Canadian National Railway Company

Rating Overview

Canadian National Railway Company is Medium Risk.

Canadian National Railway Company (CN) is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Canadian National Railway occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Lower Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

CN integrates ESG into its business practices. “We screen potential suppliers on their ESG practices during the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, review suppliers ESG risks leveraging a third-party cloud-solution platform and gain further insights during supplier performance reviews and risk assessment audits” (1). However, the company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (2).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

CN does not discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

CN offers cultural awareness training to its employees (1). This company requires all recruiters and hiring managers to take bias awareness training (2). The company offers DE&I training to its employees (3). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruitment and hiring. From its 2022 Sustainability Report: “We conduct regular reviews of pay equity, assess our hiring practices to leverage recruitment agencies that focus on under-represented groups, and require diverse candidate slates for all recruitment mandates” (4). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (5).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

CN is committed to net zero emissions by 2050 (1). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its 2022 Sustainability Report: “Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are principles of major importance at CN and key to our future success as our workplace strives to reflect the communities where we operate” (2). The company supports ESG within its business practices. From its 2022 Sustainability Report: “The Board and CN’s executive management team recognize the importance of striking the right balance between our shorter- and longer-term goals, as well as ensuring our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives are embedded into our day-to-day operations and support and enable our sustainable strategic agenda” (3).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

CN has not used corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (1).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

CN does not operate a PAC at this time and has not lobbied for ideological purposes (1)(2)(3).