TORONTO — CEOs representing more than 200 Canadian organizations, including three of Canada’s big banks, have signed up to support the BlackNorth Initiative against systemic racism.
The list was released Monday ahead of an online summit of Canadian business leaders, who have pledged to create conditions to support the success of members of the Black community.
The Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic Racism was founded recently by Wes Hall, who is also executive chairman and founder of Kingsdale Advisors.
His co-chairs for the summit are Cisco Canada’s Rola Dagher, CIBC’s Victor Dodig and Fairfax Financial’s Prem Watsa, who are all chief executives of their organizations.
The BlackNorth Initiative lays out goals that include having at least 3.5 per cent of executive and board roles in Canada held by Black leaders by 2025.
The push to deal with systemic racism has gained strength in recent months in the wake of demonstrations held across Canada and the United States.
The initiative is supported by organizations in a wide variety of industries and the Canadian Association of Urban Financial Professionals (CAUFP), which has 600 members.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2020.
