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A school board trustee’s application for a judicial review after she was found in violation of the trustee Code of Conduct has been dismissed by the Divisional Court.
Last December, fellow trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board unanimously found trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth in breach of the Code of Conduct following the release of a lengthy integrity commissioner’s report into her actions during and after a previous Code of Conduct decision on Sept. 11, 2023.
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Under the Code of Conduct sanctions, Kaplan-Myrth was barred from participating in some board committees for 90 days.
In a statement, board chair Lynn Scott said as a result of the Divisional Court’s decision, the stay imposed by the court on Feb. 2 has been lifted and the remaining sanctions imposed on Kaplan-Myrth are now in place until Nov. 22. Kaplan-Myrth will continue to be able to participate in board meetings and her other duties as a member of the board.
“I am pleased that this matter is now resolved, and I look forward to working with all my trustee colleagues in advancing the important work of the board,” said Scott.
“If I were any other minority facing the discrimination and toxicity I have faced, and then penalized by my colleagues and for speaking about it, there would be a public outcry,” said Kaplan-Myrth in a statement.
“I will continue to stand my ground as I do my work as a trustee. I was elected to represent my constituents. That is what I have done and what I will continue to do.”
The background goes back to November 2022, when Kaplan-Myrth, a family physician, was seeking support for a temporary mask mandate in schools in an e-mail exchange. When trustee Donna Dickson was reluctant to support her motion, Kaplan-Myrth urged Dickson, who is Black: “Don’t vote with white supremacists.”
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Dickson initiated a formal Code of Conduct complaint in February 2023.
At the Code of Conduct meeting on Sept. 11, 2023, trustee Donna Blackburn said Kaplan-Myrth was a “white woman attacking a Black woman.”
Kaplan-Myrth interrupted Blackburn. “I object. You will not characterize me as a white woman. I am a Jewish woman who has received daily antisemitic death threats for standing up for health and safety. You have been out to get me from Day 1.”
In her report, integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig found that Kaplan-Myrth had violated the Code of Conduct after the meeting when she ignored a security plan meant to protect her in the wake of the threats and went to a media room to make a statement to journalists, ordering some people out of the room.
Kaplan-Myrth’s application for judicial review had alleged that one of the people she told to leave was not a journalist but a “known harasser” and the other was a “well-known anti-trans activist.”
The application also argued that Craig’s report failed to consider the context of antisemitism as the cause of the threats against Kaplan-Myrth.
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