ARE YOU THE EASY TARGET?

When Inclusion Becomes Exclusion in British Columbia’s Public Sector

It starts quietly. A colleague’s tone changes. A meeting you’d normally attend is suddenly “above your pay grade.” HR smiles too wide when they say “we’re modernizing.” It isn’t about merit anymore, it’s about optics. And if you don’t fit the optics, you become the problem they manage, not the employee they value.

The New Hierarchy

Across British Columbia’s public offices, a new kind of conformity has taken root. It’s dressed in language about equity and reconciliation, reinforced by mandatory training on “decolonization” that treats compliance as enlightenment. The old networks of insiders were at least honest about power; the new ones claim moral superiority while punishing anyone who doesn’t perform the script.

The Machinery of Containment

When you speak up, the system closes ranks. HR becomes a buffer, not a safeguard. Their goal isn’t resolution, it’s containment. They document you, not the issue. Unions, once built for solidarity, now defend collaboration over courage. Oversight bodies use polite deflection like “we’re unable to determine” or “outside our jurisdiction” to delay until you give up.

The Cultural Script

DEI, privacy, and mental health — three noble ideas that should have elevated the workplace — have been weaponized into management tools. “Diversity” is now a shield for favoritism. “Privacy” hides misconduct. “Mental health” is marketed publicly while ignored privately. In this inversion, accountability dies quietly.

The Human Cost

Talk to anyone who’s lived through it and you’ll hear the same pattern: disbelief, isolation, retaliation, silence. Most don’t file formal complaints anymore; they know the outcome before it begins. Files vanish. Investigations stall. Careers end in slow exile.

The Record Remains

This story isn’t about a single office or one man’s career. It’s about a structure that protects institutions by turning fairness into performance art. The evidence survives — in memos, emails, and recycled language across departments. Ghost Index exists to track that language, map that rot, and make silence impossible.

Ghost Index exists for what survives the shredder.