Creating inclusive workplaces for employees is at the core of our values at Randstad Canada. As we enter Pride Month, employers must reflect on how to ensure 2SLGBTQIA+ employees feel safe, seen and acknowledged in their workplaces. If you want to learn more about this important topic, rewatch the webinar we held on June 17th, on how to create inclusive workplaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees.
We had the chance to hear from our two speakers, Gitanjali Lena and Vincent Mousseau (bios below), and the conversation was moderated by Meryem Benslimane, Diversity and Inclusion Community Impact Manager at Randstad Canada. This event also served as the launch for Randstad’s guide ‘the impact of words: inclusive language in your workplace’, which you can access here.
catch the webinar here
meet our panelists
gitanjali lena
Gitanjali is a queer non-binary lawyer, activist, artist and parent living in T’karonto/Treaty 13 territory. They were called to the Ontario Bar in 2007. They practiced in human rights, housing and criminal law, including working as per diem criminal duty counsel. Gitanjali then worked in a number of legal clinics as a staff lawyer.
After working as the Executive Director of LGBT Youth Line for three years in 2016 they created gender identity/gender expression legal policy for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund. Their 2019 LLM at Osgoode Hall produced original research about trans racialized youth autonomy practices in health care. Gitanjali has lectured in Gender and the Law at the University of Toronto and was Review Counsel at the Community & Legal Services Programme through 2019-2020.
As a Senior Legal Researcher at Egale Canada, Gitanjali created a series of webinars for legal professionals wanting to deliver anti-oppressive and trauma informed legal services to 2SLGBTQIA+ clients. They also hosted a bilingual cross country COVID legal series emphasizing the work of QTBIPOCS in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lena Legal Services is their new multi service firm providing services to 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Gitanjali supports progressive movements through their work with the Movement Defence committee. They love their garden, their husky, and making ice cream.
vincent mousseau
Vincent is a social worker, educator, and community organizer based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal, QC), on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk).A masters student at the School of Social Work at Université de Montréal, they also hold a Bachelor of Social Work degree from McGill University.
As both an activist and an educator, their areas of expertise include anti-oppressive framework, community outreach strategies for queer and trans people of colour, intersectional analysis, Black Lives Matter activism, and contemporary anti-assimilationist queer activism.
Their current areas of academic interest surround intersectional models of identity development for Black 2SLGBTQ+ people and their effect on health and social service provision, the creation of intergenerational and intersectional 2SLGBTQ+ spaces, as well as the barriers that African, Caribbean, and Black men who have sex with men face in the Canadian and Québécois blood donation system.