Everyone Belongs & Strong Team

For everyone who comes to CHEO, we must be a place where people are free from any worry of bias or discrimination.   

We believe diversity is our strength and we strive to be a welcoming and safe place to work and receive care.  

That is why Everyone Belongs is one of the priorities in our new strategy. It underlines our commitment to ensuring CHEO is free from discrimination. 

This commitment begins by acknowledging CHEO operates on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabek nation and by recognizing the truths of historical harms and ongoing impacts of colonization. We commit to building relationships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples including the urban Indigenous community, and adopting strength-based approaches towards reconciliation to honour the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Over the years, we have worked to address all forms of discrimination, systemic and personalized at CHEO, including ableism, anti-Black racism, and discrimination against 2SLGBTQIA+ peoples.  

In the past year there has been a distressing rise of public hate speech, hate crimes and discrimination specifically targeting Arab, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, and Palestinian communities in Canada.   

CHEO acknowledges the deep impacts these negative actions have on so many in our community and actively addresses any reports of discrimination on a confidential case-by case basis. We know there is always more to learn and do, and CHEO searches for ways to continually improve. 

CHEO rejects all forms of discrimination. We address it by:

• Seeking to prevent and address systemic and personalized forms of discrimination through improving strategies, policies and training. 
• Continuing to create spaces to listen and learn from those with lived experience.
• Continuing to act on every concern raised by patients, families, community partners, staff, medical staff, learners and volunteers. 
• Engaging Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized communities, francophones and linguistic minority communities, newcomers, people of diverse genders and sexual orientations, people of all faiths, and persons with disabilities to ensure historically marginalized voices, internally and in the broader community, are heard and better understood.   
• Actively celebrate diversity throughout the year. 

Global turmoil has a profound effect on us all. Health workers and health-care facilities must remain at the heart of the safety and well-being of all communities. In times of conflict, such as those today in the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine and so many other places in the world, this role becomes more important than ever. At CHEO, we call for peace today and every day. We mourn the loss of life, especially children, civilians and health-care workers and call for their protection and safety.