School board encourages staff to join race, identity-based “affinity groups”

The Waterloo Region District School Board is encouraging racial and identity-based segregation among its staff in the name of equity and human rights, according to an internal email.

Source: True North

The Waterloo Region District School Board is encouraging racial and identity-based segregation among its staff in the name of equity and human rights, according to an internal email sent to all employees earlier this month.

True North obtained the email, distributed through the board’s internal system, which announced a series of “affinity groups” for employees based on race, religion, sexuality, and other identities. The email, signed by human rights officer Esther Wainaina, told staff that the groups were created “to bring people together over a commonality and share the mutual benefits of shared identities.”

The listed groups include those for Indigenous, African-Caribbean-Black, Asian, South Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Latin American, 2SLGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and disabled staff. The message explained that these groups were “intended for people with direct lived experience as a particular identity” and “not intended for people who want to learn more about an identity or group.”

The source who shared the email told True North that the groups amount to publicly funded segregation. While couched in the language of equity, the source said they believe these groups are “a misappropriation of the Ontario Human Rights Code.” They said that “affinity groups are a code phrase for deliberate racial, religious, and sexual segregation.”

The Ontario Human Rights Code guarantees equal treatment in employment and association regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. It does not permit government institutions to create programs that exclude people based on those same traits.

True North requested comment from the board’s director Scott Miller, the board chair, and all trustees, on how the board justifies restricting participation by identity and whether it received legal approval before launching the initiative. The board did not respond.

Staff training from 2022 obtained by True North showed that WRDSB had quietly introduced similar “BIPOC affinity groups” in staff training materials. At the time, internal slides claimed that concepts such as “objectivity,” “perfectionism,” and even the word “family” were expressions of “whiteness” and tools of white supremacy.

The same materials described the affinity groups as exclusive, invitation-only spaces for “BIPOC” staff. Student affinity groups were kept confidential on the grounds that school culture was inhospitable to racial minorities.

Board minutes from April 25, 2022, confirm that these groups were part of the WRDSB’s official “Leadership Development” strategy, directing staff to “provide dedicated time and space for Black, Indigenous, and Racialized leaders.” That entry, recorded as Resolution 280, described the groups as a way to “inspire the success of marginalized students” through the “success of Indigenous, Racialized administrators and teachers.”

The latest all-staff email expands that model, adding religion, sexuality, and disability-based groups under the supervision of the human rights office.

The move fits a pattern across Ontario school boards, where equity policies derived from “culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy” have been used to justify dividing both students and staff by identity.

The Ministry of Education’s Equity Action Plan, launched in 2017, instructed boards to integrate identity-based approaches across subjects and staffing practices, citing “systemic oppression” as a key barrier to student success.

A True North exclusive report found that these ministry mandated race and identity programs have cost upward of half a billion dollars to date, although the full cost is still unknown.

In March 2023, the Waterloo board held a job fair only for “Indigenous, Black, and racialized” applicants, defending the event as an effort to ensure that students “see themselves reflected in the education system.”

With no public response from WRDSB leadership, it remains unclear whether legal counsel reviewed the affinity group initiative before it was implemented, or whether the board plans to create equivalent spaces for employees not represented in the current list of identities.

The board’s communications office also did not reply to questions about whether the groups receive funding, staff time, or administrative support.