Internal project seeks to correct Order of Canada biases
Researchers say too many older, English-speaking men getting awards
The Liberal government has launched a project to reduce the overwhelming number of older, English-speaking men who receive Order of Canada medals, Canada’s highest civilian honour.
Researchers in the Privy Council Office say the skewed demographic closely mirrors the people who typically submit nominations, that is, older, English-speaking men.
And so the project will reach out to underrepresented groups – women, the young, recent immigrants, non-English speakers, some visible-minority groups, among others – to encourage them to submit a more diverse set of candidates as nominees.
“Candidates aged 55 or older make up over 85% of all nominations over the last 20 years,” says an internal document, “while nominators aged 55 or older make up approximately 94% of all nominations.”
“… Order of Canada nominators are predominantly older, male and English speaking. Further, these nominators are extremely likely to nominate older male candidates from their own community or province.”
Internal documents on the project, obtained under the Access to information Act, are available here:
Imbalances in Order of Canada rosters have long been identified and criticized. In 2015, then-prime minister Stephen Harper created a five-year, $13.4-million fund partly to increase “the number of nominations to the Order of Canada from under-represented sectors.”
Critics have also said there are too few business professionals and people in Western Canada who receive the awards.
Citizen watchdog Andrew Griffith has tracked the renewed emphasis on diversity, and found increased numbers of visible minorities and Indigenous persons in the ranks of the Order of Canada over the last decade. There’s also been a small improvement in numbers from the West.
“In terms of employment-equity groups – women, racialized minorities, and Indigenous Peoples – underrepresentation reflects the overall pattern of society as a whole, where relatively fewer people from these groups have prominent or senior positions,” Griffith, a former senior public servant, has written.
To date, demographic analyses of Order in Canada recipients have largely depended on a publicly available database, with more than 8,100 names added since Canada’s 1967 Centennial, when the award was created.
The new project drills deeper, analyzing demographic information about the nominators themselves, even if they were unsuccessful, by accessing confidential internal data. That’s possible because nominators using the official web form are asked questions about themselves, including their address, gender and preferred language, in addition to questions about the person they nominate.
A team inside the Privy Council Office, the prime minister’s own department, last year analyzed this nominator data and linked it to data about the award recipients. The team also conducted public-opinion polling on Order of Canada issues twice last year.
The polls indicated that more than three-quarters of those surveyed did not realize that nominations originate directly from the public, rather than from Parliament or government officials. Most young adults had never even heard of the Order of Canada, while older groups were familiar with the award.
The data about the nominators revealed a strong male bias, says an Oct. 1 presentation deck from the Privy Council Office team.
“All nominators (women, men, and those of unknown gender) nominate men at higher rates,” says one slide. “Nominators are almost 4x more likely to be men. Men are 3.5x more likely to nominate men (vs. women).”
Overall, the findings suggest nominators generally promote candidates who resemble themselves, whether by gender, age, geography or language. So the predominance of older, male, English-speaking nominators begets a stack of nominations each year for candidates with similar characteristics.
Order of Canada recipients are selected by a panel – headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner – that sifts through an inbox of vetted nominations each year. Their deliberations are kept confidential.
There are currently 13 panel members, which include women and Indigenous members. Consensus is not required, only a majority, and Wagner votes only to break a tie. Only living individuals, whether citizens or not, are eligible.
The Privy Council Office project this year is focused on making the nomination process less daunting, by undertaking what’s known in the behavioural sciences as a “sludge audit.” The audit is reviewing how the mechanics, paperwork and processes of submitting a nomination may be excessively difficult for some under-represented groups.
A second planned remedy is an outreach campaign to the same under-represented groups to improve awareness of the Order of Canada and to encourage them to file more nominations.
Both measures are expected to be complete by July this year, according to an internal timeline.
A spokesperson in the office of the secretary to the Governor General, which oversees the award, said reflecting Canada’s diversity is a priority.
“Because appointments to the Order of Canada rely on nominations from the public which continue to fall short of Canada’s diversity, this initiative will help … identify and address barriers within the nomination process,” Marilyne Guevremont said in an email.
The whole idea of have order of Canada is stupid. Abolish the whole thing.