, 28 percent provide data on Indigenous representation on boards. The study also found that since 2016, there has been a significant 28 percent increase in companies that reference Indigenous heritage or identity in board of director diversity policies, and 22 percent in senior management policies.
The disappointing truth, however, is that increased disclosure has not yet translated into increased representation of Indigenous peoples in corporate leadership.
Among the 78 companies included in our study, none actually disclosed having Indigenous board members. Moreover, a recent universal review of 2020 diversity disclosure practices at Canadian public companies reaffirmed that among companies that do disclose numbers, Indigenous directors make up just 0.5 percent of board positions. With Indigenous peoples making up approximately 5 percent of the Canadian population, the current figure falls far short of being adequate.
So how do we encourage companies to increase the pace of change with regards to Indigenous representation? How do we accelerate the shift from disclosure to real world change – from talk to action?
The onus is on regulators, companies and investors alike.
Regulators in Canada have taken some important initial steps. Enhanced diversity and disclosure rules in recent amendments to the Canadian Business Corporations Act made 2020 the first year that federally incorporated companies were required to disclose whether they had directors who were visible minorities, of Indigenous heritage, or persons with disabilities. We have been urging provincial governments to extend these rules to provincially-registered corporations to foster Indigenous representation across the Canadian business landscape. Ontario should take the lead by adopting the recent recommendation of its Capital Markets Modernization Task Force to require corporate issuers to set targets for BIPOC representation on boards and executive leadership – better yet, benchmarked against ambitious percentages that redress historical under-representation more aggressively.
Companies themselves must set aspirational targets to improve the representation of Indigenous peoples as board directors, employees, business partners and suppliers. More publicly traded companies should commit to the BlackNorth Initiative Pledge, which incorporates critical aspects of anti-racism education, also a recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 92, adopt supplier commitments, and join comprehensive programs like the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business’ Progressive Aboriginal Relations certification program.
Finally, investors need to vociferously support these actions by regulators and companies. And where companies fall short, they must also use the stewardship tools available to hold companies accountable. This includes exercising their proxy voting rights to support calls for greater Indigenous representation and consideration of votes against directors when genuine progress is not being achieved.
Senator and TRC Commissioner Murray Sinclair reminds us that “Indigenous people and people of colour standing up and saying ‘Enough is enough’ is one thing…[but] the people in charge of the institutions that we’re trying to address really do need to take stock of what they’re doing, and change the way they do business.”
One important place to start is to ensure our institutions are representative of the communities and populations we serve. Canada’s corporate boardrooms and C-suites are a far cry from this goal, but momentum is building and now is the time to move from talk to action and accelerate Indigenous representation and participation across our economy.
This blog is provided for general information purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice or opinions of any kind. No one should act, or refrain from acting, based solely upon the materials provided on this website, any hypertext links or other general information without first seeking appropriate legal or other professional advice.
The intention of this blog is to promote the longevity and engagement level of the ACTivist community within the Animal Advocacy Movement (AAM). The majority of the advice will be geared towards employees within the AAM in Canada and the United States, but may be applicable to other countries. All information provided assumes that the employee works within a non-unionized environment.
Krista is the Executive Director of For The Greater Good where she consults with animal protection organizations across North America on matters of organizational development and governance. In addition to holding five degrees and designations in human resources, including a master’s degree in organizational development and leadership, she is pursuing her doctorate focused on the employment experiences of animal rights activists in Canada and the United States. Krista first joined the Animal Advocacy Movement as the VP of Mercy For Animals in Canada where she led twelve undercover investigations into factory farms and slaughterhouses. Krista also served as the President of the Board for Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary for over five years, also now serves on several other Boards including One Protest, The Rancher Advocacy Program, Egg-Truth, and Dairy-Truth. Krista is also a member of Womxn Funders in Animal Rights. Krista is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Critical Animal Studies. Prior to joining the Movement, Krista founded a boutique employment and labour law firm in Toronto where she consulted to employers across Canada and the U.S. for a decade, and before that she spent fifteen years in human resources including as the Vice President of HR for one of the largest software companies in the world.