02/25/2026
On January 24th at the Public Education Symposium, I made a call to action. I asked the Ontario Ombudsman, Paul Dubé, to open an investigation into the impact of Bill 33 and the proposed removal of English School Board Trustees. Copied below is what I said, but we need parents and community members to rally...and be loud!
If you care about democracy, transparency, equity or fairness, then please email (see draft attached that you can use) or call any level of the government (Premier Ford, Education Minister Calandra, MPPs, etc.) and tell them you DO NOT support the removal of Locally Elected Trustees or overhauling the current system without any form of public consultation or input!
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"Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I want to be clear that my concern is not about partisan disagreement or individual intent, but about administrative fairness, process, and foreseeable equity impacts.
School Board Trustees are an elected governance body with statutory responsibilities and local democratic legitimacy. They are also notably one of the most diverse elected institutions in Ontario, with higher representation of women, caregivers, and equity-seeking individuals than most other levels of government.
In recent years, trustees have been increasingly characterized as illegitimate, ineffective, or unnecessary, alongside repeated use of supervision, ministerial overrides, and public statements suggesting the role itself should be eliminated. Taken together, this represents a cumulative pattern of delegitimization and centralization of authority.
My concern is that these actions have been taken without meaningful equity or impact analysis. Regardless of stated intent, the foreseeable effect of weakening or removing trustees is the erosion of one of the province’s most representative democratic bodies and the narrowing of who can realistically participate in public decision-making.
From an administrative fairness perspective, this raises questions about whether the government has adequately considered the democratic and equity consequences of its approach, consulted affected groups, or assessed less exclusionary alternatives.
I am asking the Ombudsman to consider whether this pattern reflects a failure to account for foreseeable exclusionary impacts and whether the process used meets standards of fairness, proportionality, and good governance in the public sector.
This is not about preserving a role for its own sake. It is about safeguarding democratic accountability and ensuring that governance decisions do not unintentionally silence the very voices that local representation is meant to protect."
Dear , I am writing as an elected school board trustee for to share an important concern about Minister of Education Paul Calandra’s proposals to significantly change or eliminate locally elected school trustees in Ontario....
