The school board elections at the EMSB have been particularly hard fought this year.
Our own Global reporter, Domenic Fazioli says he got a call from a candidate on his private cell number.
If it came from a school list it would be a major breach of the political process.
“My phone number was given out when it shouldn’t have been given out,” he said.
Fazioli was shocked to get a phone call on Sunday asking for his support for an incumbent EMSB commissioner.
The problem is he says he only gave his cell number to his child’s school in case of emergency only.
“The man made it clear that there’s a list from the EMSB and they were calling probably other parents like myself on their work numbers on their cell numbers,” said Fazioli.
I attended the school board candidates meeting in NDG this week. One of the candidates running on the Team Angela Mancini slate is former President of the Montreal Teachers Association (MTA) Ruth Rosenfield. Considering that she uses her union background as being a qualification to be a commissioner, I questioned her record of financial transparency as a union president.
I made following remarks at the public meeting. Firstly, that Ms Rosenfield used the union contingency funds to pay herself in one year $40,000 in overtime. Secondly, that she arranged for the same contingency fund to provide a member of the executive with an interest free loan. Ms. Rosenfield made no effort to deny these charges. Thirdly, despite some members demanding clarification of union spending, pointing out that documents provided [by the union] were incomplete, and amongst other things formally demanding to be given access to view the itemized Amex bills paid by the MTA dating back five years. Rosenfield’s view is that once the financial review is accepted at the annual general meeting, the books are closed and members are no longer entitled to access any information on previous years.
In a perverse manner, Rosenfield’s actions mirrors those of the school board, school taxes increase as enrollment falls , so as the number of teachers decreased, their dues increased to provide for higher MTA staff salaries and benefits. However, would this similarity of practices be considered as a good reason to elect her?
Jim Wilson
Former President of The Pearson Teachers Union
Ed’s Note: Those wishing to learn more about Team Angela Mancini candidate Ruth Rosenfield’s record as union President might want to consult the following articles:
Rival candidates in the English Montreal School Board election have denounced voting list irregularities as advance polling is set to begin on Sunday.
The revised voter list for the Nov. 2 election contains dozens of omissions of Montrealers who found themselves on the French voter list and who filed the appropriate forms at EMSB headquarters during the revision period to be transferred to the English list, Anne Lagacé Dowson, who is running for chairperson of the board, said at a news conference on Wednesday. She is leading a slate of school board commissioner candidates.
A voter must be on the English list to be eligible to cast a ballot in an English-language school board election in Quebec.
About 3,400 names were transferred to the English list to vote in the election of EMSB commissioners and chairperson, Team Lagacé Dowson said, but dozens more people who handed in their transfer forms have not been included on the list, it said.
Michelle Lalonde | Published Oct 15, 2014 by the Montreal Gazette
A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered a local couple who libelled their son’s teacher in 2008 to pay the teacher an additional $1.02 million, since it is now clear the effects of the slanderous public comments destroyed the woman’s career and her quality of life.
On March 25, 2008, Kathryn Rosenstein and Hagop Artinian dropped a lawsuit against their son’s grade school teacher at Roslyn School in Westmount, on the day the case was to go to court. The parents had alleged the teacher, Mary Kanavaros, had targeted and humiliated their son by, among other incidents, telling him in front of classmates that he should do his own homework, rather than have his mother do it.
The details of the out-of-court settlement were supposed to have been kept confidential. But when reporters asked them about the settlement, the parents implied they had proven Kanavaros had behaved unprofessionally. In fact, in the settlement, the English Montreal School Board had agreed to pay the couple $5,000 to drop the lawsuit with no admission of fault by either Kanavaros or the board.
The rulings said Feldman breached ethical rules by tarnishing “the reputation of other EMSB’s (sic) commissioners” and making statements that harmed “the reputation of the director general.”
In an earlier ruling, Feldman was reprimanded for calling fellow commissioners “dinosaurs” and “secrecy-obsessed characters”.
Dowson said the accusations against Feldman were “bogus ethics complaints (…) made mainly by members of (Mancini’s) group and allies.”
“None of the complaints (against Feldman) actually deal with ethics in a substantive way, in particular, conflicts of interest, nepotism or abuse of power by a member of the school board, all of which have been problems on the board in recent years,” she said in the statement.
The night before the first day of school, Erin Flynn had all but given up hope. The recent Bishop’s University graduate had still not signed a teaching contract and accepted she may not find relevant employment in the education sector for the upcoming year.
In what Flynn chalks up to chance, she was interviewed the following day for a position at Châteauguay Valley Regional High School and wound up in a classroom with her new students 20 minutes after the interview ended. She is an exception among her peers who crossed the stage after four years of exams, stress and internships, only to continue working summer jobs. Her contract is 80 per cent of a full-time workload, the subjects are not what she specializes in and she provides instruction in both English and French; yet she was fortunate to have found work at all.
“I lucked out,” said Flynn. “The majority of my peers did not find teaching jobs.”
This is not uncommon for new teachers and students completing degrees in education in Quebec — especially those who apply to the province’s struggling English system. The sector’s troubles go beyond a sluggish job market — English school boards face a decline in enrolment, extensive budget cuts, limitations on admission due to Bill 101, forced closures and merging of schools and a plunge in retirements.
A report from the Ministry of Education for the 2012-13 school year shows a drop in both the number of children eligible to attend English schools and the number of students who choose to exercise this right. More than 13,000 students who have the right to English instruction opted for French instead. Across the province, parents are sending their children to French schools more than ever before and as a result the English system is scrambling.
Elections for school board commissioners are fast approaching. On November 2 citizens living within the EMSB’s territory will have the opportunity to choose between a slate of candidates lead by the EMSB Council of Commissioners’ incumbent Chair Angela Mancini and a slate of candidates lead by media commentator and parent Anne Lagacé Dowson.
Before discussing the candidates, its important to mention how one becomes eligible to vote in these elections. If you are a parent with a child in the English school system you should be automatically registered to vote in English school board elections. To verify call 1 (888) 353-2846. Otherwise you are likely to have been registered by default to vote in French school board elections and need to submit this form to the EMSB in order to be registered to vote in the EMSB elections. Don’t delay in submitting this form as the deadline to make this request is October 14.
There is no question that these are incredibly important elections. Given recent government threats to abolish school boards altogether, the stakes are extremely high. The very survival of these institutions may depend entirely on the quality of their elected leadership.
Those considering giving incumbent Chair Angela Mancini another term in office might want to take a trip down memory lane:
In 2008 Henry Aubin wrote a column in the Gazette entitled ‘School board’s secrecy cuts it off from the public‘. The column outlined the duplicitous political manoeuvring Ms. Mancini engaged in to initially win for herself the position of Chair. Aubin describes how this manoeuvring ensured that the culture of secrecy, block voting and entrenched loyalties won out over and against the public interest.
In 2009 the Gazette reported that the infighting amongst school board commissioners had gotten so bad under Mancini’s leadership that the Quebec government had to appoint a special mediator whose salary cost taxpayers upwards of $100,000
In 2011 the EMSB received a great deal of very negative press coverage over its move to close a number of schools. Particularly contentious was the case of Nesbitt elementary whose parents created a blog that is essential reading for anyone interested in learning what Ms Mancini’s leadership has meant for parents. Hour magazine published a scorching condemnation of the EMSB’s handling of the affair by two Nesbitt parents, describing its public consultation process as “a sham” and concluding with the question ” How could we be in worse hands than we are now?”
Also in 2011 the blog Citizens for Democratic and Autonomous Schools published a piece by commissioner Julien Feldman (running on Team Anne Lagacé Dowson) questioning Ms Mancini’s decision to include three elected commissioners on a junket to China.
Though Ms Mancini’s record offers plenty to be wary of, I am not advocating that people vote for Ms. Lagacé Dowson simply as an alternative to Ms. Mancini. I am advocating that people vote for Ms Lagacé Dowson because she is intelligent, articulate, politically savvy and firmly committed to the public interest. In short, she is exactly the sort of person the EMSB needs to turn the page on the culture of secrecy, bitter partisanship and entitlement that has plagued the EMSB council of commissioners for far too long.
However it is not just that Anne has the skills and principled commitment to openness and transparency, she also has a clear vision for how the EMSB can deal with its most fundamental existential threat: declining enrolment. In response to reports that as many as 15 percent of those eligible to attend English Schools are instead registering in the French system, Anne wrote an op-ed in the Gazette arguing that the EMSB needs to bring those students back by improving its French language instruction.
Team Angela Mancini candidate Ruth Rosenfield responded with an op-ed of her own crassly characterizing Ms Lagacé Dowson’s thoughtful piece as a “broad attack on English-language schools and school boards” and suggesting that the EMSB already does a great job in French language instruction. In focusing only on the work the board is already doing Rosenfield seems to be suggesting that this is enough; that 15% of those eligible for English schools choosing the French system is an acceptable situation that does not warrant any additional action being taken. It would be interesting to know if Ms Mancini also thinks that despite the large numbers leaving, the status quo is just fine.
If there’s one thing that’s clear its that the status quo is not fine. The EMSB needs new leadership that is committed to people not partisanry; to democracy not demagoguery; to cutting bureaucracy instead of closing schools. The EMSB needs Anne Lagacé Dowson!
Here are a few video clips of Anne articulating her vision for the EMSB:
Many Canadians are aware of the fact that Canada’s 1876 Indian Act, which stated that “The aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the State”, was studied by South Africa’s apartheid regime and served as the inspiration for many of its policies.
Because the information gathering missions to Canada by South African officials occurred way back in the 1940’s, we can safely acknowledge and openly discuss this fact as a dark and shameful chapter of our history without having to look too closely at our present. Yes we served as a model for apartheid but that was a different time, we tell ourselves.
However an examination of Canada’s treatment of its First Nations reveals that parallels with apartheid era South Africa continue right up to present day. Nowhere is this more true than with respect to Canada’s policies regarding First Nations education.
In 1953 the apartheid regime passed one of its most overtly racist laws, entitled the Bantu Education Act. The act’s aim was to place all black schools, which had been run by the church, under the control of the state. As the government saw blacks as little more than “hewers of wood and drawers of water” it was quite open about the fact that education for blacks would be both separate and unequal. The injustices caused by this act would later be recognized as one of the principal causes of the Soweto uprising.
The education system created by the Bantu Education Act had three principal characteristics: 1) Massive gaps in funding between black and white schools; 2) Colonial control over curriculum and school management; 3) Significant differences in the level of training and experience of teachers in the black and white school systems.
Though Canada’s contemporary policies with respect to First Nations education do not go nearly as far as South Africa’s overtly racist policies, each of the above characteristics are clearly present.
Montreal Teachers 4 Change.org 
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