A new report from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy reveals that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have saturated Canada's largest corporations, yet explicit hiring discrimination remains uncommon and merit-based hiring continues to dominate.
DEI Training and Targets Widespread
The foundation's first Corporate Discrimination Index examined 25 of the largest Canadian-owned companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, analyzing 500 job postings and corporate reports for DEI language. The study found that 96% of these companies provide DEI training, 88% declare demographic hiring or promotion targets, and 80% promote DEI in job postings. Additionally, 88% fund what the report describes as ideological or political groups.
David Hunt, the foundation's research director, stated that DEI started with good intentions but evolved into “an ideology that has gone much too far,” now preferring “equality of outcomes” over equality of opportunity. He noted that while he did not want to “pass judgment” on corporate funding of such groups, a bank “should be a neutral actor,” and whether such involvement is “appropriate” is “a question that we need to ask.”
Explicit Discrimination Rare
Despite the prevalence of DEI policies, explicit discrimination in hiring is rare. Only two out of 500 job postings restricted candidates by identity, both at Enbridge. Postings giving preference by identity made up under five percent, with 20 of those coming from a single insurer, Intact Financial. The report concludes that discriminatory hiring practices “appear rare on the surface” and that companies largely preserve merit-based hiring.
Leigh Revers, the report’s lead author, said companies talk about DEI more than they practice it. “It’s very much purely words and no actions,” he said. “They can talk all they like, but do they actually deliver on things? And the answer is no, not really. So they’re not really being especially discriminatory when it comes down to it.”
Corporate Discrimination Index Scores
The foundation’s Corporate Discrimination Index assigns scores based on hiring practices, with 60% of the weight on preferential and restrictive hiring. Intact Financial ranks first with a score of 67 out of 100, largely due to postings that encourage applications from “equity-deserving groups”—language that is legal and not exclusionary. Shopify scored zero because it “exclusively hires based on merit,” according to Hunt. He said other sectors should look to high-growth technology firms, noting that “tech stands out in a good way.”
Language Index and AI Analysis
A separate language index counts how often DEI terms appear in corporate documents. Hunt explained that the foundation built this index because explicit bias rarely surfaces in job postings. “But that does not mean that discrimination and preferential hiring is not happening,” he said. “Because the fact that almost everyone has to go through this DEI training, and we see that that DEI is completely ubiquitous throughout corporate Canada. It’s extremely unlikely that that’s not affecting decision making in the job hiring process.”
The foundation used artificial intelligence chatbots ChatGPT and Grok to run word searches, and quoted ChatGPT assessing its own results. The findings were later confirmed by researchers. The report noted that companies mention “Indigenous” nearly as often as they mention their products.
