The College has adopted guiding principles that define how we strive to work as an organization and shape our culture and our relationships with the public, midwives, and partner organizations.
In our 2021-2026 Strategic Framework, we added equity to our existing guiding principles of accountability, transparency, integrity, proportionality, and innovation.
We aim to create an environment where everyone, including individuals and communities that have been historically disenfranchised, can feel welcome, safe, and included.
Equity. We identify, remove, and prevent systemic inequities.
College of Midwives of Ontario 2021-2026 Strategic Framework.
Land Acknowledgment
The office of the College of Midwives of Ontario is situated upon traditional and current Indigenous territories that include the Anishinabewaki, the Wendake, the Haudenosaunee, the Missisauga and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
The College recognizes and expresses gratitude to the Indigenous stewards of this land who have overseen its care since time immemorial, and we acknowledge and revere the work and legacies of Indigenous midwives. We are committed to honouring the unique cultural and spiritual relationships and practices of Indigenous Peoples with the land and waters, and their rich contributions to society. We support Indigenous sovereignty and the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Framework
In order to hold ourselves accountable, we use an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion framework to guide our work. Our equity framework identifies four key areas of focus for the College which include Governance, Organizational Goals, Strategic Relationships, and Regulatory Objectives.
The framework is informed by anti-racism, anti-oppression, accessibility, intersectionality, and cultural safety practices. Our outcomes reflect the commitments expressed in our guiding principles, governance policies, and organizational values statements.
Governance
Priorities: Representation & Leadership. Decision-making. Accountability.
Outcome: We make fair, consistent, and defensible decisions, incorporating diverse and inclusive views.
Organizational
Priorities: Human & Financial Resources. Operations. Organizational Culture.
Outcome: An inclusive and diverse workforce and work environment that ensures equal access to opportunities for professional growth and development.
Strategic Relationships
Priorities: Engagement and collaboration with key partners in sector to enable shared goals and objectives while maintaining the boundaries of our respective mandates.
Outcome: Cooperative and collaborative relationships to address equity-related issues as a regulator of a health profession.
Regulatory Objectives
Priorities: Registrants. Applicants. Regulatory Programs & Policies.
Outcome: We seek to identify remove, and prevent systemic inequities that may impact fair, accessible, and inclusive entry to the profession and/or affect the provision of safe, effective care.
Equity Initiatives
Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities
The College of Midwives of Ontario is committed to diversity, inclusion and accessibility for Persons with Disabilities and strives to be an organization which respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities. The College of Midwives of Ontario is committed to accessibility in its correspondence and communications and all staff are trained on compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA). Our Accommodation Policy details circumstances where accommodation may be needed and describes the processes the College takes to make the required accommodation. We also encourage Persons with Disabilities to put their name forward for College Board elections and to join College committees.
Gender Diversity
The College has committed to using gender-inclusive language in our documents and correspondence to represent the diverse genders of pregnant people, new parents, and registrants.
Health Profession Regulators of Ontario Anti-Racism Project
College staff use self-assessment tools to assess and guide our engagement with equity, diversity, and inclusion. The College contributed to the development and piloting of these tools through its participation on the Health Profession Regulators of Ontario’s anti-racism project steering committee
Indigenous Reconciliation
The College conducts Indigenous land acknowledgments at our Board meetings, incorporating reflection and learnings of ongoing reconciliation. Additionally, the College has reviewed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and are working to implement them as appropriate to our regulatory context.
Learning and Training
The College commits to consistent and continued learning, training and resource development on equity-related topics. Board Directors, committee members, panel members, and staff are consistently engaged in building knowledge and competence.
Racial Diversity in Decision-Making Bodies
The College encourages racialized people to run for Board and non-Board committee appointments. We have held informational webinars specifically for Indigenous, Black, and racialized midwives. We have also requested that the Public Appointment Secretariat consider diversity in appointments to our College Board.
Recent News Updates on Equity Initiatives
On Call: Autumn 2025
Read our digital newsletter for information about our Annual Report, how we observed National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an unauthorized practice alert, the results of our registrant survey, Board highlights from a special meeting, and more!
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2025
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a time to honour the children who never returned home, the Survivors, and the many Indigenous families and communities who continue to experience intergenerational trauma and the ongoing impacts of residential schools.
The College reaffirms the vital role of Indigenous midwives, the importance of restoring Indigenous birthing practices, and celebrates the Aboriginal exemption clause in Ontario’s Midwifery Act – the only activated clause of its kind in Canada.
Engagement. Collaboration. Evolution. Our 2024-25 Annual Report
This year, our report demonstrates how we use data to inform our engagements with the public and the profession; in our collaboration with our system partners; and as we drive the evolution of midwifery regulation.
Share your Feedback
We know that this work must be ongoing and inclusive. Please share any ideas, suggestions, or questions with us at cmo@cmo.on.ca
Helpful Resources
Glossary
Adjustments made to policies, programs and/or practises that enable individuals to benefit from and/or participate equally and to the best of their ability.
The active process of identifying and eliminating racism by consistently engaging with systems, organizational structures, policies, and attitudes with strategies, practices, and actions that challenge systems of oppression and power including the ways in which they reinforce each other.
A person whose gender identity is in the assumed alignment with the genetic sex they were assigned at birth. (See definition of gender and gender binary).
The process of domination of lands and world views by taking political, economic and social control, which includes the production and maintenance of a system designed to stratify and hierarchize power and influence by devaluing difference in communities (e.g., imposition of colonial institutions of education, health care and law).
The practice of fostering ways to build trust and safety for diverse communities by understanding that within these populations of there are differences in experience and access to power.
An action or decision that treats or impacts an individual or group based on certain aspects related to their identity such as race, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression, etc. The Canadian Human Rights Act defines prohibited grounds of discrimination.
All the various and intersecting ways difference exists between individuals. Can be a range of visible and invisible qualities, characteristics, experiences, concepts, and perspectives that can exist within any given context.
Recognizes and acknowledges the different historical, social, systemic, and structural issues that impact the experience and needs of individuals, so must be considered when seeking fairness and justice.
Groups of people who have been historically oppressed, disadvantaged and under-represented from power and resources. Use of deserving or seeking refers to the recognition of the injustice of these barriers and unequal access by actively seeking social justice and reparation.
A multi-dimensional concept referring to community belonging and a shared cultural group dynamic. It can be related, but not limited, to socio-demographic characteristics, including language, religion, geographic origin, nationality, cultural traditions, ancestry, and migration history, among others.
Gender can refer to the individual and/or social experience of being a man, a woman, neither, or other. Social norms, expectations, and roles related to gender vary across time, space, culture, and individuals.
The gender binary is a socially constructed idea that assumes that there are only two genders, “man” and “woman” and that gender is biologically determined to correspond to an individual’s genetic sex assigned at birth by either being male or female.
Inclusion is about the collective. It is about creating spaces that are safe and equitable by embracing, respecting, and valuing difference.
A collective term used to describe original inhabitants of pre-colonial/pre-settler societies and their descendants. In Canada, these include First Nations, Inuit/Inuk and Métis peoples all who have and share unique heritages, economic and political systems, languages, cultural practices and belief systems. Legal language in Canada and Ontario may still utilize terms such as Aboriginal and Indian when referring to Indigenous Peoples. While the collective term can signify solidarity with shared history of Indigenous communities, the term should not be used to erase the existence and history of the over fifty nations who have connections to this land.
A term coined by Black feminist legal scholar Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the ways in which our identities (such as race, gender, class, ability, etc.) intersect to create overlapping and interdependent experiences in relation to systems of power.
Non-binary refers to individuals who do not follow gender stereotypes based on the sex they were assigned at birth and may identify with gender as a fluid spectrum beyond binary terms.
The enactment and maintenance of stratified and hierarchal status and privilege over others using political, social, or economic power and force, which causes injustices in everyday interactions between those who have power and those who do not.
The belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance, manifest and implied. Implicated in social, structural, institutional, and cultural ways of being and understanding.
Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” (1981)
A concept based on a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable, and individuals and groups are given equal opportunity, fairness, civil liberties, and participation in the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities valued by society.