Employment equity
Employment equity
“Employment equity is a strategy to enable equity-seeking communities the opportunity to achieve equality in employment opportunities and benefits. Employment equity involves both recognizing and responding. It requires employers to recognize that certain practices place racialized persons, women, aboriginal peoples and people with disabilities at a disadvantage. Employment equity not only demands the elimination of such practices, but also imposes positive obligations on employers to facilitate the achievement of equity.”
- Employment Equity Act (S.C. 1995, c. 44)
Hiring Practices for Equity-in-Employment
Interviewing Guidelines (pdf) | Brochure (pdf)
Employment Equity in the Legal Profession in Nova Scotia (2012)
Brochure (pdf)
Employment Equity Steering Committee
In 2001, the Nova Scotia Government adopted the Policy on Employment Equity for Crown Law Agents, in part to improve employment equity in law firms and to address the historic under-representation of African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq lawyers in Nova Scotia. The Employment Equity Steering Committee includes the Deputy Minister of Justice, the Dean of Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, the Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and the Director of the Indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq Initiative at Schulich School of Law.
The Committee designed a questionnaire to collect data on representation and employment status of designated group members within firms, including Black and Mi’kmaq lawyers. The Society collects and compiles this information from all Crown Law Agents who signed the Employment Equity Commitment, and provides a written report to the Department of Justice.
The Committee is committed to moving the concerns for employment equity in the legal profession beyond Crown Law Agents. A reconstituted group, with representatives from the Society, the provincial Department of Justice, the Canadian Bar Association Equity Committee, the Indigenous Black and Mi'kmaq Initiative, Eastern Door and the Black Lawyers Association of Nova Scotia, is now considering the best ways to move forward on equity initiatives in the Nova Scotia legal profession. The Committee recognized the need for more information about the state of equity in the legal profession and improved tools to gather this information.
Government of Nova Scotia's Policy on Employment Equity for Crown Law Agents (pdf)
2007-2008 Employment Equity Questionnaire for Crown Law Agents (pdf)
