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In one of the more unabashed examples of race-based hiring in the Canadian public service, B.C.’s Burnaby Public Library boasted in a recent report that by explicitly rejecting white applicants, they’ve been able to hire exclusively non-white managers and executives since 2021.

Known as the Special Hiring Program, the policy has been overseen by Chief Librarian Beth Davies, a self-described “settler on Indigenous land” who also happens to occupy the only top-level job in the library system explicitly shielded from preferential hiring under the program.

In a recent report tabled before the library’s board of directors, Davies praised the Special Hiring Program, but noted that it applies to top leadership positions “except that of Chief Librarian.”