Thursday night's Student Achievement Committee meeting lasted until almost 2am on Friday morning. A motion was passed to approve revised wording within the Code of Conduct, taking into consideration recommendations from the Archdiocese, as well as the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Unfortunately, this did not happen in a cordial manner. Trustee Del Grande, in a shocking and out of touch display of unprofessional conduct, drew parallels between our LGBT+ youth and horrible criminal acts including but not limited to pedophilia, cannibalism and rape, requesting to add these terms (that are not protected under the The Code) to try to make an outrageous “slippery slope” point. This appeared to be well received by none, other than possibly Trustee Lubinski and Tanuan, who both laughed at points, and Trustee Crawford who seconded the motion. The board ultimately voted to dispose of this motion by a resounding 8-4 vote.
At a previous meeting, Del Grande held up his hands in quotes referring to the LGBT+ community as a “trend” claiming he’s simply not “moderate” enough, in a condescending manner. Proving further that he is being flippant on this topic of protecting our marginalized youth and their families. He needs to go!
Trustee Del Grande may have grossly violated the Trustee's Code of Conduct by undermining the integrity and dignity of the office. Trustees are expected to treat one another with dignity and respect at all times, and especially in disagreement. This Trustee Code of Conduct violation letter can be sent to the TCDSB trustees to urge them to hold Mike Del Grande accountable for his actions. The TCDSB needs to know that this conduct will not be tolerated by parents or the general public. We need your help to send them this message.
Further, Mike Del Grande is also a member of the Ontario College of Teachers, and their Misconduct Regulations detail how he likely failed to maintain the standards of his membership. Section 18 reads: An act or omission that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional. Additional OCT sections for consideration are 5, 7.2, 14, 18 and 19. Here are details for filing a complaint with OCT. As well as supporting details. We need your help in filing complaints.
As we have recently witnessed, Don Cherry was fired for making public remarks that were perceived as offensive. Although Mr. Cherry has been forgiven by many, this lesson tells us that our society is speaking out against the leaders who ignorantly abuse their platform as public officials, when they encourage divisiveness. This also reinforces the need for a united public that rejects discriminatory behaviours and attitudes whenever possible, and particularly within positions of leadership.
New TCDSB Chair?
There is an election for a new TCDSB Chair coming up on November 28th, 2020, and Trustee Rizzo has decided not to offer her candidacy. It was revealed that Mike Del Grande is seeking to run for this position, showing he has the will and ego to attempt to undo any progress made so far. He should not be elected to lead this Board!
Over the weekend, Trustee Markus de Domenico announced on Twitter that he will be running against Mike Del Grande, with Trustee Di Pasquale as his Vice Chair. Both of these candidates fought hard for the code of conduct terms that include our transgender children, and have publicly displayed their position in favour of a legal and inclusive environment, and show enthusiasm to help improve our public discourse. We are are hopeful they will continue to uphold their commitments. However:
We will keep this petition alive to follow the Chair elections, as well as the TCDSB Equity Action Plan implementation progress.
The newly added terms will be updated through various documentation related to the code of conduct. We will likely see Equity Action Plan updates, as the TCDSB has newly hired Levinia Latham as their official Equity and Human Rights Advisor on October 28th, 2019. Levinia specializes in Human Rights, Labour and Criminal Law. She will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of a comprehensive equity and human rights strategy, to appropriately address stakeholder concerns. We hope to hear from her once she settles in.
If you have any tips to share with the leaders if this petition, please feel free to email us at LGBTQToronto@gmail.com.
This Story in The Media.
CBC: Toronto Catholic school board votes to include gender identity, expression in code of conduct
National Post: Toronto Catholic board adds language on gender identity to code of conduct
Globe and Mail: TCDSB votes to add terms such as ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender expression’ to code of conduct
Toronto Star: ‘God heard my prayers.’ Toronto Catholic school board votes to amend code of conduct to include gender issues