{"id":5362,"date":"2026-09-03T07:17:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=5362"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:18:02","slug":"cheating-white-scholars-out-of-jobs-sinking-the-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=5362","title":{"rendered":"Cheating White Scholars Out of Jobs & Sinking the Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Inclus\u00adive\u2019 hir\u00ading hampers research: report<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Diversity … can lower per\u00adform\u00adance\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
Mcgill Uni\u00adversity\u2019s most recent equity quotas require the school to hire 34 \u201cracial\u00adized\u201d Canada Research Chairs, five Indi\u00adgen\u00adous Canada Research Chairs and 10 \u201cper\u00adsons with dis\u00adab\u00adil\u00adit\u00adies.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"National<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TRISTIN HOPPER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Sep 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cana\u00addian man\u00addates on race-based hir\u00ading quotas in aca\u00addemia have done meas\u00adur\u00adable dam\u00adage to the coun\u00adtry\u2019s research pro\u00adductiv\u00adity, accord\u00ading to a new report by the Mac\u00addon\u00adald-laur\u00adier Insti\u00adtute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since 2017, Cana\u00addian uni\u00adversit\u00adies have been sub\u00adject to strict iden\u00adtity-based hir\u00ading quotas as a con\u00addi\u00adtion of receiv\u00ading fed\u00aderal research fund\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, this has res\u00adul\u00adted in a reg\u00adu\u00adlar stream of aca\u00addemic job post\u00adings that are expli\u00adcitly barred to straight, white men. New\u00adfound\u00adland\u2019s Memorial Uni\u00adversity, for instance, advert\u00adised a tranche of five new jobs in April that were open only to \u201cwomen; 2SLGBTQIA+ people; Indi\u00adgen\u00adous peoples; racial\u00adized per\u00adsons; and per\u00adsons with dis\u00adab\u00adil\u00adit\u00adies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And accord\u00ading to a 54-page report pub\u00adlished Tues\u00adday, all of this iden\u00adtity-based hir\u00ading has yiel\u00added a not\u00adable drop off in the amount of Cana\u00addian research being pub\u00adlished or cited by other schol\u00adars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur ana\u00adlysis … con\u00adfirms that diversity is not merely neut\u00adral but can lower per\u00adform\u00adance,\u201d reads the con\u00adclu\u00adsion of The Equity-excel\u00adlence Tradeoff report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added, \u201call told, end\u00ading EDI (equity, diversity and inclu\u00adsion) ini\u00adti\u00adat\u00adives in Cana\u00addian research should be a top pri\u00ador\u00adity for any respons\u00adible gov\u00adern\u00adment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report zer\u00adoed in on the $311-mil\u00adlion per year Canada Research Chair pro\u00adgram, the fed\u00aderal research fund with the most overt stric\u00adtures on iden\u00adtity-based hir\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pro\u00adgram funds 2,285 uni\u00adversity-based Canada Research Chairs whose salary and office expenses are covered entirely by fed\u00aderal grant money. For a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, for instance, schools receive $200,000 a year. For Tier 2, it\u2019s $100,000 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In return, schools must sub\u00admit to fed\u00ader\u00adally set quotas on the race, gender and sexual char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adist\u00adics of the research\u00aders they\u2019re allowed to hire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accord\u00ading to the most recent \u201cequity tar\u00adgets\u201d pub\u00adlished by the Gov\u00adern\u00adment of Canada, Canada Research Chairs must be 22 per cent \u201cracial\u00adized,\u201d 4.9 per cent \u201cIndi\u00adgen\u00adous\u201d and 50.9 per cent \u201cwomen and gender equity-seek\u00ading groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tar\u00adgets take the form of reg\u00adu\u00adlarly updated tables in which indi\u00advidual uni\u00adversit\u00adies are told the pre\u00adcise num\u00adber of Canada Research Chairs they\u2019re required to hire in one of four \u201cequity-deserving\u201d groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mcgill Uni\u00adversity\u2019s most recent equity quotas, for instance, require the school to hire 34 \u201cracial\u00adized\u201d Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Chairs, five Indi\u00adgen\u00adous Canada Research Chairs and 10 \u201cper\u00adsons with dis\u00adab\u00adil\u00adit\u00adies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canada Research Chair pro\u00adgram began in 2000, but its iden\u00adtity man\u00addates star\u00adted only in 2017 under the over\u00adsight of then-prime min\u00adis\u00adter Justin Trudeau. And in just nine years, the effect has been pre\u00adcip\u00adit\u00adous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the pro\u00adgram\u2019s launch, 80 per cent of Canada Research Chairs were white males. As of 2025, white males com\u00adprised just 25 per cent of the total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mac\u00addon\u00adald-laur\u00adier Insti\u00adtute ana\u00adlysts ranked the pro\u00adductiv\u00adity of Canada Research Chairs both before and after the iden\u00adtity man\u00addates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What they determ\u00adined was that the quant\u00adity and qual\u00adity of Canada Research Chair schol\u00adar\u00adship had declined from between 10 per cent to 15 per cent, which the report attrib\u00aduted to the \u201cnon-mer\u00adit\u00adori\u00adous appoint\u00adment of less qual\u00adi\u00adfied Black, Indi\u00adgen\u00adous, and female chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report cat\u00adegor\u00adized the per\u00adform\u00adance of 1,906 Canada Research Chairs by their \u201ch-index,\u201d a stand\u00adard global meas\u00adure of a scholar\u2019s pro\u00adductiv\u00adity and rel\u00adev\u00adance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An h-index ranks the num\u00adber of papers in which a researcher is lis\u00adted as an author, as well as the num\u00adber of instances in which those papers have been cited by oth\u00aders, and then arrives at a num\u00adber that is typ\u00adic\u00adally between one and 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cur\u00adrently, Canada\u2019s highest h-index belongs to Mcmas\u00adter Uni\u00adversity health researcher Gor\u00addon Guyatt. With his name on 1,715 pub\u00adlic\u00ada\u00adtions and 366,582 cita\u00adtions, as of last count, he has an h-index of 290.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a close second is another Mcmas\u00adter Uni\u00adversity health researcher, Salim Yusuf, with an h-index of 280.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mac\u00addon\u00adald-laur\u00adier Insti\u00adtute paper broke down the median h-index for dif\u00adfer\u00adent races of Canada Research Chairs, and found that the cohorts with the low\u00adest research pro\u00adductiv\u00adity are the same cohorts being given pri\u00ador\u00adity for aca\u00addemic jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aver\u00adage white or Asian male scholar, for instance, had an h-index of 39. For male schol\u00adars who were Black or Indi\u00adgen\u00adous, mean\u00adwhile, the h-index came to 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also an h-index gap between women and men gen\u00ader\u00adally. Male Canada Research Chairs aver\u00adaged an h-index of 38, while female schol\u00adars aver\u00adaged 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this, the paper con\u00adcluded that the gradual replace\u00adment of high-achiev\u00ading cohorts with lower-achiev\u00ading ones was com\u00ading at the cost of lower qual\u00adity research \u2014 at least in terms of h-index scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be many cases in which female, Black, or Indi\u00adgen\u00adous schol\u00adars will not impose a cost, but on aver\u00adage \u2014 underan Edid\u00adispens\u00ada\u00adtion in which race and sex con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions can out\u00adweigh schol\u00adarly merit \u2014 this will be the case,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one example, the paper noted that in instances where a uni\u00adversity took a pos\u00adi\u00adtion pre\u00advi\u00adously filled by a white or Asian scholar, and filled it with a Black or Indi\u00adgen\u00adous hire, that\u2019s likely to entail an \u201caver\u00adage loss of 3.2 h-index points.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Inclus\u00adive\u2019 hir\u00ading hampers research: report \u2018Diversity … can lower per\u00adform\u00adance\u2019 TRISTIN HOPPER 2 Sep 2026 Cana\u00addian man\u00addates on race-based hir\u00ading quotas in aca\u00addemia have done meas\u00adur\u00adable dam\u00adage to the coun\u00adtry\u2019s research pro\u00adductiv\u00adity, accord\u00ading to a new report by the Mac\u00addon\u00adald-laur\u00adier Insti\u00adtute. Ever since 2017, Cana\u00addian uni\u00adversit\u00adies have been sub\u00adject to strict iden\u00adtity-based hir\u00ading quotas as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[309,3128,2275,1330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5363,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5362\/revisions\/5363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}