Canadian organizations are strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments as U.S.-driven pressure builds
As the United States dismantles federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and major corporations south of the border scale back or rebrand their commitments, Canadian HR leaders are largely reinforcing their organization’s commitment to DEI. Across sectors – from health care to retail to municipal government to pharmaceuticals – senior people leaders say the political noise hasn’t weakened their organizations' resolve. If anything, it has sharpened their focus.
A 2025 survey of 5,603 Canadians conducted by the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, the Environics Institute for Survey Research, and the Future Skills Centre – titled EDI Backlash? What Canadian Workers Really Think – found that 54 per cent of Canadian workers view DEI efforts in the workplace positively, with only 16 per cent viewing them negatively.
Yet pressure to retreat is real. For example, early in 2025 two Alberta universities removed references to DEI from their policies and the Alberta Investment Management Corporation cut its head of DEI initiatives – and the conversations HR leaders are being asked to have with their executives, their boards, and their employees have never been more consequential.
Holding the line on DEI – and going further
At Niagara Health, which operates five hospitals in an Ontario region that sits adjacent to the U.S. border, the question of whether to scale back DEI never seriously arose, according to Fiona Peacefull, Executive Vice President of Human Resources. She says the organization moved swiftly and unanimously in the other direction when it saw the pushback against DEI under the current U.S. administration.
"We had a conversation with our executive team and we also had a conversation with our DEI team, and it was unanimous that we need to reinforce and grow this commitment," says Peacefull. “So I'm really proud that I work alongside leaders who had no hesitation that our commitment to diversity, equity inclusion remains high and will continue to grow.”
She says the decision was grounded in operational reality as much as values, pointing out that approximately 50 per cent of new nursing registrations in Canada come from internationally educated professionals – a figure she says makes a robust DEI framework not just a cultural priority, but a structural one for the health-care sector.
"We can't lose sight of why we need to have that laser focus on DEI because it makes our workforce better," says Peacefull. "They have different experiences in patient care, clinical operations, hospital operations, that serves our patients and our communities well to really honour and respect the different experiences people bring to our hospital and to clinical care."
A test of organizational values
At Loblaw Companies Limited in Brampton, Ont., the message when U.S. politics shifted was equally clear to Mark Coulter, Director of Talent Development. Coulter believes that Canadian employers navigating the US DEI crackdown have faced a genuine test of organizational values – and Loblaw's answer was unambiguous.
"The senior leadership team basically said nothing changes for us – we’re not going to change our focus on becoming and maintaining an inclusive environment," says Coulter. "In fact, there's been an acceleration, I would say, of our commitment [to DEI]."
According to Coulter, Loblaw tracks gender and racialized community representation targets at multiple levels and maintains dedicated DEI pillars across its programming. He says the company is actively working to fill gaps created by external programs that have quietly disappeared, including university partnerships offering women-in-leadership courses that lost enrolment and were eventually cancelled – a downstream consequence of the broader retreat that Canadian organizations are navigating regardless of their own intentions.
Are Canadians fundamentally different on DEI?
Canada has human rights laws that require organizations to make DEI part of their strategy, but is there something else that strengthens support of diversity as it’s threatened south of the border? Anita Bhandari, Chief Human Resources Officer at the City of Burnaby, BC, recently spearheaded the appointment of Burnaby's first dedicated senior manager for equity, diversity and inclusion. She says Canada's human rights framework matters but shouldn’t be the primary motivator.
"The laws definitely help, and for organizations where your senior leadership don't support this, then I think definitely lean on some of that," says Bhandari. "But I don't think that should be your driver."
Bhandari, who draws on her own experience as an Indo-Canadian woman who grew up in a small community where her family rarely saw itself reflected, says the real driver must be an organizational belief in belonging. "You need to create spaces where people truly feel like they belong in order for them to be successful," she says. “If you look at our population, we're very diverse, so it's really important that we as a city represent what our community is – I’m not caught up in what others are doing, I’m more caught up in what’s the right thing to do here and how do we position the city to best service the community around us.”
Coulter takes a measured position on the Canada-US divide. He points out that the corporate pullback from DEI transparency in Canada has been most visible in organizations with U.S.-based parent companies. "If you are an organization that's based out of the United States, a head office in the United States and you're a Canadian subsidiary, I think it may be a different ballgame because of the political environment," he says. For wholly Canadian employers like Loblaw, he adds, the case for continuing is both ethical and organizational. "It’s the right thing to do – not only for the employees that work at our organization, but also for the communities in which we serve," he says.
He also believes there are people at each end of the DEI spectrum in both Canada and the U.S., but Canada has “always had a strong foundation of employment equity” and anti-discrimination sentiment, along with human rights laws.
The DEI conversation with employees
When employees raise concerns that DEI programs could be scaled back in response to the political and social climate in the U.S., the response must be grounded, consistent, and values-led rather than reactive, says Bhandari. She refers to a quote many attribute to Mahatma Gandhi (although not definitively linked to him) – "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet" – and applies it explicitly to the DEI conversation. "It means not letting noise or change in trend distract us from doing this right," she says.
Bhandari’s message to employees is unwavering: belonging isn’t a trend, and research bears her out. Organizations that maintained DEI policies fared no worse financially than those that pulled back, according to an August 2026 analysis of S&P 500 companies published by Jacob Grumbach, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.
"If you have an environment where people feel like they belong, they feel safe, and they're happy, you're going to succeed and you're going to do really, really well – that efficiency and engagement is going to drive your organization more than anything,” says Bhandari.
Inclusivity a priority
At Apotex, the Toronto-headquartered global pharmaceutical company, Chief Human Resources Officer Carina Vassilieva takes a language-first approach when navigating the current climate. Operating across multiple international jurisdictions, she says how inclusion is framed matters – and her preferred frame is one that leaves no one out.
"My preference is to speak about inclusivity rather than any other label," Vassilieva says. "Our programs are inclusive, which means that they include everybody. We do not exclude anybody, so it's based on meritocracy and the principle of inclusivity."
The convergence across these HR leaders – different sectors, different sizes, different geographies – points to something broader than individual resolve. Canadian HR leaders aren’t merely holding a line on DEI; they’re actively reinforcing it.
"We've actually elevated the commitment and reinforced it through education, communications, policy, program design – whatever we can do,” says Peacefull. “We have a diverse workforce and it's really important that we allow people to show up as the best version of themselves to do their best work."
