Vote on whether trustee's texts broke board rules narrowly defeated

At a heated special meeting Monday night, a motion to determine if Ottawa English public school board trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth's texts to a fellow trustee had breached the board's code of conduct failed by a slim margin.

The incident, which the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) had earlier kept confidential under its policies, was laid out in a series of documents posted to the board's website that included a third-party investigator's report.

Zone 9 trustee Kaplan-Myrth, who is also a family doctor, had tabled a motion to mandate masking in schools in November 2022 as children's hospitals were strugging with a wave of respiratory illnesses.

As described in a February 2023 complaint from Zone 8 trustee Donna Dickson, Kaplan-Myrth sent a series of text messages to Dickson before the 2022 vote, asking for Dickson's support.

Dickson's constituents didn't want mask mandate, she said

On Nov. 19, three days before the vote was scheduled, Dickson replied to one of those texts. She wrote she would support a statement encouraging masks but wouldn't vote for a mandate because her constituents "overwhelmingly" didn't want one.

Kaplan-Myrth's responses begged Dickson to reconsider, and alleged that three specific trustees don't care about racialized or immunocompromised children, or children in poverty.

In her complaint, Dickson said that singling out those colleagues that way was "defamatory and disrespectful."

The original date for the vote on Kaplan-Myrth's motion was Nov. 22, but it didn't end up happening that night because people in the room frequently disrupted the meeting.

Kaplan-Myrth later texted Dickson: "The people who organized tonight are white supremacists."

'Leave me alone,' Dickson texted

During the rescheduled virtual meeting on Nov. 24, Kaplan-Myrth texted Dickson: "You should abstain," and "Don't vote with white supremacists."

"Leave me alone," Dickson replied.

Kaplan-Myrth responded: "Don't talk to me about equity then."

"[She suggested] that if I didn't vote in favour, I myself as a Black woman must be voting alongside white supremacists," Dickson told the board of trustees at Monday's meeting.

The text exchange, as described in the complaint, ended with Dickson saying that Kaplan-Myrth doesn't care about equity, and with Kaplan-Myrth telling Dickson she should treat her colleagues with respect.

On its website, the OCDSB said it had tried to mediate the issue but was unsuccessful, prompting a formal review.

The investigator said Dickson appeared genuinely upset, and that it didn't appear Kaplan-Myrth was "fully aware of the extent of the offence her words caused" until she received the formal complaint, but that a letter of apology to trustees two days later was sincere.

"The Complainant interprets the words 'Don't vote with white supremacists' as a racist remark … I find it unlikely that this interpretation reflects the Respondent's intent, and she more likely made the remark to suggest that certain white supremacists would (in her view) welcome the result of a defeated mask mandate resolution," they wrote.

"This notion was clearly communicated poorly, and the Respondent has since attempted to clarify her intent and expressed regret."

The board had also obtained a legal opinion in June that Kaplan-Myrth broke the rules but shouldn't be sanctioned because it was "an error of judgment made in good faith."

Needed 8 votes to pass, got 7

The motion by Zone 3 trustee Donna Blackburn asked the board to consider whether Kaplan-Myrth had breached sections 3.17 and 3.18 of the OCDSB board member code of conduct, which deals with respecting colleagues, staff, students and the public.

Possible sanctions ranged from a warning to banning Kaplan-Myrth from a meeting or sitting on a committee.

The motion on Kaplan-Myrth's conduct was the only item up for discussion at the meeting, with all 12 trustees in attendance.

Seven trustees voted in favour, four abstained, and Kaplan-Myrth wasn't allowed to vote under board rules. The motion required a two-thirds majority of eight votes to pass.

"It's very unfortunate," Dickson said after the meeting. "The board has made a decision. I respect that decision. I disagree with that decision."

Result vindicating, Kaplan-Myrth says

Kaplan-Myrth said she feels vindicated by the result.

"I am relieved that the board found that I am not guilty of a violation. I'm also deeply disappointed that the OCDSB allowed us to even proceed," she said in a post-meeting scrum with reporters.

Kaplan-Myrth added she had simply texted Dickson that vocal opponents of masking in schools are not their constituents, but are instead white supremacists.

"Not everybody in the room is a white supremacist, surely," Kaplan-Myrth said.

"But the people who are sending the anti-vaxx, anti-mask death threats to me, which have not stopped in the last nine months, are associated with white supremacy."

'Significant number' supported motion

Blackburn disagrees with the board's decision.

"Those seven people believe that trustee Kaplan-Myrth violated the code of conduct. That's seven people. That's more than half," Blackburn said.

"It's not the threshold, but it's a significant number."

After all trustees made their remarks, Blackburn directly addressed Kaplan-Myrth — who wasn't allowed to speak during the meeting.

The heated exchange resulted in Kaplan-Myrth's microphone being muted before she could respond, and Blackburn walking out of the room. Dickson followed almost immediately after, and a brief recess was called.

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