Madam Speaker, some of the comments are indeed condescending. I would like to get back to some of the more practical aspects of what we are talking about in employment equity today. I would remind you, Madam Speaker, that I am dividing my time with my hon. colleague.
I would like to begin by quoting Booker T. Washington who said: "I have always been made sad when I have heard members of any race claiming rights and privileges or certain badges of distinction on the grounds simply that they were members of
this or that race, regardless of their individual worth or attainments". I suppose that says a great deal to what this debate is all about.
I have always struggled with the employment equity situation in terms of whether or not it is right or wrong or how it is applied. I think to a great degree we are trying to accomplish fairness and equality in the country regardless of race, colour, creed or religion. I am not entirely satisfied that we can legislate equality and attitudes or legislate how best to achieve the results of a fair and caring society.
We get into all kinds of issues with employment equity. I want to relate two. First, in my past life I happened to be the chief executive officer of operations for a fairly large organization, a school district of some 1,500 employees. I often wondered how we could legislate hiring equity with 1,500 employees. If we look at the area I come from, there is a very large number of Indo-Canadian people.
If we were to take that ratio and a ratio of male-female which is probably around 50:50, I wonder how that kind of equity would be applied to the organization I ran. Within that organization a large number of employees were female and I would suggest that they were white and of younger ages.
To turn around and apply employment equity ratios, numerical goals or quotas which are one and the same, to that organization, I do not believe would practically work. The ratio has to be applied back at the universities, in the bachelor of education courses taught at university. Then that ratio would have to be applied back at the high school level, to the graduates for acceptance into university.