At the Board Meeting on November 12, 2020, the Board passed a motion which, among other things, required Trustee Del Grande to undertake and complete an Equity Training Program to be recommended by the Board’s Human Rights Equity Advisor. However, Trustee Del Grande has not undertaken or completed any Equity Training Programs as required… that means he intentionally did not complete the training scheduled on June 9th, 2021... not even as a gesture of good faith, being Catholic, and given the harmful impact of his behaviour.
We are now told that the deadline for Trustee Del Grande to complete this training has been "suspended pending the outcome of his application to the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice" where he is asking that the Court find that the Board of Trustees improperly found that he had breached the Trustee Code of Conduct.
We have also been notified that it is a well established legal principle that in civil law matters, where a person appeals to a court to have their matter reviewed, any penalty that was imposed will be “stayed”, that is, it will be temporarily not enforced against them pending the outcome of the court proceedings. If Trustee Del Grande is not successful in his court application, the sanctions imposed by the Board will be enforced. However, we have not been provided with a date for these proceedings.
Over the winter, the Province also strongly recommended that all Ontario Trustees participate in Human Rights / Equity training through a customized program at Osgoode Hall Law School. To the general public knowledge, Trustee Del Grande did not participate in this training either.
We find it highly alarming that Trustee Del Grande refuses to apologize and/or attend ANY equity training, and is seemingly fulfilling lobbyist group CLC’s agenda to take his vile speech all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming its is a Catholic’s person’s denominational right to make harmful comparisons of 2SLGBTQ+ protection from harassment and discrimination, to protecting beastiality, cannibalism, pedophilia, rape, and many other criminal acts - IN SCHOOLS.
If you also find all this highly concerning, please share your thoughts with the TCDSB Integrity Commissioner, who is responsible for overseeing trustee code of conduct issues.
You can also contact the Ministry of Education, who yesterday sent out a News Release titled Ontario Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ Students: Province Taking Action to Combat Homophobia and Promote Inclusion, which states in part “The province will be seeking input from stakeholders and the public on provincial standards for trustee code of conduct and more effective measures for preventing and addressing breaches of the code to ensure the wellbeing of all students and families, and to uphold public confidence.”
We need to come together to make sure Mike Del Grande and anybody that falsely claims that hate-inspiring antics like his are protected by "denominational rights" are 100% clear that they are WRONG.
The Ontario government has officially recognized in their news release that "homophobia represents a serious threat to the mental well-being and safety of our 2SLGBTQI+ students," so let's join Jill Dunlop, Associate Minister of Children and Women’s Issues, in declaring a clear message to those that need to hear it:
"Discrimination, bullying and other forms of hate will not be tolerated in our province."