Council vote that dropped non-binary applicant exposes equity gaps in appointment process

A political push for greater gender balance on the library board seemingly backfired against one nominee.

On Wednesday during its first committee meeting, the new city council was tasked with choosing seven citizens to sit on the London Public Library Board from more than two dozen applicants.

However, the vote resulted in a large majority of men.

“Think about whether or not it reflects the gender diversity of what we want this committee to be?” asked Coun. Rahman when the votes were tabulated.

Chosen were five men, one woman, and one non-binary gendered Londoner:

• Brian Gibson
• Jeremy McCall
• Scott Andrew Collyer
• Ken Baldwin
• Zak Rahim
• Zeba Hashmi
• Ryan O’Hagan

So, council took the unusual step of voting again— from a smaller slate of top vote-getters.

Three additional women received enough votes to join the library board, but support for O’Hagan who is non-binary gendered fell short.

“I believe through this process that we have also lost anyone who has identified as a member of the LGBTQ2+ community,” Coun. Elizabeth Peloza notified her colleagues.

Chosen through the second vote were:

• Brian Gibson
• Jeremy McCall
• Scott Andrew Collyer
• Zeba Hashmi
• Beth Allison
• Heather Jack
• Sharon Desserud

“Disappointed for sure. I really looked forward to being on the board,” explained O’Hagan. “It seems that council decided to explore ways to increase gender diversity on the board and I think they kind of missed the mark.”

They suggest a simple solution— update the application form.

“If you are going to use gender as a criterion to determine who is going to sit on committees, you need to be collecting that data,” O’Hagan tells CTV News.

“It is important to be reflective of the community. To do that best is to collect that type of (gender) information,” agrees Coun. Rahman.

Council appoints citizens to dozens of committees.

The library board is one of the most important, overseeing the continued evolution of the library system into a broader community information and resource hub.

Meanwhile, another unsuccessful applicant who is queer initially had the word ‘queer’ redacted from a report to council members after it was flagged by a computer system.

An unaltered version was eventually posted on the committee agenda.

City staff write in a statement, “we will be reviewing the current process using the Anti-Racism Anti-Oppression Framework and equity tool.”

O’Hagan welcomes a review of the application process, “I think it is part of that deep dive that needs to happen.”

“There is definitely a need for an equity lens and an equity tool to be applied,” added Rahman.

Council could alter is library board choices once again— appointments will be finalized on Nov. 22.