‘Pure inequality’: Former systemic racism commissioner calls out pay gap [video]

New Brunswick’s former commissioner of systemic racism Manju Varma says the pay gaps that leaves women worse off than men — especially women of colour — represents “pure inequality.”

She made the comments at a recent panel discussion at the Dieppe Arts and Culture Centre hosted by the YWCA of Greater Moncton and the United Way.

Watch highlights from the panel:

“It’s hard to believe that we’re still talking about this,” Varma said during the panel.

By 2023, women were earning 92.65 cents on the dollar compared to men in New Brunswick, according to figures from Statistics Canada cited by the NB Coalition for Pay Equity. In terms of median income, women earned about 80 per cent of what men brought home in 2022, a difference of $8,600 annually.

Racialized women tend to earn even less than white women, in part because they’re disproportionately represented in work that is underpaid, non-unionized, and with limited benefits and protections. “Racialized women are still at the bottom of the heap,” Varma said. “There is no other reason for that, other than the fact that it is just pure inequality.”

The new government under Premier-designate Susan Holt, the first-ever woman elected to New Brunswick’s top office, is expected to adopt pay equity legislation for the private sector. Pay equity is generally defined as equal pay for work of equal value.

It’s a longstanding demand among social justice advocates, who point out that women tend to be concentrated in fields such as the caregiving sector, where wages remain low. The Liberal platform pledged to “phase in pay equity in the private sector and care sector, using a model similar to Quebec and Ontario.”

Other panellists included Tara Hosford, a mother of three, who described how she struggled with homelessness and addition for more than 20 years. The YWCA helped her get back on her feet.

She went through rehab but eventually experienced a burnout while in the process of regaining custody of her children.  “I had no plan and I was going to do what I always did, which was run,” she said.  “So I had my bags packed but there was a woman there who was helping out, and she said, ‘Have you ever heard of the YWCA?”

Watch uncut footage of the panel:

After going through an intake process at the YWCA, she didn’t know what to expect. “But shortly after, I get a phone call saying that we have an apartment for you,” she recalled. “Not only was it for me, but it was for my children, who eventually did end up back with me.”

Other panellists included Lieutenant Governor Brenda Murphy, a longtime advocate for women’s equality and Canada’s first openly gay person appointed to a vice-regal position; Donna Ferguson, owner of SheBuilds, a construction company that empowers women in the trades; and Carly Cormier, a firefighter with the Canadian Forces at CFB Halifax.

The event, called the Pink Tea Gala, was timed to mark 95 years since a famous legal ruling that recognized that women are “persons” under Canadian law. That ruling, known as the “persons case” established the right of women to be appointed to the Senate.

New Brunswick Senator Nancy Hartling emceed the event, along with Rina Arseneault of UNB’s Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research.

This article was updated on Oct. 31, 2024 to include uncut footage from the panel discussion. 

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).