Posted: Feb 04, 2021 4:48 PM ET | Last Updated: February 4
HWDSB trustees Alex Johnstone, Becky Buck, Kathy Archer and Carole Paikin Miller are facing calls for their resignation after they were named in a third-party report.(HWDSB)
A former student trustee is calling for the removal of four Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) trustees after a report concluded some made racist comments and others silenced her.
And the province has called the report deeply disturbing.
Ahona Mehdi says the trustees should be held accountable after a third-party report said they made comments like all lives matter, and made overtly anti-Muslim and racist remarks.
The report outlines other incidents, including the following chain of events involving discussions over a police school liason program in Hamilton:
When Mehdi wanted to prepare a motion to terminate the police liaison program in mid-June 2020, she was asked to do so under the supervision of that same trustee, as well as a staff member, which is inconsistent with the autonomy the student trustee holds as a member of the board representing student interests, the report says.
When that motion was ready, despite insufficient governance, training or guidance provided to Mehdi, the trustee would not accept it because it was late, even though she would have had enough support to submit it, it says.