Montreal Teachers 4 Change.org

By Tina Wayland | Published November 27, 2014 by The Montreal Gazette

Excerpt:

The school is in serious need of repair.

And all I kept thinking during the tour was how well-maintained and modern the English Montreal School Building is; how much money was spent during the recent school-board elections; and how our schools — the places where we craft the minds of our future citizens and leaders — are largely neglected, mistreated and ignored.

The upside of our visit? The two Grade 6 boys who gave us the tour were smart, polite, informed, and engaged young men who’ve obviously learned a whole lot from the dedicated, overworked and underpaid teachers at the school. These teachers do so much with so little, as opposed to our elected officials who manage to do so little with so much.

Read more: http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/letters/letter-open-house-visit-at-plateau-emsb-school-was-an-eye-opener

Old guard use Republican tactics to maintain hold on power

By Anne Lagacé Dowson | Published Nov. 12, 2014 by Ricochet.media

EMSB chair candidate says voting in Ahuntsic/Montreal North ward was rigged

Published Nov 3, 2014 by CBC News

Anne Lagacé Dowson, who was defeated in her run for chair of the English Montreal School Board, is calling for a formal investigation in one ward and a recount in another after Sunday’s school board election.

Lagacé Dowson says the vote in Ward 7 (Ahuntsic/Montreal North) was rigged.

Sylvia Lo Bianco, the candidate seeking re-election in that ward under the banner of Team Angela Mancini, won by a margin of about 800 votes. Lo Bianco’s sister ran the polling station.

“The sister of the candidate gave the green light to all kinds of people who walked up and who showed ID and were able to vote — despite a clear directive from the director general of elections, which we respected,” said Lagacé Dowson.

Lagaçé Dowson has asked the province’s education ministry to launch a formal investigation.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/anne-lagac%C3%A9-dowson-calls-for-investigation-into-emsb-election-1.2822654

By Anne Leclair  | Published Oct. 27, 2014 by Global News

MONTREAL – The English Montreal School Board is denying that it provided a confidential list of phone numbers to one of Angela Mancini‘s candidates.

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 think that’s unacceptable.”

Read more: http://globalnews.ca/news/1638355/emsb-denies-breach-of-voter-privacy-in-school-board-election/

By Linda Gyulai | Published Oct. 23, 2014 by The Montreal Gazette

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.

Read more: http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-area-school-board-candidates-denounce-omissions-from-english-voter-list

By MARIAN SCOTT | Published Oct. 19, 2014 by The Montreal Gazette

Excerpts:

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.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/School+board+election+campaign+heats+EMSB/10308876/story.html

By By Anne Lagacé Dowson | Published September 5, 2014 by The Montreal Gazette

Don Macpherson doesn’t miss much. As the dean of Quebec political journalists, and a parent too, Macpherson sees the warning signs embedded in a report by the Quebec education ministry that was dropped into the silence of the summer.

The report is a devastating report card for our English-language school boards in Quebec. It demonstrates that they have failed to stay in touch with the new realities of language in Quebec. As the report mentions, a virtual cascade of parents who have the legal right to English-language schooling for their children are instead choosing schools in the French-language system.

More and more parents who could send their kids to English-language schools have decided that they do not have confidence in these schools. They are voting with their feet. They have decided that English-language schools are not equipping their kids with what it takes to thrive in the New Quebec.

Parents now realize that to be able to make a living in Quebec, and put down roots in this province, their children need to be able to speak the language of the majority — and speak it well.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/English+schools+survive/10174759/story.html