External Anti-Racism Advisory Committee – Guiding Principles

Members of the External Anti-Racism Advisory Committee are asked to agree upon a set of principles to guide the overall approach and work of the committee. Additionally, the committee is asked to agree upon best practices related to the functioning of meetings.

Guiding Principles

• System-level approach

  Focus on proactively removing systemic barriers and root causes of racial inequalities in the health research funding system, in collaboration with institutional, provincial and other stakeholders.

• Inclusive process

  Commit to meaningful collaboration and engagement with population groups who have been marginalized by racism, and ensure that their perspectives and guidance inform our approaches and decisions.

• Transparent, evidence-based approach

  Ensure our approach is transparent, evidence-informed and driven by measureable goals and outcomes that are tracked and publicly reported. Ensure a broad range of evidence informs our approach.

• Distinctness and intersectionality of racism

  Recognize that racism is experienced differently by various groups, and within groups along intersectional lines. Approaches and decisions should consider this lens, address specific forms of discrimination, such as anti-Black racism, and aim to do no harm.

• Critical Race Framework

  Recognize the need to address the ways racism has been normalized in society and in the research sector, the ways power constructs have privileged white populations, and the need to take an intersectional approach to the work.

• Bold advice

  Provide leadership to address complex issues, challenge the status quo and take smart risks to ensure the best possible solutions and outcomes.

• Working with humility / Open-mindedness

  Set parameters intentionally to make safer spaces – meaning spaces that are free from judgement, insult, microaggressions and other negative power dynamics. Commit to engage with humility by recognizing one’s advantages, disadvantages, assumptions and biases; and, remain open to criticism and uncomfortable conversations.

• Empowering communities

  Ensure approaches and decisions prioritize the empowerment and self-determination of various groups marginalized by racism and provide them with a clear role in leading change.

Best Practices for Committee Engagement

• Acknowledge individual responsibility to provide a safer space that fosters honest and free discussion.
• Agree to use discretion and keep the specifics of meeting discussions confidential. What is said in meetings, stays there. What is learned, leaves there.
• Acknowledge the valuable experiences, abilities and knowledges that each individual brings.
• Assume positive intent and take responsibility for the outcomes of our actions.
• Recognize that individuals are not expected to speak on behalf of their entire ethnicity, race, gender, career stage, etc.
• Ensure everyone has an opportunity to speak, should they wish to.
• Practice active listening. Listen to understand, not to react and ask clarifying questions.
• Challenge ideas, not people.
• Agree to hold one another accountable, including those who are chairing the meetings. Everyone is learning, growing and makes mistakes.
• Commit to learning with an open mind and open heart about that which we do not know or need to know more about.

Date modified:

2021-09-07