The federal government's multi-million dollar plan to hire and promote visible minorities seems to little more that a public relation stunt. Critics indeed say that it is time to start imposing tough penalties of government departments don't meet hiring goals. Despite the Stephen Harper government's apparent public relations professings, statistical data reveals that visible minorities who have already been under-represented, are losing even more ground.

It may be a surprise to many Canadians that the private sector, which is not know to be particularly progressive on race relations, has a better demographic representation of visible minorities in the Canadian workforce, than in Canada's public sector. This particularly includes management categories. Indeed, there are no visible minorities in most upper management areas of Canada's federal as well as provincial public sectors.

Staffing watchdog Maria Bardos, President on the Public Service Commission, raised the alarm when she found the recruitment rate of visible minorities fell last year, even though overall hiring in departments increased.