Science and Research Committee on Sept. 24th, 2026

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

Thank you for the question.

We are considering the outcomes and the recommendations that have been outlined in the report, along with our colleagues and other granting agencies, as well as through our core department. These are things that we will certainly be reflecting on as core recommendations from the report, as with all the other recommendations.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Do you agree with this specific recommendation?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

I'm not here to share my personal opinion as a public servant. I'll leave it at that.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

You're here representing NSERC. Does your organization agree with the recommendation, yes or no?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

We're still analyzing the recommendations as a whole.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

You're on this committee, but you're still analyzing. Will you provide a response later on that addresses this specific recommendation on page 12?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

Yes. I believe a response report will be submitted within the different organizations.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

This report outlines a number of barriers that it alleges about the francophone community and the research community. Not once has it mentioned that race is a barrier, yet it makes recommendations about race-based scholarships and hiring professors on the basis of race.

What are your thoughts on that? Can you provide some of your analysis? I know you can't make a determination, but I want to hear some of your analysis on this.

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

We will be analyzing it. As this committee well knows, we have information, of course, on the research base. We understand that different parameters are taken into consideration in different geographies, different parts of the country and across all of our researchers.

As for your point, we certainly understand that we need diversity of researchers across the country. This is something we're aware of. We will be considering it with all the other recommendations in terms of a formal response.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Do you think the race of an applicant, a professor or a researcher has any connection with their linguistic ability?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

We don't assess that. We evaluate with the principles of research excellence, which, as all of my colleagues have mentioned here today—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

You don't assess that.

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

I'm sorry...?

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

You don't assess that. In all your granting applications, you ask for race, gender and the like. Things that would be inappropriate to ask in a job interview, you ask in a grant application. Are you saying that your organization's policies are inappropriate?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

These are self-identification questions that researchers are at liberty to answer.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Okay. Why ask it if it's not something that's assessed?

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

It's not assessed, but it's monitored.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Imagine an interviewer asking that question in a job interview. See what kind of legal outcome they'll have.

Let me put this in practical terms. Let's say we have two students both wanting to conduct their research in French. One is a low-income francophone student from a small rural community; she was raised by a single mother but doesn't qualify as “racialized”. The other comes from an affluent family in a wealthy neighbourhood from a major city. They went to private school. They're very affluent, and they qualify as being “racialized”. What is the policy justification for giving the second student, who is from an affluent background, access to a scholarship specifically on the basis of race, while denying the first student that same race-targeted scholarship?

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

No crosstalk, please. This is the time for witnesses to answer questions.

[Anne-Marie Thompson]

If I understood that—there was a bit of chatting in the room—I would say that we assess all the applications based on research excellence. There's an opportunity for researchers to put forward the context in which they are performing the research. We look at a wide consideration of different types of impacts of the research.

Again, we've all moved toward the research excellence San Francisco declaration, or DORA, to consider a larger pool of outcomes of research. We wouldn't base it on someone's economic circumstance, that's for sure.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I agree with the research excellence part. That's how we should be considering grant applications. However, this report specifically made race-based scholarships and race-based hiring for professors as a recommendation, without any empirical evidence to suggest that race would be a barrier to linguistic ability. It even admits that it is not a barrier and they don't have information to justify that. We just had a witness who wrote the report say that. They made that recommendation anyway.

Are you suggesting that your organization would reject this recommendation of race-based scholarships? You mentioned that we should be reviewing everything on the basis of excellence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

The time is up for MP Ho. Maybe we can come back to it—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I would like that answer tabled in writing, if possible. Thank you.

You are a bureaucrat, so...whenever it's available—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

If you can provide the answer in writing, that would be good.

We will now proceed to MP Deschênes-Thériault for six minutes.

Please go ahead.