The BC Library prides itself on a program of explicitly rejecting white applicants

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THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS

In one of the most egregious examples of race-based hiring in the Canadian public service, the BC Burnaby Public Library boasted in a recent report that by explicitly rejecting white applicants, they were able to hire exclusively non-white managers and directors from 2021. .

Known as the Special Employment Program, the policy was overseen by chief librarian Beth Davies, a self-described “settler on indigenous land” who happens to hold the only top-level job in the library system, protected explicitly by preferential employment under the program.

In a recent report to the library’s board, Davies praised the Special Employment Program but noted that it applies to top management positions “with the exception of chief librarian.”

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As of 2021, the Burnaby Public Library required that in hiring for select senior-level positions (what they called an “exempt staff pool”), managers “only look at resumes from white applicants if there is not a sufficient number of qualified racialized candidates. ,” Davies wrote in her report.

In the intervening three years, the library advertised for five leadership positions and for each considered only applicants who “identify as Indigenous, Black or people of color.”

“We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations and life experiences to apply,” a community development manager said in the description of one such posting.

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But according to the policy, any ethnicity or culture that didn’t follow the guidelines didn’t stand a chance. According to Davies’ report, a total of 84 white candidates applied for the five positions, only to have their applications rejected outright. In each case, only non-white applicants advanced to the interview stage.

The BC Human Rights Code prohibits discriminatory hiring on the basis of race or ancestry, but the Burnaby Public Library is one of several dozen organizations granted special dispensation by the BC Human Rights Commissioner to openly refuse to hire selected demographic groups.

In an official description of the programme, the Human Rights Commissioner writes that equal treatment is itself a form of discrimination because “treating everyone the same can sometimes lead to discrimination against disadvantaged individuals or groups”.

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Current holders of Special Program exemptions include Lululemon Athletica, which obtained a five-year exemption to practice “preferential hiring of members of racial groups until representation goals have been met.”

Many of the exemptions are for schools and public bodies that wish to employ an Indigenous liaison who has Indigenous status. Belle Construction, an all-female construction firm, is on the list because it needed an exemption to deny positions to men.

The holder of the most exemptions is the University of British Columbia, which has been granted 12 separate Special Program licenses to practice discriminatory hiring. This includes limiting a research grant to “equally deserving groups” and advertising posts for the Department of Biochemistry limited “to those who self-identify as disabled, racial and/or Indigenous”.

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Davies’ report to the council was praised for their efforts to build an “exempt staff pool” with no white staff members.

She quoted one group member as saying it allows library staff to better connect with ethnic patrons in their own language. “More than white people working. I think he’s feeling better,” they reported.

Affirmative action has been enshrined in Canadian law since at least the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982. Section 15 of the Constitution states that every individual in Canada is “equal before and under the law”. But it contains an explicit caveat that this principle does not apply when it comes to “any law, program or activity” designed to give priority to “disadvantaged persons”.

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However, the practice of race-based hiring in government has expanded enormously in recent years as a direct result of federal anti-racism mandates.

The federally funded Canada Research Chair program is now subject to strict diversity quotas, to the extent that advertised positions now explicitly prohibit applications from white males. An open position at the University of New Brunswick, for example, is open only to those “who self-identify as members of groups deserving of gender equality … and/or as racialized individuals.”

IN OTHER NEWS

It’s a general rule of thumb in political journalism that by-elections generally don’t have larger lessons. But Monday’s by-election in Toronto-St. Paul promised it would be different only because a Liberal loss in the riding would have been stunningly unexpected.. It has been a safe seat for the Liberals since 1993, and in the 2021 election it was 49.22% for the Liberals, with the Conservatives second on 25.3%. But after some polls showed the riding could go for the Tories, the Liberal Party threw absolutely everything they could at a race that should have been a cake walk. Rumors of a Justin Trudeau resignation are nothing new, but the word Monday night was that if the Liberals were to somehow lose the Toronto-St. Paul’s, a panicked caucus could find the backbone to try to force him out. According to early results, the Liberals retained the riding, but by a much smaller margin than before.

After Canada declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist entity, Iran is reportedly planning to retaliate by designating the Canadian Armed Forces as a terrorist. Which would make them the only terrorist group in the world with both an anti-racism strategy and a dress code that allows green hair and facial tattoos.

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