Montreal woman alleges systemic racism after she was repeatedly passed over for promotions

For nearly 40 years, Wanda Kagan has worked in an administrative role at one of Montreal’s regional health authorities, the CIUSSS West Central Montreal.

As first reported by CBC Montreal, she claims that she was unfairly paid and passed up for promotions for decades, and that her managers denied her written performance evaluations.

She eventually came to believe that she was facing discrimination at work.

“I wasn’t being advanced career-wise, although my tasks and my duties and responsibilities were being increased,” she alleged.

In 2022, Kagan filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission (the CDPDJ) after she was passed up for a promotion that she says she deserved.

“I had the most seniority, and I had the most experience, and I was literally devastated when I found out that a white colleague within the institution got the job over me,” Kagan said.

The Centre for Research Action on Race Relations is helping Kagan with her case. The head of CRARR, Fo Niemi, says a report the CDPDJ produced concerning Kagan’s case contains numerous factual errors, and doesn’t treat Kagan’s complaint as one involving systemic racism.

“There are no data on how many Black and white employees are working in which positions, and how many were promoted,” he said. “They got a lot of information wrong.”

Niemi said a clerical error incorrectly labelled Kagan as a temporary employee for years, even though she has been a permanent full-time employee since 1989.

He alleges the error prevented Kagan from qualifying for certain positions and salary bumps. It also appeared in the Commission’s report, one of a number of issues Niemi has asked the CDPDJ to correct in the document.

Niemi also said that when he asked the commission to outline how it investigates allegations of systemic discrimination in the workplace, the answer he received was vague.

“We feel that, if this is the way that the Quebec human rights commission tackles complaints of systemic racism in employment, a lot of black complainants, a lot of Black victims of discrimination, will never get justice,” Niemi said.

Kagan is still waiting to see if her case will go before the Human Rights Tribunal.

In an email to CTV, the CDPDJ pointed to documents in French on its website, including a tool it says is designed to assist in handling discrimination cases, as well as public guidelines for its investigative process.

Now that she’s nearing retirement, Kagan said she feels empowered to take her story public and has also been inspired by her high school friend Kamala Harris to stand up for herself.

Kagan also said she was eventually given the promotion she feels she deserved, but has not received an apology from her employer.

The health authority declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality, but said it’s committed to treating its employees with respect and dignity.

Kagan is calling for change in her workplace, for how promotions are evaluated and for how complaints of discrimination and racism are treated.

“I went into a depression,” she said. “It affects you, it affects your whole life after, and as I’m realizing now, as I’m about to retire, it affects your retirement because you don’t get the salary that you would normally have gotten and the pay that you deserved to get for all those years of service that you put in.”