Article written by Anne-Marie Sanchez

Every few years, the City of London staff, along with the governance working group, evaluate the effectiveness of their overall governance structure and the role of the citizen advisory committee. Previous reports have given excellent recommendations on how to diversify citizen advisory committees and how to make them more effective. Despite these recommendations being largely ignored, one thing was always certain, citizen advisory committees have a place in our City’s democracy. When led effectively, citizen advisory committees provide expertise, opportunities for meaningful citizen engagement, and accountability to Councillors and City staff.

I was on the Diversity Inclusion and Anti-Oppression Advisory Committee (DIAAC) between 2015 and the end of 2018 and I was Vice-Chair for one year. While I was with DIAAC, I saw examples of both, extreme effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the advisory committee. Challenges around ineffectiveness stemmed from common issues any team often experiences: lack of clarity on their function, others not taking the group seriously, or members being there for the wrong reasons. These are not unique to citizen advisory committees, nor should they be treated that way. Having said that, the successes outshined the challenges with DIAAC.

One highlight of note is the community forum on racism. Based on explicit community feedback at the racism forum, DIAAC moved a motion to ask the council to denounce police carding, which was a common practice with the London Police (and across police forces in North America). Many Councillors and the Mayor attended the racism forum and this provided the opportunity for our City leaders to hear the concerns from Londoners and it helped move the motion to Council. The motion passed unanimously.

This then put pressure on the London Police Services Board to examine carding and to push for the end of the practice, which occurred in 2017. From start to finish, this is an excellent example of citizen engagement and how the advisory committees serve as a vehicle to push systemic change through the political process. Without DIAAC organizing the forum on racism, Councilors would not have heard the passion from citizens who were affected by racism and carding in London. Councillors may not have understood the urgency to push this through in 2016.

It would be unfair to expect Councillors to be able to be the expert of all things that matter to Londoners and it would be more unfair to expect Council works part-time to stay on top of all the work that is being moved through the City of London. This is in part the role of citizen advisory committees, they have the lived or professional expertise and they can track the progress of certain work assigned to staff or to keep Council accountable to their promises. DIAAC would regularly check in on strategic priorities that focused on diversity inclusion (e.g. policy development through an equity lens and the recruitment of a diversity and inclusion specialist for the City). DIAAC co-led the development of the Community Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, an initiative that has now resurfaced as a priority to help address systemic racism in London. I am sure the City of London was grateful to have that work ready to go as the #BlackLivesMatter movement rightfully gained strength over the summer.

The volunteer work dedicated to the racism forum, the advocacy to end carding in London, the Community Diversity Inclusion Strategy, and the following up on strategic priorities are in the thousands of hours and that is for one committee alone. This is something the City of London could not afford to spend on consultants or to hire more staff. Furthermore, advisory committees do not solely exist to serve the City but there is also a larger benefit to the community as a whole. Any healthy democracy requires citizen engagement. Public participation meetings, forums, and surveys all have their part in engaging citizens but advisory committees are a unique pathway in learning about political processes and exploring advocacy through politics. Let’s not throw away the countless benefits of citizen advisory committees simply because they require some modifications to make them more effective.

Anne-Marie Sanchez is a Manager of Strategic Projects at the London InterCommunity Health Centre and a member of the executive committee of the Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion. Previously, she was the Vice-Chair of the Diversity Inclusion and Anti-Oppression Advisory Committee for the City of London and former Chair of Women & Politics London.

Editors note:

Recently we released a statement about our concerns with the current review of the City of London Advisory Committees (ACs.). Advisory Committees are an important component of citizen engagement that provides valuable ways for residents to engage with the City of London and bolster transparency and accountability to City and Council decisions.

We hope you enjoy this series, but more importantly, we hope it inspires action from you in a couple of ways:

Email all your City Councillors and the Mayor in support of Advisory Committees and the valuable work they do. Copy us at info@urbanleague.ca
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Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Oppression Committee Experience