Inclusion & Anti-Racism

Taking action to be better.

We’re committed to cultivating a workplace where every voice matters.

We’ve made a strong commitment to inclusion and community, and we’re working together to positively affect our organizational culture.

By tapping even further into both operational and creative talent in Canada’s racialized and marginalized communities, we will become a more inclusive and equitable workplace. Making meaningful and positive changes requires a willingness to take an honest look at past processes.

Our work is ongoing and never-ending as we strive to learn, improve, and be better.

This page describes our commitment and progress towards diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in our workplace.

STRIVING FOR EQUALITY

Our imperative is to create a workplace and an environment that is: equitable, diverse, and inclusive; and where everyone can be themselves and do their best work.

This includes the following priorities:

Removing Barriers and Bias: We have committed to sustaining diversity, inclusion and cultural equity in our workforce, governance, and services to members and stakeholders.

Inclusion Education & Training: Employees must feel included, safe, and supported by better understanding and respecting each one another and those we serve.

Workforce Census: We are dedicated to deepening our relationship with diverse communities, especially Indigenous, racialized, the Deaf and disabled, and other marginalized populations so we can better serve those communities.

Learn more about SOCAN’s framework for change.

OUR WORK TO DATE

The first employee led SOCAN Equity Task Force was formed in 2020 after global appeals for racial justice and an end to systemic racism.
We signed the BDRB Declaration to End Anti-Black Racism, an initiative established by the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) and ADVANCE (Canada’s Black Music Business Collective).
Working with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), we executed a company-wide audit to assess our organization’s current practices, policies, procedures, make-up, and employee perspective. The results are helping to inform our actions.
Our A Policy Drafting & Review Committee has updated and created workplace policies to reflect the diversity of our employees and protect the rights of all SOCAN staff.
We recognized Canada’s first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with insight, education, and music from singer-songwriter William Prince; opera singer Rhonda Head; and artist manager Alan Greyeyes.
Canadian Human Rights Commission Chief Commissioner Marie-Claude Landry led a SOCAN All-Staff Town Hall that emphasized the importance of equality, inclusion, and anti-racism in Canada.
We have begun diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism training with all employees at every level. The training will first address the prevention of harassment and discrimination in our workplace.
We have started to plan how our organization will recognize Truth & Reconciliation Day on September 30, 2022.
The new SOCAN Official Languages Policy will be finalized this month to ensure we continue to be inclusive of our francophone employees.
Between April and July 2022, more than 250 employees completed Harassment & Discrimination Prevention Training. The next diversity training sessions will take place in fall 2022.
We’ll administer a company-wide employee census in the fourth quarter of 2022. This survey will provide us with information that can help us meet the diverse needs of our employees.
In 2022, we started to conduct a thorough evaluation of all aspects of our recruitment and hiring processes. Fostering a diverse workforce is critical to our success, both because it enriches the experience of our employees and helps us to better serve our members and stakeholders.
In September 2022, the SOCAN Foundation held its first-ever Indigenous Song Camp at the downtown Tkaronto/Toronto creative hub Kilometre House during the inaugural edition of Song & Score Week.
To mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Woodland Cultural Centre visited SOCAN to discuss reconciliation. We learned more about Canada’s Indigenous policy. Furthermore, we discussed personal acts of reconciliation, barriers to reconciliation, and what reconciliation isn’t.
We created the inaugural Vince Fontaine Indigenous Song Award, named in honour of the late First Nations singer-songwriter, SOCAN member, and co-founder of the JUNO Award-winning duo Eagle & Hawk. This year’s award was received by hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids and rapper Drezus.
We’ll conduct an Equity Census in 2023. The objective is to better understand our employees’ demographic composition. Having this information will help us improve plans designed to avoid potential barriers to equity and inclusion.
To help prepare us for the Equity Census, our DEI-AR partner CPAMO will host several education sessions on understanding equity in the workplace in December 2022. The sessions will help employees better understand the objectives behind the Equity Census.

We’ll update this list as we continue to make progress. If you have any comments, we welcome your thoughts. Contact us.

SOCAN RESOURCES

LISTEN & LEARN WITH US

We are continuously deepening our knowledge to remove barriers and bias and create effective allyship by participating in meaningful conversations with community partners.

NEWS

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