World Day of Social Justice: ACFO-ACAF’s goals and priorities

My fellow members of the CT Community,

On November 26, 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations deemed that each year on February 20, we would celebrate the World Day of Social Justice. This day is an opportunity for us to take a step back from our busy day-to-day lives and acknowledge the need to build fairer and more equitable societies — societies where future generations won’t be forced to endure the same social injustices as their predecessors. 

Since the inception of the ACFO-ACAF in 1988, we’ve been privileged to represent such a diverse group of individuals — a group that today is made up of over 7,000 financial professionals spread across Canada. With this privilege comes the responsibility of using our strength as a union to advocate for marginalized groups in the fight for justice. Through our advocacy efforts, and with the help of both domestic and international partners, our goal is to help dismantle systemic barriers and build an equitable, inclusive workplace for all within our organization and across the federal public service and NAV CANADA.

With this social justice advocacy being core to our work at ACFO-ACAF and in looking ahead on how we can continue to advocate and make meaningful changes on equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism (EDIAR), ACFO-ACAF has implemented an organization-wide strategy that will help us meet six priority goals:

1. Integrate and foster EDIAR within our internal governance framework and policies.
2. Develop tools to better understand the needs of our internal workforce and membership.  
3. Integrate and foster EDIAR within internal recruitment, retention, and appointment processes, procedures, and practices.
4. Develop, engage, and raise EDIAR awareness and education through professional development for the ACFO workforce, ACFO Board of Directors, and membership.
5. Strengthen internal and external ACFO communications on EDIAR.
6. Advance EDIAR through collective bargaining and representation services by recognizing and addressing the persistent biases, racism, and inequities in the workplace.

This strategic plan provides a foundation for advancing EDIAR initiatives already underway at ACFO-ACAF while also creating a platform for new opportunities that will deepen our understanding of, and commitment to, EDIAR over the next five years.

I’ve been the president of ACFO-ACAF for just over nine years now, and during that time, we’ve accomplished so much as an organization that I can look back on with pride. EDIAR is a central part of how we grow and prosper as a union. Our concrete actions fostering EDIAR within the CT Community will continue to be a hallmark of our operations.

I’d like to thank you all for assisting us on this journey and know that everything we do is with our membership in mind.

Dany Richard, CPA, ICD.D
President
ACFO-ACAF