A trustee for the Thames Valley District School Board says her name appeared on an “anti-woke” website but denies she has any affiliation with the group.
Newly re-elected Elgin County trustee Meagan Ruddock says it “stung” to find out she was “on such a list.”
“Anybody can put somebody else’s name on their list whether or not their reason for doing so is based on facts,” she said. “That comes with being an elected official.”
Ruddock says she is “a person who supports diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I keep in mind that I know who I am and what I advocate for, and so do the people I represent,” she said.
Before she was elected as trustee in 2018, Ruddock had served as vice-president of a home and school association.
Vote Against Woke highlighted candidates across the province, including dozens in public and Catholic boards across Southwestern Ontario, many of whom appear to take aim at COVID-19 policies in schools, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and some flags promoting LGBTQ acceptance, among other issues.
The website has taken down its list of trustees it believed to be anti-woke after being accused of disregarding Ontario’s third-party advertising rules.
Sherri Moore, another Thames Valley trustee in London, was shocked to learn a few days before the election she’d been wrongly linked to a website endorsing “anti-woke” candidates running for school boards.
Moore was tagged in a now-deleted tweet the author said was a case of accidental misinformation.
Oxford trustee hopeful Seth Allen, whose name was linked to “anti-woke” groups, failed to win a seat.
The truck driver and outspoken supporter of the freedom convoy had hoped to win on a platform promoting rural education.
His Twitter account lists him as the CEO of Haldimand Norfolk Brant Oxford PPC Association.
Both failed London trustee candidates David Sabine and Claire Roberts also were linked to anti-woke websites.
Andrea Lawlor, a political science professor at King’s University College, said anti-woke movements are “largely informal networks of individuals who tend to reject progressive viewpoints around equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and accessibility measures in schools.”
And, she said, why a candidate may be included on a list “is unclear, and not likely subject to much by way of oversight.”
“Actions always speak louder than words, so a candidate or elected representative who believes that they have been mistakenly aligned with a movement that does not reflect their principles will likely want to make a declarative statement to disassociate themselves from the group,” Lawlor said. “But also, follow up with support for policies that reflect a clear stance on the issues.”
Such a link to the anti-woke movement likely will not have a long-term impact on careers, she said.
“The collective memory is short and we have a long way to go until the next election,” she said.