Jennifer Stewart: So I want to go back in time to when you were a little girl. What were your hopes and dreams? What did you want to become professionally when you were little?
Christianna Scott: I have always been the advocate in the house. So when I was younger, I wanted to either be a lawyer or a writer. Those were the two professions that interested me the most. I was always the person speaking at the kitchen table about current events or something I had seen that I thought was unfair and needed to speak up about.
It was always a common trend in the household – “Oh yeah, Christianna is going to become a lawyer, that’s for sure.” And I followed that, especially when I was younger and watching all of those wonderful legal shows, like L.A. Law, where I thought it was going to be fantastic, and live the dream.
So it really was law. But I was also an avid reader. I loved to read, and I loved the fact that you could create an entire world through words. It’s not too late – I still think there’s a book somewhere in me – but those were definitely the two professions I was most drawn to.
Catherine Clark: I love that you connected to some of the amazing legal shows on TV. Was there someone in real life who also inspired you, Christianna – someone you looked at and thought, “I could be that”? Or did you have to carve your own path?
Christianna Scott: Well, I had a very interesting role model in my maternal grandmother. Not a lawyer, but a writer – she was a journalist. Her first writing was during wartime; she went overseas as a correspondent, which was very unheard of in the 1930s, especially as a single woman.
I always joke that she certainly wasn’t a typical grandma. She wasn’t someone who doted over her grandchildren – she was just a force to be reckoned with.
I remember sitting on her bed when she was preparing for her articles and meetings, just watching her get ready, completely awestruck. I remember thinking, “Wow – here’s this woman who is paving her own way and really following her passion.” I think she had the deepest influence on me growing up.
Jennifer Stewart: Did you ever get the chance to share that with her?
Christianna Scott: I did, yes, that’s for sure. And when I got a little older, she used to bring me along with her. She would work on articles and feature pieces on different people, and I’d go with her. I remember telling her, “You know, Granny, what you do is pretty amazing.”
Jennifer Stewart: That’s amazing. So how did you end up at Air Canada? Walk us through that journey.
Christianna Scott: A little bit of it was just circumstance. I started off in private practice and was there for about a year and a half. As I said, I always thought I would become a lawyer. I went to law school, enjoyed it, and really loved the theory of law.
I started as a research lawyer in private practice because I was drawn to that side of things – constitutional law, labour and employment law, and especially human rights law.
Then a friend of mine interviewed at Air Canada. Afterward, she came back to me – she was really a mentor – and said, “I have too many years at the bar for this role, but would you be interested in it, Christianna?”
When she described the role and the people leading the legal department at the time, it sounded like a dream opportunity. I really wanted to build meaningful relationships with clients. In a large law firm, you go from client to client and don’t always get to influence things early on – you’re often brought in at the tail end, rather than doing advisory work.
So the opportunity came forward, I interviewed, and I was accepted for the role. And I stayed for 17 years – so it was the right match, that’s for sure.
Catherine Clark: Isn’t it interesting how life happens that way? You’re just kind of going along, doing work you find fulfilling, and then a door opens, and you have a whole new avenue to explore.
Like you said, you were in and around that role for 17 years, and now you’re in a different role that still uses all of the knowledge you’ve accumulated – this time focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Jen and I are curious because we hear a lot about DEI right now, and we also hear a lot of pushback against some DEI policies. Talk to us about your job – why it’s important to you, and why you think it matters for organizations like Air Canada.
Christianna Scott: I personally think I have the dream job. I love my job so much, and that’s because, number one, I feel as if, particularly in a large organization like Air Canada, where we influence – you know, we have 40,000 employees – we welcome newcomers to this country.
There is such a close connection between DEI and the values of Canada, who we are as a people, that we are inclusive, that we do celebrate diversity. So to be able to practice that work within an organization that is dedicated to connecting people and bringing people from all across the world together is, for me, a real privilege.
And this work is a long game. You’re not going to see the impacts immediately. But we do see the demographics of Canada shifting, where we are welcoming new talent from across the world.
And if organizations want to be able to really engage their workforce, attract their workforce, then DEI has to be a core value within the organization. We need to be able to say this talent pool, as diverse as you are, you’re welcome here.
And we need to show that there’s a value added in staying within an organization where people feel included, so that they can give their 100% to the organization and not feel as if they’re in a situation where, “Oh, I can’t speak up because I’m concerned about raising my hand,” or “I can’t speak up because I don’t feel that I have a voice.”
So there’s a real direct correlation between the work that’s done by an organization in DEI and really getting the best talent and allowing people to really speak up and be included. And I think that that’s fundamental.
I think that that’s something that everybody wants to do, is they want to have a voice, they want to feel heard, they want to feel like they’re contributing. And that is what this type of work does.
And we spend so much time at work, you know, when you think about it. We make our connections at work. So if you do not feel a connection to your employment and where you are and your workplace, you’re going to feel depleted. You’re going to feel as if, you know, I’m having that energy sucked out of me.
Whereas a place that is inclusive gives you that energy. It makes you feel like you belong. It makes you feel like you contribute.
So that’s why I’m super passionate about the work that the team and I are doing here at Air Canada.
Jennifer Stewart: I love hearing your passion – I think it’s palpable. Christianna, have you personally experienced racism or discrimination in the course of your career? And if so, how has that personal experience impacted the approach that you take to your work?
Christianna Scott: It certainly has. I mean, I’m fortunate in that I don’t have a long list of experiences, but I can think about experiences early on when I left the bar association, and I was interviewing for positions.
And with a name like Christianna Scott, you wouldn’t necessarily think that you are going to meet a Black woman. And I can tell you that there was one interview in particular where I was a young lawyer, just had my call to the bar, went to the interview, and I could see the interviewers’ faces visibly just shift.
And it was palpable. It was so palpable that I was destabilized. I muddled through the interview, but it was very, very difficult.
And it was the first real time where I felt that the reception that I received when I walked into the room shifted completely the moment the interviewer saw me. And it was disheartening. It really was.
Because I was starting a career, and I was worried that this was the reception I was going to receive during all of the interviews I was preparing for.
Luckily, it wasn’t the case. So it really was the exception. But it did shape how I interacted with people for a while.
I was a little bit more guarded at other interviews, and I became mentally prepared that I shouldn’t assume people are going to be as welcoming as I hope.
And it did also give me a real passion for human rights work, particularly human rights work within employment milieus, because you really see that it can have a material effect upon somebody.
And not everybody is as resilient. Not everybody has the same network to support them. And I’m very fortunate to have a very solid network, so I was able to speak to the experience with people, receive advice, and then move through it.
But I have to say that it really did shake me for quite a while.
Catherine Clark: How did you move past that, Christianna, and then allow it to positively influence how you lead?
Christianna Scott: Yeah, I did move past it through digging deep in terms of what my values are. Am I going to be shaken by this?
I completed law school, and yes, there were very few visible minorities at law school at the time. I had my call to the bar in ’98. There were not a lot of Black female lawyers. I think we were two or three my year at the university I graduated from.
So that was number one – digging deep.
I’m very fortunate to be very close to my family and to have close friends that I spoke to a lot about it. And I was also very fortunate to have a mentor – somebody who was a racialized woman – who was extremely supportive and helped me navigate how to remain true to yourself and vulnerable, but at the same time being able to advocate for yourself.
And that’s what I did.
Jennifer Stewart: Do you find it hard finding that balance between showing vulnerability as a leader and also projecting confidence and that persona that female leaders are often expected to project?
Christianna Scott: I would say earlier on in my career, I had more trouble showing vulnerability. I think that when we’re junior in a workplace, we feel as if we need to have a certain shield and project a certain level of confidence. And with that, we can’t show our vulnerability.
And particularly as a racialized woman, a Black woman, because you are not just representing yourself often in meetings, you are representing all Black women or all racialized women. And that’s a heavy load to carry.
Times have shifted, thank goodness, from when I started off my career. And now more and more so, I feel as if today’s workforce does not respect a leader who comes across with that armour of “I’m confident, I know it all, and I am in control at all times,” because I think people now recognize that that’s a façade.
And I think now more and more people are leaving space for vulnerability. And I think it’s a really key part of being a leader, truly.
Because when you show your vulnerability, you’re able to have people follow you because they see that you’re human. And it allows them to speak up because they sense they won’t be judged automatically. It leaves space for open dialogue, which I think is really critical now.
We can get AI and tools to work with all kinds of aspects of our work, but that humanity that comes with having a leader who shows vulnerability – that’s what keeps people engaged.
That’s what keeps people sharing their ideas and opening up, because they say, “Okay, I have a safe space in which I can do this.”
I lead a team of 10, and I think my team members would certainly say that I’m not shy to share when I make mistakes. I’m not shy to say when we need to pivot. I’m not shy when it comes to talking about lessons learned.
These are really important parts of how we engage with employees. And I think that’s where genuine mentorship happens – when people can connect in the moment, have an experience that doesn’t necessarily go according to plan, and then regroup and talk about it.
That’s a key part of leadership.
Catherine Clark: Would you say, Christianna, that you have had to make sacrifices along the path you’ve taken to get to where you are in your career – personal sacrifices or even other professional sacrifices? And how do you reflect on that?
Christianna Scott: I certainly have made sacrifices. I have two children, and early on in my career, I was practicing in labour, employment, and human rights law.
On the labour side at Air Canada, we have very lengthy negotiations with our unions, and I would be away from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Even to the point where one time, when I left to come back from collective bargaining, I was at the house, and it was a little bit of a break, a reprieve in bargaining. And I told my daughter I was just going to go to the drugstore. She was about four at the time.
And she just started going, “No. No, Mommy, you can’t go.”
And I thought, “What do you mean? I’m just going to the drugstore?”
And I realized it was because I had left home for periods of time, and she was so desperate to have me close that she just cried. And I said, “It’s okay, we’ll go to the drugstore together.”
So there have been sacrifices as a mom. There’s no doubt about it. It’s challenging to balance being a mom and a career. I’m very fortunate to have a supportive husband.
But when I look back on it now, and my kids are young adults – they’re 18 and 21 – they say to me, “Mom, we see that, yeah, there were times where you were away, or times where we were hanging out with Dad, but we knew what you were doing was important, and you doing the work you wanted to do set a great example for us.”
They saw it as me being a role model. So at the time, it’s tough. You feel guilt, you feel torn.
I can’t remember who said it – you can’t have everything all at once, but you can have it at different periods in your life. And this really was an example of that.
It’s tough at times being a mom when you have to go. But overall, it helps raise resilient kids. And when they tell you that you served as a good role model, that matters.
Jennifer Stewart: So Christianna, looking at the big picture of your life – not just your career – what truly matters to you right now, and how are you intentionally living in alignment with it?
Christianna Scott: Health, number one, matters to me a tremendous amount. My father passed away quite young, and it really brought home the importance of maintaining your health and making sure that you remain active.
That’s a huge part of what I do. I really try to remain active because it’s very important to me. And I have check-ins with myself – sometimes we feel our stress levels going up, up, up. I have a moment with myself: “Christianna, we’re getting off course. Time for a micro adjustment. How do we bring this back so that you can take care of yourself?”
It’s really important to make those micro adjustments when it comes to maintaining balance and managing stress through exercise and meditation. Those are two things I do to help keep myself balanced.
That’s one of the areas where I try to align my values with the way I live day to day.
And friends and family are everything. Health, friends, and family – honestly, career has always been important, but friends and family have really anchored me through it.
