Thank you.
This is an important issue that must be addressed and discussed by this committee, in my view, as are the concerns about racism in Canada more generally. We have all seen this coming up, not just in the past few months but for years. Racialized citizens in this country understand that acts of racism happen in this country. For too many Canadians, systemic racism is a lived reality. That is why I'm extremely proud of what the government has invested in the economic empowerment of racialized communities—including through the Black entrepreneurship program—while working to close the gaps for indigenous communities.
The government also took important steps to address racism with the release of Canada's anti-racism strategy 2019-22. It's a three-year strategy involving the creation of an anti-racism secretariat and the appointment of the first-ever minister focused specifically on diversity and inclusion.
In the throne speech—which the Conservatives and the Bloc voted against, by the way—the government committed to redoubling its effort by taking action on online hate. We've seen lots of that over the weekend. A gentleman named Justin Tang got quite a bit of support on Twitter about his experience facing racism. He spoke up in protection of himself and all Asian Canadians. I applaud that.
Going further on economic empowerment for specific communities and increasing diversity on procurement, the government is building a whole-of-government federal approach around better collection of disaggregated data throughout the government.
I don't know how many members realize that if you look at the data on the number of Asian Canadians currently in the senior levels of our public service at the federal level, you will be shocked to find there are very few—maybe just a handful or maybe none, actually. Canada is a country that embraces multiculturalism. Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants come to this country, and tens of thousands of permanent residents become Canadian citizens, only to learn that Canada's own public service is not reflecting the diversity of its society. That is truly troubling. I hope this committee will make it a priority to study and provide recommendations through the House to the government to change this prolonged symptom in our society.
We are also implementing an action plan to increase representation through hiring, through public appointments and through leadership development within the public service.
Also from the throne speech, the government will introduce legislation and make investments that take action to address—