Neha Channan Reports

After chairing the steering committee and helping to organize and conclude the Racially Visible Conference, held in Calgary from November 1 to November 4, 2019, I put together a network of contacts who were all interested in working towards racially visible priorities within their workplaces, as this was identified as lacking for this equity group. The steering committee will be holding a follow-up meeting with the regional PSAC staff, once they are able to provide availability to us, to identify the successes, shortfalls, and follow-up on the take home activity with participants. More information will be available.

I was selected as a steering committee member for the 2020 PSAC National Equity Conferences, which will be held in October 2020. I was selected to be a member of the working group, as a racially visible representative, to attend an in person day and a half meeting in Ottawa. Our role was to contribute to the political tone of the conference, and make recommendations to the alliance executive committee on the theme, objectives, workshop topics and potential speakers. We provided input on emerging questions and problems regarding issues, relate these to PSAC’s vision and priorities and discuss our possible roles during the conference itself. Our working group was able to create three workshops from scratch, which consisted of input from our regions’ members, and related to the political and relevant issues facing racially visible members in the country. Further conference calls will be scheduled to organize the conference.

Should you have any questions about my report, please contact me directly. 

Activities
January 28 to 29 – Racially Visible Group Steering Committee Meeting in Ottawa

In Solidarity, 
Neha Channan

Activities in my Official Capacity since March 2020:

Apr 16            PSAC National Human Rights Committee, Impacts of COVID-19 on Our equity group

Apr 21            PRC Update Call

May 5             PRC Update Call

May 28           PSAC Prairies, Returning to Work…Webinar

Jun 2              PRC Update Call

Jun 4              PSAC Prairies, An Overview of how the Federal Public… Webinar

Jun 10            All Committee/PRC/Staff Call via Skype

Jun 11            PSAC National Human Rights Committee Racially Visible Member’s Working Group Call

Jun 16            PSAC Update Call

Jun 18            PSAC Prairies, Simple Steps to Being a Better Ally Webinar

Jul 20             PSAC, An Introduction to Anti-Racism for White Folks Webinar 

Oct 8              PRC Update Call – Did not attend

Aug10            PSAC Ontario, Understanding and Confronting Racism Webinar

Nov 18           PSAC FB National Townhall Bargaining Update

Nov 30           All Committee/PRC/Staff Call via Zoom

With respect to the PRC Education Committee, an Education Forum was held on August 18th for respective Prairie cities. Due to personal reasons, I was unable to attend and participate the Edmonton forum. PSAC staff advised that the results would be compiled into a report to be distributed. To my knowledge, results have not been distributed to date.

In solidarity, 
Neha Channan