Canadian Occupational Safety

www.thesafetymag.com/ca 19 Talking to people who serve or who are from other marginalized communities is essential because we become aware of challenges that we may have never considered before. Allowing for that ability to share is important to open up new perspectives and foster a better understanding of issues and challenges faced by marginalized communities. This is especially important for businesses and organizations working toward more inclusive and equitable workplaces. On the topic of COVID-19, Druhan says that, according to a number of surveys, COVID-19 has disproportionally affected the LGBTQ2+ community in Canada, notably with regards to unemployment and underemployment. The pandemic has had a huge economic impact. Furthermore, Druhan explains that people in the LGBTQ2+ community experience worse health outcomes due to negative interactions with health-care systems and because of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia within health care. It has also impacted important social environments, such as Pride festivals. "We've obviously lost the connections there," says Druhan. "I would also say that a lot of people in the community depend on peer support programs. And social programs run by people in the community… specifically designed for our community and that are designed around a peer support model," he says. With stay-at-home orders and social distancing, many people are not able to access in-person interaction for these programs. Although some have moved online, "people miss that connection," says Druhan. Silver linings Nevertheless, Druhan says, "We've seen a really great amount of support from the community to pivot to delivering services online and collecting donations for redistribution to the community… So, as tough as things are, it's great to see people trying to meet those challenges together." Druhan says his organization typically does a lot of in-person events around Pride as "it's a time of the year that a lot of people are hyper aware of the community that we work with." It is a great opportunity to shine more light on the organization's mission, he says. In 2020, however, a lot of Pride events were cancelled, and Druhan says that they moved all of their events online at the start of the pandemic (highlights of KEY CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY Colin Druhan, executive director, Pride at Work Canada (photo credit: Samson Photography) Sources: Canadian Heritage LGBTQ2 Secretariat, HealthLink BC 2020 virtual Pride can be found online). Pride at Work Canada made the decision to make all of its programming free for the general public, with the online platform offering more visibility to the organization. Druhan says it was a huge success, and around 3,500 people attended the virtual events — a big increase over 2019 in-person events that happened across Canada. "That was one big win for us. Through the pivot to online for us as a national organization in Canada — which is one where population is pretty spread out over a huge area — we were able to connect with more people in rural areas than ever before," says Druhan. Indeed, although in a different format, online platforms allow for greater digital outreach. People living outside of urban areas or people with mental or physical disabilities are now able to access events or programs that they otherwise may not have been able to attend in person or may not even have known about. Starting a conversation There are some work environments in which diversity and inclusion may be a little more difficult to roll out. Skilled trades are one such environment. Druhan says this is actually something that Pride at Work Canada has been trying to push more in its programming. "We did an event for pride [in 2020] that was LGBTQ2+ inclusion in skilled trades," he says. "We got a couple of comments from people saying, 'Why bother doing this, the industry is never going to change.' But we also got a lot of really great involvement from community members who are really happy to see the subject matter being touched on." Druhan says that, for various reasons, diversity and inclusion efforts have always been easier to implement in an office environment. However, those difficulties can be overcome with a little bit of creative thinking. "I think there's been a lot of great developments in how we talk about safety in the skilled trades over the years and roll out new ways of keeping people physically safe on job sites. And I don't think any of those were based on things that were first developed in an office environment," says Druhan. "Those were things that were developed by people working on job sites, based on what they know about the job… I think part of the key to trying to introduce more diversity and inclusion measures is actually talking to people from marginalized communities who are working in those environments and asking them what they'd like to see," he says. "I think that where we see the most progress happening is when employees are engaged and they're involved." Gender Identity – Internal and deeply felt sense of being a man or woman, both or neither. A person's gender identity may or may not align with the gender typically associated with their sex. It may change over the course of one's lifetime. Sexual Orientation – A term used to describe a person's pattern of emotional, romantic or sexual attraction. Gender Expression – Refers to the various ways in which people choose to express their gender identity. A person's gender expression may not align with societal expectations of gender. It is, therefore, not a reliable indicator of a person's gender identity. Gender Dysphoria – Can be understood as discomfort or distress experienced by a person who feels their sense of their gender identity differs from their body, based on societal expectations.

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