Canada is globally celebrated as one of the most immigrant-friendly and pro-inclusion countries on earth.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are woven into the very fabric of Canadian values.

On paper, we are promised a country that does not discriminate on the premise of race, culture, religion, gender, or sexuality.

And when you look at the Canadian workforce, that diversity is proudly displayed.

You see a vibrant kaleidoscope of individuals occupying a variety of roles wherever you go.

This is why we chose Canada.

We chose a country that told us we belong here.

We chose a system that assured us our skills, international training, and clinical expertise were not only valued, but desperately needed.

When you boarded that plane, your luggage was packed with hope.

You brought your clinical mastery, a deep love for patient care, and a glowing dream of becoming a licensed Canadian Pharmacist.

You arrived healthy, smiling, and ready to pour your life into a fresh start.

Then, you step into the actual workspace.

And you are forced to confront the harsh reality.

On the surface, inclusion is neatly presented, but under the surface, you experience a silent undercurrent of...

...exclusion, systemic discrimination, and constant microaggressions.

And the quiet, internal psychological erosion of the IPG begins.

No one warns you about the subtle, insidious nature of Canadian workplace microaggressions.

It is rarely an explicit slur. It is a passive-aggressive, "nice" culture that leaves you questioning your own sanity.

It’s walking into the pharmacy in the morning, smiling, saying a warm "Good morning!"—only for colleagues to look you dead in the eye and say absolutely nothing.

It’s standing at the counter, fluent and fully capable, only to have a patient look right past you and demand, "I want to speak to someone who knows English."

It’s hearing the loaded, passive-aggressive "those people" comments dropped casually in conversations, reminding you that no matter how hard you work, you are still viewed as an outsider.

It’s the unwillingness of staff to help you learn the pharmacy software system, only for them to turn around with visible annoyance and say, "You should know more for how long you've been here."

It’s the deliberate, public humiliations, correcting your minor mistakes loudly in front of other staff and patients to make you feel small.

It’s the constant reporting to the manager or owner for every tiny oversight, while others do the exact same thing without a word said.

It’s being the universal scapegoat, constantly blamed for mistakes you didn't make, belittled, made to feel incompetent, and hearing the cruelest sentence of all:

"You're never going to make a good pharmacist."

It’s being handed unfair, erratic work schedules that drain your energy, leaving you with zero capacity to study for your exams.

It’s reaching out to management for help or intervention, only to receive little to no support.

It’s giving 100% of yourself to that pharmacy every single day, but never feeling an ounce of appreciation.

It’s the crushing realization that the place you thought would fuel your dream has instead turned into a black hole, sucking the very light out of you...

The tone is never loud.

The smile stays in place.

The "helpfulness" continues.

The casual chit-chat persists.

Are you going crazy? Or is something actually happening?

When Our Own Pull Us Down

Perhaps the deepest wound doesn't come from Canadian-trained staff.

It comes from fellow IPGs who walked the path before us.

You enter the dispensary expecting to bond over a shared experience. Instead, you are met with coldness and exclusion. Whether for their own survival in a tough system or because they’ve absorbed the negative energy of their own past trauma, some try to make your experience worse simply because theirs was hard.

They aim to discourage you from elevating.

They want to lock you into a pharmacy assistant role forever because seeing you rise triggers their unhealed wounds.

And when you register for your PEBC exams and PASS?

Instead of celebration, you are met with expressions of genuine shock from colleagues and fellow pharmacists:

"You??

How could YOU pass?"

Because in their minds, how could the person crying in their car on their lunch break, being systematically bullied at work, and calling home in tears daily, possibly succeed???

From Healthcare Leader to Patient

The toll this takes on your spirit is devastating.

You came to Canada vibrant, healthy, and resilient.

But months of cold rejection chip away at your identity until you barely recognize yourself in the mirror.

• You need pills to help you sleep because your mind won't stop racing about tomorrow’s shift.

• You are prescribed anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants just to walk through the dispensary doors.

• You came here to be a Pharmacist and instead, you’ve been turned into a patient needing a therapist.

We long for a sense of belonging.

We ache to feel encouraged, supported, and welcomed.

Instead, it feels like Canada repeatedly rejects us.

❌ Immigration rejects our timelines.

❌ Exam hurdles reject our pace.

❌ Workspaces reject our humanity.

It leaves you standing in the dark, asking the hardest question of all.

Why should we even want to be here?

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The Insider Secret

Let me share an insider secret about Canadian workplace culture that no one tells you when you immigrate:

In Canada, you are rarely respected simply for who you are.

You are respected based on your TITLE.

This is the stone cold truth.

Where you fall on the hierarchy, matters.

Look at the dispensary. A Pharmacy Assistant is treated as the bottom of the food chain. The least respected person in the room.

I have watched how disrespectfully assistants are treated by colleagues, managers, and patients. I have heard the microaggressions they are forced to swallow every single shift.

For a country that is known for their "Canadian politeness," this is quite the juxtaposition.

And this is precisely what makes the Canadian workspace so dangerous.

Everything you experience will be an undercurrent.

If you're not paying attention, you will gaslight yourself into believing what you're seeing, hearing and feeling is all in your head.

Passive aggression is a strategic, psychological mind play, to make you feel crazy.

I face exclusion, discrimination and microaggressions in my Canadian workspaces.

I've worked with a number of pharmacies, plus my Mentees and IPGs in my community across Canada have shared their experiences with me. So this is not unique to any specific province, chain or corporation. This is a systemic issue.

HOWEVER.

I am the Pharmacist and that changes the entire dynamic.

My title gives me institutional authority.

It gives me power.

As a licensed Pharmacist, I am not only in a position to defend myself.

I have the authority to stand up for, advocate for, and shield my assistants when I see injustice being done to them.

Without the title, your voice is silenced.

With the title, you have the influence to protect others and demand respect.

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IPGs... IT IS TIME TO LOCK IN!

This is why I am so relentless about your PEBC exams. This is why I teach my community to put blinders on and ignore the noise.

Your true influence begins the day you are licensed.

We do not have time to allow toxic dispensary culture, exclusion, or bitter people to distract us from the mission we came to Canada to fulfill. We cannot afford to let them discourage us into staying stagnant in an assistant role where they can keep us small.

The people trying to exclude you, bully you, or make you feel incompetent do not just dislike you—they dislike themselves.

Why are we giving our precious energy to people who are at war with their own lives???

We need to be far more passionate about being the change we wish to see than we are about feeling excluded by people who don't matter to our future.

• If you want respect? Lock in and PASS your exams.

• If you want to protect other IPGs? Get licensed so you can become the manager who hires them and treats them fairly.

• If you want to fix the system? Gain the authority required to change it from the inside.

You need authority to have power and influence.

So stop crying over their rejection.

Stop desiring their inclusion.

Stop allowing them to define who you are and what you are capable of achieving.

Prioritize getting re-licensed and claim the title that belongs to YOU.

WHY IPG Mentorship Canada Exists

When I talk about community, I do not mean a "feel-good meet-up" group.

I mean a SAFE SPACE.

I mean an open diary where we can have frank, honest, unfiltered conversations about the heavy realities we face.

The Sky Lounge Blog was built to be a sanctuary for us to chat about everything that comes with this re-licensing and immigration process—without fear, judgment, or shame.

I want a community where we can:

✨ Laugh, learn, and listen together.

✨ Love, live, and thrive together.

✨ Cry together when it’s heavy.

✨ Overcome and build together when we rise.

✨ Fall, get up, and try again... TOGETHER!

This Journey is Bitter AND Sweet

I am an International Pharmacy Graduate.

I overcame the immigration hurdle.

I failed my Evaluating Exam TWICE.

I had to completely recalibrate my mindset to pick myself up and keep going.

AND

I successfully moved to Canada, cleared all my exams, completed my internship, and got fully licensed within 11 months of arriving.

AND

I am experiencing workplace discrimination, exclusion, and both micro and macroaggressions.

AND

I love being a Canadian Pharmacist.

I love the life I am building in Canada.

My life has significantly improved since moving here.

Life here is bitter AND sweet.

I'm not trying to belong.

I'm here to design and build the life I moved here to create.

Opposition is evidence that I'm doing precisely that. No one hates on someone who isn't achieving success.

As Pharmacists, we are problem solvers. So let's fix this. Together.

Strip away the toxic workplace gossip.

Strip away the dispensary bullies.

Strip away the exam stress.

Remember your WHY .

WHY did you choose Canada?

Remember WHY you started this journey.

You are an internationally trained healthcare professional with a wealth of knowledge, a resilient heart, and a purpose that no toxic workplace can take away from you.

...and now you wanna know HOW?

• How can you make this mindset shift?

• How can you overcome this phase of the journey?

• How can you build the life you actually came here for?

I'm happy you asked.

In my next article... I'm giving you a complete Mindset Makeover.

💬 Have you been experiencing this dark side of the journey?

Please don't carry it alone anymore. If this post resonated with you, leave a comment below. I want to hear about your experiences in Canada. You can also send me an email: [email protected]

As your Canadian Pharmacist re-licensing concierge, you are in the best hands with IPG Mentorship Canada I'm not just showing you the Path to PASS (and you will PASS), I'm re-calibrating your mindset to thrive in Canada and thriving includes weathering your storms. Let's do this together!

I can't wait to talk with you again.

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"You belong here!"