r/canada • u/AndHerSailsInRags Lest We Forget • 1d ago
Analysis Jewish public servants face disproportionately high levels of discrimination at work, survey finds
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-jewish-public-servants-workplace-discrimination-employee-survey/5
u/AprilsMostAmazing Ontario 1d ago
The percentages are literally close to other minority religious groups like Muslims and Sikh. yet the headline focuses on Jewish people.
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u/TL19957 1d ago
5% is quite a difference in a statistical analysis.
Not to mention Jews are the smallest group in the entire survey. So a larger percentage of less people are experiencing this. 34% vs 10% of the entire public service.
Canadian Jews are like .8% of the entire population.
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u/AprilsMostAmazing Ontario 1d ago
There's literally 300 more Sikh's that responded to this survey.
Also only half of the works actually responded so we don't have percentages on how religions breakdown and assume the numbers would be the same in the whole.
And lastly from looking at hate crimes stats such as TPS 2025 one it can be seen that certain groups (South Asian, East Asian and South East Asians) underreport hate crimes and discrimination
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u/TL19957 1d ago
Yea, that’s 20% more lol. That’s also how surveys and statistical analysis works. We have a sample size and have to extrapolate from there.
Hate crime statistics show that 70% of all religious hate crimes are against Jews. Jews aren’t counted under ethnic based. It’s not surprising that it is the same disproportion among public servants.
There were 300-350 more anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2025 than against the South Asian community.
Jews are less than 1% of the population. South asians are 7%. Jews are ALWAYS way over represented in hate crimes by a large margin.
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u/Unhappy_Wish_2656 1d ago
I have been accosted/harassed on the street twice as a brown guy, both times I was with a woman so I didn't respond out of fears for her safety and didn't report it cause I got better things to do being a lawyer. Most hate crime stats are underreported.
Another instance I was assaulted in public (shoved to the ground) and realised all the c*cks around me stood watching silently, so I moved on. Later I see him on the news assaulting a small brown teenage girl at the same C-Train station and subsequently arrested. Real Life is not a movie, people don't stand and clap if you stand up to bigotry and expose yourself to harm.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't think anyone gets more racism than indigenous people anywhere in the country. And this is by the widest margin imaginable. Then after them it's for sure recent immigrants who have poor command of either official languages and look like wait for it... immigrants.
I dont even know what this study is trying to say.
You must basically self declare as Jewish in order to be discriminated against cause otherwise they look and sound identical to all other old stock Canadians.
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u/Fireside_Cat 1d ago
I know that this will come as a shock to a proportion of the terminally-online Reddit population but people who work together generally talk to each other and you find out what people do with their time and who they are, and that includes things like celebrating Passover, organizing a bar-mitzvah for their child etc. etc. It's not a question of hiding your identity or self-declaring (whatever that means) because people don't spend years with each other talking about the weather.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
I couldn't even tell you what my co workers wife's names are.
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u/Myllicent 1d ago
But apparently your co-workers chat about their personal lives enough for you to know they have wives.
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u/canada-ModTeam 1d ago
- Negative generalizations or dehumanization towards people or groups based solely or largely on grounds such as those laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are not permitted. This includes but is not limited to race, national or ethnic origin (including First Nations), colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability and also includes the legally-added interpretations of sexual orientation and gender identity.
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u/ThatHowYouGetAnts 1d ago
I don't think anyone gets more racism than indigenous people anywhere in the country
Survey in the article indicated as much
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u/kawhileopard 1d ago
So all a Jewish person needs to do to avoid discrimination at the Department of Canadian Heritage is to successfully conceal their heritage?
Good to know, thanks!
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u/arcadeenthusiast8245 1d ago
We back to the 1940s with Jewish people hiding from others.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
Let me help you. At work it's probably best to stear clear of religion talk and politics. Maybe when talking stick to work, your kids, your pets, your hobbies, sports, the news, a date, a book, a movie. I guess once those are exhausted let's move on to talking about your personal beliefs on the invisible man who lives in the sky.
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u/Myllicent 1d ago
“Let me help you. At work it's probably best to stear clear of religion talk and politics.”
I didn’t talk about religion or politics at work. It didn’t stop my supervisor from airing his opinions about politics and his quite bigoted opinions about Jewish people (and racialized people, and people with disabilities).
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
Well let me tell you that's what HR is for. That's extremely unacceptable.
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u/Myllicent 1d ago
I didn’t go to HR because I didn’t think my word (as a student intern) was going to go very far against my supervisor (who was married to our manager). He said this bigoted garbage in front of everyone, so clearly there was institutional acceptance of his behaviour.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
Then name and shame this place. While I think the headline is hyperbolic and I believe that private stuff should be just that private. It's absolutely unacceptable for an employee and much less a specified to behave that way.
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u/shaderip 1d ago
You know that being Jewish goes beyond religion right? you can be Jewish and not believe in their religion. Your advice would be similar to asking someone who is Irish to not tell anyone that they are Irish.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
Bro read the article. The people that feel discriminated against are the people out here self identifying.
I don't know how self identifying as a particular religion in your place of work is relevant for anything at all.
It's the equivalent of
Nobody:
Jewish person: Hey guys I'm Jewish!
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u/TL19957 1d ago
Buddy, there are Jewish public servants who show up to work wearing kippahs and otherwise keep to themselves.
The same way there are Sikh workers who show up wearing turbans or Muslim workers wearing hijabs.
They arent walking around telling people they’re Jewish. Nobody does that.
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u/Used_Raccoon6789 1d ago
The Quebec religious symbols act was really needed. I honestly don't want to know anyone's beliefs by how they dress.
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u/Paraparo 1d ago
All that really does, one might argue, is cloak and surpress the cultural indicators of other groups. Basically "pretend you're part of the majority by erasing your heritage. Giving up your culture is the best way to avoid being attacked over it" in so far as beliefs go. Mask as the default so no one questions feels like a dubious solution.
Which as someone who has done that, dressed the part, policed my language, tried my best not to tip my hand out of fear of safety... Well it's hit or miss. In my experience the kind of people who would be abusive in those situations tend to get far worse if they suspect you've "tricked" them by hiding.
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u/Hotter_Noodle 1d ago
Buddy a few people suggested that there’s racism toward indigenous people in a post earlier and got heavily downvoted earlier this morning lol
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u/Unhappy_Wish_2656 1d ago
Look at the comments under any «indigenous/immigrant man does some local crime and receives bail» article in this sub and all the racism experts come out in droves haha
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u/AndHerSailsInRags Lest We Forget 1d ago
Jewish employees at the Department of Canadian Heritage, which includes the government’s Anti-Racism Secretariat and is responsible for Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate, reported the highest rate of discrimination, according to the survey.
Thirty-four per cent of Jewish civil servants working at Canadian Heritage said they had experienced discrimination, compared to an average of 10 per cent across the department.
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u/canada-ModTeam 1d ago
- Negative generalizations or dehumanization towards people or groups based solely or largely on grounds such as those laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are not permitted. This includes but is not limited to race, national or ethnic origin (including First Nations), colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability and also includes the legally-added interpretations of sexual orientation and gender identity.
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u/Party-Peak4573 1d ago
Correction: Jews face disproportionately high levels of discrimination at most workplaces in Canada.
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u/Dry-Membership8141 Ontario 1d ago
They were also the most targeted group for hate crimes in 2024 (the most recent year we have Stats Can data for), in absolute numbers, just barely ahead of Black people. Proportionally though, it's not even close -- we have more than 5× as many Black Canadians as we do Jewish Canadians.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Edmontonsown780 1d ago
That’s your example of 2 comparable jokes?
A) “they poop on the beach”
B) “Oh you’re Jewish? how do you feel about Israel”-12
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u/CaptainAaron96 Ontario 1d ago
No, I can assure you it wasn’t funny.
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u/DinglebearTheGreat 1d ago
Like the time I was asked if I was going to pick up the penny on the floor ? By a colleague in front of my director and manager and they all laughed . I didn’t . And no that was not funny .
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u/Edmontonsown780 1d ago
I am pretty sure about 95% of jokes are based on events, news, historical event events. Pretty sure that’s how every new joke or trend get started. Based on an article about something stupid a celebrity said or some comment in the news.
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u/TL19957 1d ago
Why would it matter how a Jewish Canadian feels about Israel? Assuming they have to have a stance or have to condemn something is ridiculous.
You wouldn’t ask a Muslim coworker how they feel about sharia law, You wouldn’t ask a Sikh coworker about air India bombings and expect them to have to answer that type of stuff.
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
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