Liberal Government Spent More Than $15 Million Fighting Black Workers in Court

October 30, 2025 - TORONTO – The Black Class Action Secretariat is outraged by revelations that the Government of Canada has spent more than $15 million fighting Black public sector workers in court for the last five years. 

In 2020, a landmark lawsuit was launched against the federal government aiming to seek justice for more than 45,000 current and former Black public sector employees. The plaintiffs in the case are currently appealing the decision by the Federal Court to dismiss a motion to certify the lawsuit as a class action. The lawsuit seeks $2.5B in damages for lost salaries and pensions as a result of systemic discrimination across 99 government departments.

“This is not just hypocrisy, it is anti-Black racism in action,” says Nicholas Marcus Thomson, with the Black Class Action Secretariat. “While the government publicly acknowledges the existence of anti-Black discrimination and settles class actions brought by other groups, it continues to target Black workers with costly and aggressive legal battles. By choosing to fight rather than fix the problem, the government reinforces the very systemic racism it claims to oppose.”

The news comes on the same day the feds apologized to members of the Canadian Armed Forces for racial discrimination, following the settlement of a class action lawsuit. The federal government has previously settled similar lawsuits with other marginalized community groups, including survivors of the “LGBT Purge”. In both those cases, the government chose to spare those victims from lengthy and expensive legal processes that would retraumatize plaintiffs. They have refused to extend the same position to Black workers. 

Just this month, testimonies from Former and current staff at Global Affairs highlighted the broken system when it comes to investigating pervasive workplace discrimination at home and at postings abroad. A Federal Court ruled that Global Affairs acted unlawfully when it dismissed the complaint of a Black worker, and ordered a new investigation, which ultimately found her superior had “encouraged and tolerated intimidation and discriminatory practices”.

There have been numerous federal findings of systemic anti-Black discrimination within the public service, including at the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Canada’s Privy Council Office. A government-funded report has also described a deeply hostile work environment for Black executives across the public service, marked by threats, abuse, cruelty, subjugation, insubordination, intimidation, baseless complaints, and relentless harassment.  Despite extensive evidence of anti-Black systemic discrimination, the government continues to force affected workers to use the same broken system that has repeatedly denied them redress. 

The Black Class Action Secretariat is calling on the Mark Carney government to:

1. Settle the class action, and provide long-overdue compensation and structural change to the thousands of Black workers harmed by Black employee exclusion;

2. Introduce long-overdue amendments to the Employment Equity Act, including the formal recognition of Black workers as an employment group promised since 2023;

3. Launch the Black Mental Health Program, promised since 2021;

4. Establish an independent Black Equity Commissioner to oversee accountability across departments and agencies.  

Media Enquiries: Media@bcas-srcn.org