Paid day off for Indigenous employees a ‘step in the right direction’: advocate

Recent agreement for unionized federal public servants will give day off to Indigenous government workers

Patricia Johnson-Castle, a PhD student and advocate for incorporating Inuit knowledge and values in contemporary northern workplaces, is celebrating the news that Indigenous federal employees will receive one paid day off to pursue cultural practices.(Photo by Madalyn Howitt)

By Madalyn Howitt

An advocate for incorporating Inuit knowledge into northern workspaces is celebrating the news that Indigenous federal government employees will soon be given paid time off to pursue traditional practices. 

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and Treasury Board agreed to a tentative deal May 1 after a two-week strike. The new contract will see federal public servants receive a 12.6-per-cent wage increase over three years and a number of other workplace benefits. 

A similar deal was reached a few days later between PSAC, the Union of Taxation Employees and Canada Revenue Agency. 

One new benefit included in those deals is a paid day off for Indigenous federal employees to take part in cultural practices, such as hunting or fishing. 

Details about the day haven’t yet been released, but it’s an achievement policy advocate Patricia Johnson-Castle, a PhD candidate, said is a step forward in creating healthier workplaces. 

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “It’s a baby step, but it’s a step in the right direction.” 

A former fellow in the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship program who is also Inuk from Nunatsiavut, Johnson-Castle has advocated for incorporating more Inuit traditional knowledge and values into workplace culture.

Johnson-Castle said some self-governing Indigenous organizations have designated days for traditional practices within their own workplaces, such as days when everyone in the office will go fishing together, for example. 

Those can be good opportunities for team bonding, but they don’t offer the same kind of freedom that a paid day off would where individuals are free to pursue cultural practices as they wish, Johnson-Castle explained.  

The inclusion of a paid day off for Indigenous employees could be a sign that the federal government will “outpace some Indigenous organizations that maybe don’t offer the same thing,” she said.

“It’s a good example of how there can be divergent views within an organization about what the right path forward is like on a specific issue.”

“If the federal government is kind of the enforcer of settler colonial politics in this country, and they’re giving people a day off, you would hope that it would give Indigenous organizations pause about their own workplace policies,” she said. 

Johnson-Castle clarified that it doesn’t need to be an “either-or” situation, where self-governing Indigenous organizations only follow statutory holidays set out by governments. Rather, it can be a scenario where Indigenous employees benefit from federally-mandated time off and days that individual employers have decided to offer for cultural pursuits.  

And while more than just one paid day off would be ideal, Johnson-Castle said offering at least one day shows there’s room to discuss structural level changes. 

“People think about holidays and work schedules as though they’re kind of set in stone,” she said, but “there’s a certain level of arbitrariness that comes from any decision to have a holiday at any given time.”

She pointed out that holidays like Good Friday or Easter Monday, which are on different dates every year, are statutory holidays in some places in Canada but not in others. 

“That means that if it’s arbitrary, we have to choose what value system that we’re going to use to make the decision, right? Technically, any day could be a holiday,” she said. 

“It’s important to have these very public conversations about what we want our workplaces to look like.”  

Share This Story

(37) Comments:

  1. Posted by 867 on

    GN offered a similar bonus 2 days under the new agreement: Cultural Inuit Pursuit days although their available to all not just inuit. Weird.

    23
    4
    • Posted by GN Is Doing It Right on

      They should be available to all. Everyone has cultural activities to pursue. Limiting them to one ethnic group is nothing but racism – end of.

      57
      12
      • Posted by Star Man on

        This is blatant racism. It will achieve nothing other than divide people. Absolutely disgusting. So shocked the federal government would agree to this ridiculous request. We all crave days off to pursue our interests, cultural or otherwise. To raise the desires of indigenous employees above those of others is one of the most discriminatory practices one could ever imagine.

        Think about this. What if every country on earth have paid days off to its so called indigenous people and not to other citizens who contribute just as much to the wellbeing and fabric of society? Such a negative net effect. No wonder we have wars when people think like this.

        21
        9
  2. Posted by Against modern bigotry on

    Hunting and fishing isn’t traditional only to the aboriginals, ya know. Everyone on earth should qualify for this (or maybe rather, no one should), as we are ALL descended from hunter-gatherers, and people of all races still partake in these activities, even without paid days off to do them in.

    65
    15
  3. Posted by Non indigenous on

    Ummmm what?

    25
    3
    • Posted by Non visible minority on

      Without sounding ignorant, I don’t believe there is any nationality or race that is any different from any other nationality or race. We are all the same. We all have red blood. In my opinion doing stuff like this creates more separation between people, nationality and races.

      30
      6
  4. Posted by Cringe on

    This is the kind of identity politics that further divides this nation.

    59
    8
    • Posted by Devil’s Avocado on

      I can’t help wondering if the divisiveness isn’t the point?

      15
      2
    • Posted by Will Hunting on

      Agreed.
      Like the “affirmative action” stuff that got more hate spread back in the day.

  5. Posted by Pretty sure illegal on

    If this is true and only indigenous staff, whatever that means, then this is illegal contrary to human rights legislation it better be a day off for all staff

    45
    13
    • Posted by Nope, It Isn’t on

      Except that it isn’t. This sort of behaviour is legal in Canada in the nam.e of promoting equity

      Hell, even federal government job applications will, at times, say which races and genders can NOT apply.

      You would intuitively think that such behaviour is illegal, but it isn’t.

      8
      3
      • Posted by Yup on

        Good luck to them proving to the tribunal that indigenous persons have historically been denied days off compared to non indigenous peoples and this is required as affirmative action.

        9
        1
  6. Posted by Huh on

    Can identify as indignious and get this free day? Downtown Toronto federal employees go pidgeon hunting on Toronto Island?

    30
    7
    • Posted by United Nations on

      under united nations declaration in t is the right of indigenous peoples to self identify. that means anyone can nowadays. look to labrador where there is a group claiming to be inuit and treated as such by the government although inuit orgs say no way.

      10
      2
  7. Posted by Mediocrity reigns on

    Its amazing what counts as luminous thought at Nunatsiaq News… the inflation of credentials over past decades is really showing itself here.

    20
    3
  8. Posted by Taxpayer on

    If the concept here is that us Inuit need an extra day off in order to practice our indigeneity, why stop at one day, and why make it a benefit that creates a salary distinction based on race?

    This is hardly fair or meaningful, and is bound to make even more resentment within what is already a toxic civil service.

    One extra day is nothing if the day chosen happens to have horrible weather and you cannot go out.

    If you are a government worker that is does not have to interact directly with the public during the regular business day – that is to say, the majority of government workers – the employer should be flexible enough to schedule work in a way that would really help people live a traditional lifestyle.

    !0 days work at 12 hours a day, then 10 days off to go on the land – just like the mines is a good suggestion. This actually mimics the harvesting (on-the-land) schedule that people used to have when people had trapline decades ago.

    When you have a good solid block of time to prepare and go on the land when the weather is safe, it would be extremely beneficial. The work gets done, and reconciliation with non-Inuit is advanced.

    23
    5
    • Posted by Are the traplines for Trolls? on

      Trapping does not factor into the lives of the vast majority of Nunavummiut.

      8
      9
    • Posted by Oh? on

      It’s really silly when you think about it. Unions are now finding the most ridiculous clauses to add to these agreements, likely to appease some woke-minded advisory panel by way of discrimination.

      I think it goes without saying that almost nobody will be actually using these days to “practice indigineity”.

      26
      5
      • Posted by Unremarked on

        To prove their worth unions always have to come away with ‘something’. It’s a never ending game.

        13
        1
      • Posted by Judas Henry on

        Amen.

  9. Posted by Academics isn’t management on

    Oh yeah lets just be highly productive at work while some workers get the day off because of culture and others don’t.

    Really intelligent stuff. You can really tell when someone from an academia background has absolutely zero experience in managing people and keeping people happy and productive.

    26
    4
  10. Posted by S on

    It is incontrovertible that noyhing is less important to society than ancestry. On the other hand, nothing is more relevant to an individual than his or her genes

    4
    1
  11. Posted by Art Thompson on

    You dont have to go to far! Look at the GN and there leave codes. Everything under the sun. Managers are’nt even sure what some of it means. By the time its all said and down there are probably 150 actual working days in a full year.

    11
  12. Posted by Eskimos Fan on

    National Aboriginal Day(?)
    ? ?

    7
    1
  13. Posted by feeling sorry for the trollz on

    it’s really amazing to watch settlers get their knickers in a knot over such a small nudge. I hope the commenters here don’t actually work in Nunavut though. sad to think about ppl with such closed, narrow minds working for Inuit. remember folks, your salary is paid for by Inuit land.

    4
    27
    • Posted by settler nunavut on

      ya i work for government in Nunavut because there are not enough non settlers qualified to do most jobs in most fields so yes we are here in Canada like everyone else. without settlers there would be no Nunavut

      24
      3
      • Posted by None of it on

        Without Nunavut there would be no jobs for Newfoundlanders

        4
        12
        • Posted by Have it on

          you mean without the federal government sending 3bil a year to Nunavut instead of Atlantic Canada then there’d be no jobs for Newfies. Lots of work around canada now which is why the GN is a ghost town, more people quit than ever this past year

          5
          1
    • Posted by Reality Check, 1 2 1 2 on

      The fact is GN salaries are paid for by the Federal government. Nunavut currently lacks the capacity to pay for anything on its own, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon, if ever.

      25
      1
    • Posted by Jim on

      You are aware that there were people in the arctic before the Inuit? I’m not sure how you define settlers but….. ?

      16
      4
    • Posted by Fact check plz on

      Salary is paid by inuit land? Ummm no our salary is paid the nearly $3,000,000,000 (that’s billion) nunavut receives from the Federal government every year.

      18
      2
  14. Posted by Time To Do My Geneaology! on

    I’m sure I’m not the only one out there that’s been told since they were a child that a significant portion of their genes were of aboriginal descent. Might be interesting to see what comes of some digging with all these sweet rewards for our great-great-great-great-grandparents being born “here” and not “there”

    9
    3
  15. Posted by George Nedelkoff on

    Special INTEREST, again, will give some worker’s privileges’ over other’s , so much for equality.

    9
    3
  16. Posted by Pork Pie on

    I’m more offended by the façade that this idea is so innovative and interesting that an academic guru who specializes in incorporating ‘traditional knowledge’ into the workplace is invoked like some kind of magician to mystify us by the wisdom of it all. Are we to pretend these are special insights? Or is it just authority bestowed by title (PhD candidate?). Or, is ‘advocate’ enough? The symbiotic, self affirmation between journalist an academic we see is is one meant to reinforce legitimacy, yet the content is entirely vapid.

    17
    2
  17. Posted by Comments are embarrassing on

    It’s shocking how racist the comments here are. You should all feel ashamed. I’m inspired by her advocacy and happy to see this progress.

    2
    21
    • Posted by Racist or Mean? on

      When people call this day off racist, they mean it is racist against non-indigenous peoples. When you are saying it, you’re saying you think these comments are “mean”. Stop conflating the terms. Calling out discrimination is not racist.

      13
      3
    • Posted by Quibbler in Residence on

      The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
      George Orwell, 1984

      Translation: The policy is clearly racist in that it attaches significance to “race” and apportions rights on that basis. You are insisting that we reject this obvious fact and calling anyone who criticizes the (racist) policy racist.

      5
      1

Comments are closed.