The Conservative Party of Canada and leader Pierre Poilievre have begun circulating a petition calling for the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the reinstatement of “the merit principle,” arguing DEI spending and government waste “need to die.” The petition echoes Elon Musk’s infamous “DEI must DIE” social media post two years ago.

Similarly, in 2024, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani launched a petition to end DEI and focus on affordability, without acknowledging that inequity and unaffordability are deeply connected. Building on this momentum, Jivani has since launched his Restore the North Tour, which seems like a Canadian version of Charlie Kirk’s movement, given its aim to appeal to disaffected young men.

Inevitably, commentary on these measures has cast them as Canada’s version of America’s culture wars. While there are obvious parallels, this framing obscures Canada’s own history of injustice.

Read more: How Charlie Kirk became a pioneering MAGA political organizer on campuses

Systemic inequality

DEI initiatives, like all frameworks for social change, are not perfect. Pointing to their perceived limitations to revive the illusion of meritocracy and historical denial is hardly new. But these criticisms are being weaponized at a moment when equity work is needed most.

Recent portrayals of DEI as “anti-merit and anti-individual,” “hollow signalling” or “flawed and illiberal” are textbook examples of what the late American philosopher Charles Mills described as “white ignorance” — a deliberate and organized refusal to see how systemic inequality works.

The late Charles Mills delivers a speech on racial injustice and liberalism in 2012 (Stony Brook University).

They suggest a refusal to acknowledge well-documented histories of Indigenous dispossession, gendered and racial injustice, institutional racism and generations of what geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore terms “organized abandonment” — when the state and capital abandon communities through neglect, privatization and degradation of the environment.

In other words, these criticisms do not represent an innocent ignorance, but a dangerous refusal to know.

Economics versus equity

The Conservative petition claims that $1.049 billion was wasted in DEI funding. This claim conceals a deeper truth about the way public money actually circulates.

In 2023, the total operating budget for all police services was $19.7 billion, an increase of six per cent from the previous year. Policing in Canada has a long history of surveillance and criminalization, from Indigenous land defenders to Muslims and pro-Palestinian supporters.

Fatal encounters with police also disproportionately affect Black and racialized people and continue to rise.

Other forms of public spending go almost unquestioned — from billions in fossil fuel subsidies to the steady expansion of border surveillance — resulting in environmental injustice and border violence, respectively.

In contrast, DEI’s $1.049-billion price tag was spent over several years. The claim of wasteful equity spending reflects a broader pattern of scapegoating DEI for systemic economic failures. What is deemed a waste may reveal who, and what, our society values.

Read more: Paying more for policing doesn't stop or reduce crime

Racial capitalism

What’s known as racial capitalism — a system where racial inequality is built into how wealth and power are produced and shared — sheds light on how class exploitation and racial domination are interconnected. As Black radical theorist Cedric Robinson explained, capitalism did not emerge separate from racial hierarchy, but through it.

Understanding racial capitalism helps explain why equity work must extend beyond representation and inclusion. British-American race scholar Arun Kundnani has argued that DEI programs focusing on unconscious bias, racial awareness training and increasing representation do not tackle the economic and institutional root causes of inequity.

DEI programs therefore need to address racial capitalism; if they don’t, they may end up supporting it by using racialized people as resources and judging success only by numbers.

In other words, the economy cannot be “fixed” without unraveling the racial, classist, ableist and gendered hierarchies that it requires to function. Inequality is not really a flaw in the system but its organizing principle.

Sharper DEI

Policymakers should work to defend DEI initiatives from far-right attacks, Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and economic scapegoating. But DEI measures also need to be critiqued and improved in ways that honour their historical trajectory and acknowledge their limitations.

Doing so requires confronting and untangling the deep layers of injustice and exploitation that are the foundation of many organizations and institutions.

Anti-DEI rhetoric can be considered an expression of anti-Blackness and, by extension, other forms of racism. It is also bound up with sexism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia and classism.

Read more: Why DEI in Canada struggles to uplift Black people

Instead of abandoning DEI, Canada should strengthen and reshape it to better promote the structural equity our communities deserve.

The future of equity in Canada depends on moving beyond simply counting racialized people in power and must instead examine how power works, upholds injustice and can be collectively transformed for real systemic change.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Marycarmen Lara Villanueva, University of Toronto

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Marycarmen Lara Villanueva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.