Ottawa-Carleton school board trustees fail to get support for emergency meeting over Pride parade withdrawal

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Five trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School wanted to hold an emergency meeting Thursday night about the board’s decision to withdraw from this year’s Pride parade.

The remaining six trustees were not on board.

Therefore, there will be no meeting, and the decision stands: The school board is not sending an official contingent to the parade.

In an email to fellow trustees on Tuesday night, board chair Lynn Scott said only five trustees had expressed support for holding the special meeting to debate a proposed motion from trustee Amanda Presley to overturn the decision to withdraw from the parade.

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Under the board’s bylaws, a total of six expressions of support was required, Scott said.

The OCDSB announced Monday it would not participate in the parade after Capital Pride organizers released a pro-Palestinian statement earlier in August.

Some members of the community had expressed feeling unsafe and unwelcome, the board said. “For an event seeking to promote equity and inclusion, the impact of this decision sadly runs counter to what we have always embraced about Pride. As a result, we have come to the difficult decision that the district will not participate in the parade this year.”

But some trustees have argued that the decision to withdraw was made by administrators, not elected trustees, and they had hoped for a public debate on the matter.

In an email to fellow trustees on Monday, Presley said she was disappointed in the decision. The OCDSB has participated in the parade since 2011, including more than 400 students, staff and school board community members last year, and many students have said it would be an error to withdraw, she said.

But Presley failed to get the support she needed by Tuesday night.

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The first problem was that there were not enough trustees in favour of holding the meeting, said trustee Lyra Evans, who was among the five trustees in favour.

The second problem was that there would not be enough lead time to hold the meeting and still get organized for the parade if the outcome supported that move. Even if the decision was reversed, staff would not have enough time to re-organize the OCDSB contingent, Evans said.

“Unfortunately, that ship has sailed.”

Trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth said she flagged concerns about the safety of Jewish Pride participants on Aug. 9, after Capital Pride released its statement. She was relieved when administrators announced the board would not participate in the parade on Monday, but felt traumatized again when fellow trustees tried to bring up the subject for debate.

As the only Jewish trustee on the board, Kaplan-Myrth said she would have had to defend the concerns of the Jewish community.

“The stress for the Jewish community and for me as a trustee, of having to contemplate yet again sitting before the OCDSB to explain why we have a mandate to take the safety of Jews seriously was unbearable,” Kaplan-Myrth said. “When the community says, ‘We’re not safe,’ they should take it seriously.”

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Withdrawing the board’s official support will not preclude people from the school board community from marching in the parade, Evans said.

“I suspect there will be a whole contingent that shows up and marches as a group.”

In a message to staff, the OCDSB said the T-shirts prepared for the parade were still available for pickup at the board office.

As it stood on Wednesday, a number of workplaces had announced they were withdrawing from the Capital Pride parade, including CHEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Giant Tiger and Loblaw.

Some groups said they were welcoming parade participants whose workplaces had withdrawn. Kind Space, a 2SLGBTQ+ community centre, issued an invitation over social media last weekend to “march with Kind Space.”

People are taking advantage of the offer, executive director Carling Miller said.

“They are absolutely included,” she said. “Just because their workplace said to boycott Pride doesn’t mean they can’t participate.”

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