Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee

AboutInclusion and DiversityInclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee

CBA formally creates an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Committee

The Canadian Botanical Association/Association Botanique du Canada strongly believes that botanical knowledge, research and outreach must support all people whatever their race, culture, religion, age, ability, experience or stage of life. It recognizes that our diversity includes LGBTQS2+ and BIPOC from Canada and coming from other countries. It also believes that its membership should represent the reality of Canada as a diverse, multicultural and inclusive community of botanists who all promote meaningful engagement to all spheres of society. Recognizing that there are different ways of knowing, the CBA/ABC encourages greater reconciliation of worldviews, cultures and identities.

To foster and uphold an environment of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) within the Association, the CBA/ABC formally created the IDEA committee at its 2021 AGM. While maintaining such an environment is the collective obligation of the entire membership — as outlined in the Code of Conduct — the committee oversees and unifies the efforts of the Association in this area.

The IDEA committee has been formed of a diverse group of members, and we have three main objectives for this year: 1) establish a presence of the IDEA committee on the CBA/ABC website; 2) develop an IDEA  portrait of the CBA/ABC (also called an environmental scan) including both quantitative and qualitative elements; and 3) develop a document for local organising to support the inclusion of more IDEA principles in the organisation of annual meetings.

We look forward to discussing with members on these topics! Please contact Nicole Fenton at nicole.fenton@uqat.ca for more information.