Black Lives Matter. That’s indisputable, and fundamental. The current protests against anti-Black racism and white supremacy represent the potential for a watershed moment in history. They are urgent and necessary, and we at Penguin Random House Canada support them unequivocally.

We acknowledge this response has taken some time, which we’ve used to reflect and consult with our Black and otherwise racialized colleagues and authors to ensure our response represented a meaningful commitment to action and accountability.

As Canada’s largest book publisher, we recognize the essential role we play in supporting positive change led by Black communities, as well as by Indigenous and other racialized communities. We also recognize that we must do more to be a part of that change, to work to dismantle systems of racial injustice, and to create a more diverse and inclusive company and industry.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voices of the many important and inspiring Black authors we work with. We are looking to the enduring work of Black writers, Indigenous writers, and writers of colour—of fiction and nonfiction, for adults and younger readers—to educate ourselves as we pledge to do more and do better in combatting racism. But we also know we need to commit to more than reading, with more than words.

Today, we are announcing a commitment to action and accountability in the following three areas:

We commit to developing and acting on a plan to make our company a safer space for BIPOC, LGBTQ2+, disabled, and other marginalized employees. To do so, we will hire an outside organization for anti-racism training and guidance on how to create safety for all of our BIPOC, LGBTQ2+, disabled, and other marginalized employees. By June 22, we will share a concrete plan on this front.

We recommit to inclusion and diversity as fundamental to our company. This means centring diversity in both our internal culture and our acquisition and publishing practices—we can’t shape the publishing we do to better reflect all readers without diversifying all levels of our company, including key decision-making roles. As a first step, we commit to sharing data on the demographics of our workforce and publishing programs, and setting benchmarks for improvement. By June 30, we’ll share initial information about the makeup of our company and our publishing. We’ll use that information to set targets for increasing our diversity, which we will report on biannually.

We commit to a renewed focus on our social responsibility to our community, beginning with significant donations to counter anti-Black racism. We will be making a donation in the amount of $60,000 to support Black communities across our city, province, and country. In consultation with writer and activist Desmond Cole and our BIPOC colleagues, we have elected to distribute our donation equally between the Black Legal Action Centre, the Black Health Alliance, and the Nia Centre for the Arts. We will also continue to support our employees’ individual giving through our corporate donation matching program. By June 30, we will outline a vision for ongoing charitable support of organizations with the greatest need and potential for impact in the area of anti-racism.

There is, of course, so much more work to be done. This is not a checklist, but an initial framework for an essential new way of working. We know that for change to truly endure, it will need to take permanent hold across our company, the industry, and beyond. We will hold ourselves accountable to our action plan by sharing updates on our progress publicly.