Wednesday, December 11, 2024
2024 was an incredibly active year for Equity Caucuses at AMAPCEO, and we are proud of the quality and number of events they hosted this year. Caucuses used in-person, hybrid, and virtual formats to host events that built up their communities, supported members through joint efforts, and provided alternative routes into activist roles for under-represented equity groups.
AMAPCEO welcomed Khadeeja Farooq, Asma Fatehi, Jamie Ngo, Léa Nsouli and Maria Lopez-Pevide as new Chairs in 2024, leading the Women’s Caucus, Disability Caucus, Asian Caucus, Arab Caucus, and Latinx Caucus, respectively.
Recently, our Equity Caucus leaders took the opportunity to share their highlights from the past year, as well as things to look forward to in 2025. The following is only a handful of the Caucuses’ many events and accomplishments. To learn more, we encourage you to review the Equity Caucus page on our website and keep an eye on our upcoming events page.
New beginnings with three new caucuses in 2024
To meet member needs and continue to grow, the former Asian, Arab & Latinx Caucus developed into three independent caucuses.
Arab Caucus Chair Léa Nsouli saw the necessity to establish an Arab community in her first year as Chair, and for 2025. “I really wanted to create a space for Arabs specifically and, as you're likely aware, this past year has been especially challenging for the Arab community, over here at home and overseas worldwide,” said Nsouli.
“Vice-Chair Summer Alkarmi and I felt a strong need to really unite, and we know that there are many of us in AMAPCEO and that we are sprinkled a little bit across the Ontario Public Service (OPS).”
Maria Lopez-Pevide, Chair of the Latinx Caucus, used her experience with the HOLA OPS group to help increase awareness of the Latinx Caucus: “Membership engagement has always been something that I've been passionate about, especially when it comes to AMAPCEO. The joint event with HOLA OPS was a great chance for us to meet members and to remind them that AMAPCEO is here—we are here to assist, and here to represent you as Latinos.”
Asian Caucus Chair Jamie Ngo emphasized the importance of re-engaging members and collecting feedback, something he learned from the experience of hosting the November Asian Caucus Networking lunch: “We created three new caucuses, instead of just one, in order to meet the needs of the members. So we had to pretty much get members restarted again and sign up, which was good because we got some more member feedback to be able to understand what they want our Caucus to do, and what they want AMAPCEO in general to do.”
Commemorating equity days and months and using the lens of lived experience
In 2024, AMAPCEO commemorated more than 30 equity and social justice dates and months to raise awareness of important issues in the workplace. In their reflections on the past year, the Chairs of the Black Caucus, Indigenous Circle, and Disability Caucus emphasized how important the lens of lived experience is when delivering these events.
Black Caucus Chair Bonnie Wiltshire highlighted Black History Month as both educational and an opportunity for the Black Caucus to join forces with Black affinity groups within the OPS: “The Black Caucus events always have a mix of inspiration, education, and entertainment, and this was reflected in this year's Black History Month [event], which was a celebration of different Black expressions and identity.”
“We had our senior management speak from their own lived experiences. [It] was very impactful to hear them share their stories about struggles that they've had [..] that we can identify with, having similar experiences, and then getting that encouragement and motivation to keep moving forward in the midst of struggles with anti-Black racism,” said Wiltshire.
In her discussion of the past year, Maggie Kavanaugh, Chair of the Indigenous Circle, focused on the Circle’s National Day for Awareness of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two Spirit People (MMIWG2S) event and button campaign: “Education and awareness about MMIWG2S allows us to meet the call to action with engaging with our AMAPCEO membership, highlighting the importance of being understanding of the statistics and the marginalization of Indigenous women girls and two spirit people.”
Kavanaugh shared her personal passion to use the campaign to meet one of the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report: “I have a strong passion to bring awareness of MMIWG2S (because I come from a background of sexual assault and violence)—it's a really strong driver for me to ensure we are educating our AMAPCEO members about MMIWG2S.”
Asma Fatehi, Chair of the Disability Caucus, noted how important lived experience was in the Caucus’ fireside chat on ableism, an event where a retired member with a hearing disability was invited by the Caucus to share his career journey at the OPS: “Our fireside chat on ableism occurred recently, where we invited one of our retired members to share his experiences with respect to career progression in the OPS dealing with ableism and microaggressions in the workplace while living with a hearing disability.”
Members with disabilities continue to face significant challenges in the workplace which affects them personally and professionally, Fatehi said, adding that “The union is a strong tool for members with disabilities to address their workplace challenges with the employer."
To date, the Disability Caucus has also provided input on training for Workplace Representatives (WPRs) which kicked off with a dedicated session about disability accommodation at the WPR Conference, a new development this year.
Professional networking and career advice
In addition to commemorating equity days and months, AMAPCEO caucuses also held events that focused on networking and career advice. The Women’s Caucus chose to highlight a networking event in 2024 while the Francophone Caucus highlighted plans for the upcoming year with inspiration from a 2023 career-related event.
When discussing the important work of the Women’s Caucus, Chair Khadeeja Farooq pointed to a recent women’s networking event, which provided a space for Caucus members to come together to connect and collaborate, and the time to get to know one another: “Even though this was a very informal type of event where we didn't really have a presentation kind of going on—just a small activity, like an icebreaker activity just to get everyone comfortable to get to know one another—being a new chair myself, an event like this was a good introductory type of meeting.”
“[It helped me] see what the women, or those who are part of the Caucus, what they're looking for, and what they would like us to do for future events.”
With 2025 just around the corner, Francophone Caucus Chair Vincent Lavigne is looking forward to planning events focusing more on advocacy, career progression and continuing to build a strong foundation for the caucus, citing inspiration from a successful 2023 spring panel event that focused on career perspectives and issues that directly impact equity for Francophones in the OPS: “Our spring panel event in 2023 was great because it had panelists who had some years in the OPS and also some years outside of the OPS, which meant that they were able to highlight some of the differences between working for the public sector versus the private sector.”
“It was a great event that focused on equity for Francophones as well as a learning experience for us on how we can position ourselves best for advancement in the OPS—these are the types of events that I hope we can do more of to engage our Caucus members.” said Lavigne.
New development: Joint District-Caucus events
A new development this year was the delivery of joint District-Caucus events, in which activists from specific Districts collaborated with Equity Caucus leadership to host member events. One specific example of this was a karaoke event held jointly by the Pride Caucus and Young Workers’ Caucus in June of 2024.
Noémie Bergeron, Pride Caucus Chair, emphasized how joint events can be a combination of learning experience and fun.
“I found that our June karaoke event helped to have some meaningful conversations with the Caucus, while also having an element of fun to it, instead of only being serious and always work-related,” said Bergeron.
“The June karaoke was such a success that Equity Committee Chair and AMAPCEO Vice-President Cynthia Watt proposed to have a December karaoke night with the entire Equity Committee as part of the ADC that’s open to Delegates and Equity Caucus members because it was just so fun.”
Things to look forward to in 2025
AMAPCEO’s Equity Caucuses look forward to planning events for the upcoming year with a continued focus on member consultations, educational sessions, commemorations of equity days and months, social and cultural events, and spaces for community discussion.
All caucuses also agreed that, in 2025, there will be strong emphasis on increasing member recruitment and retention, encouraging more members to play an active role in their caucus, and creating more collaborative opportunities within AMAPCEO’s Districts and Equity Caucuses.
Don’t miss out on future events for 2025! From planned education sessions on financial literacy to a potential workshop on Arabic Calligraphy, and all equity-focused days and months in between, make sure to sign up and join an AMAPCEO Equity Caucus today at https://amapceo.on.ca/joinequity.