Informative to know who voted against trespass ban
To the Expositor:
During the September 23 meeting of the Rainbow District School Board (RDSB), the board went in-camera (ie. no public allowed) twice. It is my understanding that during both sessions, the issue of a trespass ban against two parents (Dylan and Anita Gibson) was discussed. Mr. and Mrs. Gibson have been taking the board to task for several years now over issues of accountability and transparency, and have been banned from the RDSB offices and all RDSB secondary schools since October of 2012. The Gibsons are currently running as trustee candidates in the City of Greater Sudbury for the upcoming election.
During both sessions, Trustee Larry Killens was asked to leave the room by Chair Doreen Dewar.
Afterwards, I contacted Trustee Killens and asked why Chair Dewar required him to the leave the room. Trustee Killens advised me that the rules are clear that he was not allowed to share the contents of the discussions in an in-camera meeting, however, he was able to explain the following: “I was asked to leave when I refused to answer a question asked of me by the chair. I did ask for a reason, no specific reason was given, other than disobeying a rule of the chair. I asked which rule and the demand to leave was repeated. I complied. I chose not to disobey the rule of the chair as there are tools do so in another venue. I do assure the electorate I did not violate any rule of conduct, that I am aware of, that you would expect of your trustee.”
Now, why is this so important? Trustee Robert Kirwin put forth a motion to have the trespass ban rescinded. Trustee Killens was going to second that motion, which would then require a vote be taken. By removing Trustee Killens, Chair Doreen Dewar effectively ended any chance that the motion would move forward (as no other trustee seconded the motion).
You may ask, if only Trustees Kirwin and Killens were prepared to support the motion, isn’t it a foregone conclusion that the motion to rescind the trespass ban would have died at the vote stage? And that’s probably correct, but I also suspect that vote would have been a recorded pole vote (ie. each trustee’s vote is recorded). And wouldn’t it be very informative to know where each trustee stands on this trespass issue, especially with an upcoming election?
Kirk Dopson
Sudbury
