Together, We're Making Progress

CANADA / AGILITYPR.NEWS / September 24, 2020 / We continue to stand with those fighting for racial justice and social equality and recognize there is a long road ahead towards achieving meaningful change. In June, we said we owed it to our employees and the communities we serve to do more and that our work starts at home. We have made progress and continue to invest in a number of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DE&I”) initiatives.

One of our key priorities over the next few months is to hire a VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion who will serve as Canopy’s organizational leader to drive the development and integration of best practices, resources and trends to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural proficiency. As well, we will complete a review of our HR policies and procedures to ensure racial equity throughout our organization including our hiring practices. Commitments from me as the CEO, to the entire company will be cascaded including changes to hiring practices, education and integrating DE&I principals into business plans. We are deeply inspired by this work, we know that an inclusive team that is as diverse as our communities will fertilize an engaged and dynamic environment for our employees.

A critical part of our DE&I plan is gathering our baseline data to truly get an understanding of where we stand. We are already gathering insights from a company-wide survey and employee focus groups and will soon be setting up Leadership interviews which will all be compiled in our first DE&I report - a summary of which will be shared publicly and updated annually. We will also be providing courses to all Canopy staff on the fundamentals of diversity and unconscious bias and the racist history of the War On Drugs and cannabis prohibition.

Canopy Growth continues to work with Cage Free Cannabis and we have committed funds to support National Expungement Week which will now become an ongoing initiative to provide legal services for those communities that have been disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs. Record expungement and access to other legal services are especially critical now as those protesting racial injustice are arrested in mass numbers.

Since June, we have completed a number of DE&I initiatives, including:

• Launch of focus groups for specific identities (Black, Indiginous, People of Colour, LGBTQ, Women, Straight white abled-bodied men, those living with a disability and Francophone ) and a company wide survey to gather data inputs for a DE&I report, a summary of which will be shared publicly;

• Our external partner, the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion, facilitated a Listening Session that was attended by our executive team and Canopy staff who identified as BIPOC. In this session they were able speak to their experiences, so that this reality has a hand in shaping our DE&I strategy and our organization’s path forward; and

• Providing our staff with the educational tools they need to better understand the moment we’re in and why we’re prioritizing DE&I initiatives at Canopy. This includes the creation of a library of resources on diversity and anti-Black racism available to all staff on our learning management system and training on diversity in the workplace and unconscious bias for Canopy’s Board of Directors, Leadership team, and entire staff.

We have also signed the BlackNorth pledge, which calls on Canadian companies to increase the representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour employees with an emphasis at the leadership level.

We are prioritizing our DE&I work company-wide to ensure we are doing our part to address these complex issues and develop a framework for a path forward. We have a long way to go towards becoming a truly racially diverse, equal and inclusive company, and together we will continue fighting for social equality.