Media Action Plan honours Black History Month

Courtesy Oliver Macklem

Media Action Plan honours Black History Month and this year's theme -- Black Resistance: honouring contributions, advancing justice! 

Black journalists have been underrepresented in Canadian newsrooms for decades, but that has improved in recent years thanks to the determination and excellence of our Black colleagues. This modest advancement in newsroom equity is also thanks to advocacy groups like the Canadian Association of Black Journalists, who have been increasing Black representation through education and inspiration, for three decades.

According to the Canadian Association of Journalists diversity survey, Canada only had 74 Black journalists in 2021, but that number has increased each of the last four years, and we now have 187 Canadian Black journalists as of 2025.

Black journalists account for 4.4% of all Canadian journalists, which is in line with the Canadian census for the percentage of Canada's Black population, at 4.3%.

Only 3.2% of newsroom supervisors in Canada are Black, meaning it's an underrepresented race within leadership positions.  Another concerning statistic from the survey, shows that just 23% of Canadian newsrooms have at least 1 full-time black journalist.

Although progress has been made to improve Canada's newsroom diversity with respect to our Black colleagues, there is more work to be done!

Read Unifor’s statement on Black History Month: Black History Month statement 2026 | Unifor