By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Last week, the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) held its monthly Board of Trustees meeting to discuss various policies and items relevant to the board and its students.
Item 9.2 on the meeting’s agenda focused on a motion brought forward by Brenda Agnew, trustee for Burlington, Wards 4 and 5.
The motion, seconded by Trish Powell, trustee for Burlington, Wards 3 and 6, aimed to get HCDSB to support the Elect Respect pledge, created by Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and the Halton Elected Representatives (HER).
The Elect Respect campaign is focused on protecting elected representatives from harassment and abuse and recentring conversations on policies, rather than personal attacks.
Agnew’s original motion asked the board to endorse and sign the pledge, but an amended version instead asked the board to simply “support” it.
Agnew spoke about the purpose of the motion.
“This motion is about fostering a culture of respect, integrity, and safety in all aspects of our governance, and setting a positive example for our community,” Agnew said.
“This is not about politics or partisanship,” Agnew continued. “It’s about values that we all share: respect, empathy, and inclusion. It’s about creating an environment where everyone feels safe to participate, contribute, and thrive.”
Agnew spoke about a steep decline in healthy discourse and an uptick in threats and abuse.
“The Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s Healthy Democracy Project has highlighted these challenges, including fewer people voting in local elections and fewer individuals stepping forward to run for municipal office,” Agnew said.
Agnew also touched on how the values that Elect Respect represents mirror that of HCDSB.
“This motion directly supports our students when they see their leaders modelling respectful behaviour, rejecting harassment, and promoting inclusivity,” Agnew said. “It reinforces these values in their own lives. A culture of respect within government contributes to a safer, more supportive community for students and families.”
Helena Karabela, trustee for Oakville, Wards 5 and 6, asked a question about what she considered to be the political nature of the campaign.
“This is a third-party sort of group,” Karabela said. “It is political, just in that it involves political candidates and elected officials. So it is political. And it is following these principles. How do we know that those principles might not change or get something else added on after it gets approved or voted in?”
Agnew said that such a scenario is unlikely, but that if it did, she could propose an amended resolution or advise the board that something had changed.
“There’s a lot of work that has gone into establishing these particular principles for a reason,” Agnew said. “I don’t see that all of a sudden someone is going to say, ‘Let’s add,’ [but] I can’t answer that for you definitively.”
Agnew also noted that many other boards and municipalities have signed on to the pledge, including the Halton District School Board. So far, no Catholic school boards have signed on to Elect Respect.
Karabela also expressed a concern that endorsing the pledge could curb speech focusing on politicians.
“Being an elected official, you are opening yourself up to criticism,” Karabela said. “I’m not in agreement with harassment, of course, but healthy criticism or a chance for the public to be able to express their opinion in a safe way is important.”
Chris Saunders, trustee for Oakville, Wards 4 and 7, spoke about what he called a “divergence” in opinion about Elect Respect.
Saunders asked Marvin Duarte, board chair and trustee for Milton’s Wards 1 and 4, whether or not it would be beneficial to delay the vote and potentially have someone from Elect Respect come and speak to the board about the campaign.
Duarte said that a notice of the motion was given in September and that “trustees have had enough time to do their research.”
Robert Kennedy, trustee for Oakville’s Wards 1, 2, and 3, asked if Elect Respect has a plan to prevent negative attacks on representatives.
Agnew said that the pledge and its principles would not be formally enforced.
“I believe it’s just going to be through positive reinforcement and people supporting this,” Agnew said. “That’s going to hopefully eliminate some of those behaviours.”
Patrick Murphy, trustee for Milton, Wards 2 and 3, emphasized the importance of listening to the women who crafted the Elect Respect pledge.
“If we have female elected officials saying they don’t feel safe, I think that’s something that’s important for us to pay attention to and to see what we can do to make it better,” Murphy said. “So I think this resolution is our small part in being supportive, which I think is important, as a member of the board of trustees.”
Murphy also asked Agnew to confirm that by passing the resolution, the board would not be giving Elect Respect authority to promote or use the HCDSB name “in any way, shape, or form.”
Agnew said that by removing the signatory portion of the resolution, that possibility is eliminated.
Saunders proposed an amendment that would remove any mention of Elect Respect from the motion and add a preface referencing the Catholic church.
After an objection from Duarte on the grounds that it changed the nature of the original amendment, Saunders appealed his decision, which was struck down 6–3.
Saunders argued that this was the wrong decision.
“I think the essence is the verbiage here about the principles,” Saunders said. “We’re trying to create an environment, endorse the principles, and ensure there’s non-partisanship. I think that’s the important aspect, it’s not the name of the group. I don’t think that fundamentally changes where we’re going to start with the Elect Respect pledge.”
Due to the ruling, mention of Elect Respect was kept in the motion, but the context around Catholicism was kept.
Saunders said that the amendment would help distinguish the board as uniquely Catholic and hoped that the wording would encourage other Catholic boards to endorse the principles.
Janet O’Hearn-Czarnota, vice chair of the board and trustee for Halton Hills, argued that the amendment is missing the point of the motion.
“I just think we’re getting a little lost in ourselves,” O’Hearn-Czarnota said. “This is just information brought to us, that there’s a website if you want to sign it, to say it’s not okay. I don’t need a line that says ‘follow tenets’ of the Catholic church. I’m a Catholic, I follow tenets of the church. So to put that in writing, I think it is redundant.”
This motion also failed 5–3.
Before the vote on the motion, Karabela explained why she would not support it.
“We are against harassment and abuse at Halton Catholic, everywhere in our society,” Karabela said. “It is who we are. It’s our governing values, our code of conduct, it’s our mission statement, it’s our strategic plan.”
“So I will not be supporting this motion as a board of trustees because it is linked to a political campaign,” she continued. “Even though you say it’s non-partisan, it still is. It’s a political campaign, a group of politicians together doing something noble.”
Karabela said that it should be up to individual trustees to support the campaign and that it should only pass with a unanimous vote.
She said that by voting against the motion, she is representing her constituents.
“You know what they’ve been telling me,” Karabela rhetorically asked. “What I’ve been hearing is they want politics out of the schools. They want education, back to basics, reading, math, and student excellence.”
Saunders also said that he would not support the motion without his amendment.
“I believe it introduces partisanship and politics into our board, and it’s not grounded in our faith,” Saunders said.
Kennedy said that he would need more information about the group behind Elect Respect before supporting the motion and tabled an amendment to postpone the vote for 90 days.
“This will give us some time to reflect on the motion and maybe have additional motions or contact the ministry, whether individually or as a group, to see if there’s any commentary on this movement, and how it lines up with the Education Act.”
Powell questioned the purpose of postponing the vote.
“How is this different than just voting it down?” Powell asked. “What is the point of just delaying? If you don’t want to sign it, don’t sign it. You’re not being forced to do anything. Is that not the point of [the notice of motion]? Are we not supposed to read ahead of time, and if we have an issue, isn’t that when we ask questions?”
The motion to postpone failed 5–3.
Maia-Sofia Adeleye, a student trustee, explained her hesitancy to support the original motion, but acknowledged the importance of protecting HCDSB staff members.
“I simply believe that it’s extremely important for feedback on everybody’s end because the only way we learn is through feedback,” Adeleye said. “And I think this will limit feedback. And I think because of this motion being in place, people could feel less likely to give necessary feedback.”
Adeleye said that the motion could hamper democracy and free speech.
“The more we limit it [free speech], the less we improve,” she said.
Agnew addressed some of her fellow trustees’ concerns in her closing statements on the motion.
“This is not just about employees in their workplace,” Agnew said. “This is about elected officials who constantly face attack, both online and in public spaces. Elected officials who have been threatened to be dragged out of their homes, to be hanged from a tree in their front yard and to be burned.”
“This is not just a matter of people expressing their opinions,” Agnew continued. “These are people who are attacking elected officials for the work that they’re doing. We’re elected to do a job, and regardless of what our position on something is, no one should be subjected to that, and this is saying that we don’t support that.”
Her position was that this motion protects democracy rather than erodes it.
“I believe that people cannot be democratic, make decisions, vote, or say what’s on their minds if they fear attack,” Agnew said. “I don’t think this limits anybody’s ability to have an opinion.”
Agnew also said that the fact that the HDSB supported the Elect Respect pledge unanimously should quell any fears that the motion is in violation of the Education Act.
The motion, as amended by Agnew, passed 5-3.
