We’re halfway through Black History Month but you wouldn’t know it if you looked in the Google Calendar.
It’s no longer mentioned there, even though Groundhog Day and Valentine’s Day are.
Some Montreal community groups are speaking out against Google’s decision to drop certain events from its Calendar service and say it’s part of a disturbing trend in big tech.
“It’s pure discrimination,” said Michael P. Farkas, president of the Black History Month roundtable.
READ MORE: Montreal celebrates Black History Month
He said the move by Google is damaging to many communities.
“It’s huge because everyone can open their Google Calendar will see it. And there’s still some people that are not knowledgeable or educated to even know there’s a Black History Month,” he said.
A number of cultural events were recently removed from Google Calendar, including Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hispanic Heritage, and Women’s History months.
“It really does a disservice to the promotion of and the respect for diversity,” said Sarah Fogg, a spokesperson for the Montreal Holocaust Museum.
The Montreal Holocaust Museum also calls the move disturbing, especially at time when antisemitism is on the rise.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s a great time to limit people’s opportunities to learn about the Holocaust and the dangers of unchecked hate,” Fogg added.
Google addressed the changes in a post on its website on Wednesday.
“Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of moments in a wide number of countries around the world — things like cultural celebrations, teachers days and many more. We got feedback that many other events and countries were missing, and it just wasn’t feasible to put hundreds of moments in everyone’s calendars — so in mid-2024 we made the decision to simplify and show only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com. Contrary to some of the comments on social media, this was not something we did just this year."
— Google
Still, the head of Montreal Pride sees a connection between diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives being rolled back in the United States and recent decisions from big tech companies.
Google and Apple complied with U.S President Trump’s order to change The Gulf of Mexico to the “The Gulf of America” on their U.S. digital maps.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has also come under fire for removing fact-checking.
“Yes, the Trump administration might make some moves with executive orders, but those are big, big, big, big, big companies who are making those decisions. So, that’s the one we need to look at and hold accountable,” Montreal Pride’s executive director, Simon Gamache.
Meanwhile, Farkas hopes more people will speak out against companies like Google.
“There’s a responsibility of uniting and coming together,” he said, to ensure the apps many use every day remain inclusive.
