Catherine Kronas, the Ontario mother suspended from her elected parent school council position for refusing to participate in an unsolicited land acknowledgment, continues to take a stand against the form of compelled speech.

During my interview with Kronas, she described the reasons she felt compelled to formally object to the mantra during an April 9 school council meeting. Despite the council adding the objection to the minutes and nearly a month passing by since the peaceful stand occurred, Kronas says she was shocked to receive a letter informing her that the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) chose to suspend her over her stance.

"I understood what the goals of parent council are supposed to be, and the reasons that were legislated, and I was just frustrated with the board imposing something that hasn't been decided by the council," she explained.

Kronas also emphasized that she wasn't acting solely on her own behalf when making the objection.

"I am not the only member of the community or school who has an issue with land acknowledgment being read at parent council or school council meetings," she said. "I had been talking to several parents at schools who are quite frustrated with it, so I just wanted to raise an objection. I wanted other parents to know that I was not ok with it, and I wanted to do it in a formal way."

The objection itself was brief and respectful, yet the letter from the board accused Kronas of causing unspecified harm and breaching an unspecified code of conduct. Kronas and her legal representation through the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms believe the board has violated Kronas' right to freedom of expression and procedural fairness.

"I felt that I was safe to issue a brief objection," Kronas explained. "In February, I attended a council meeting where free speech was discussed, and I was assured by council members that this was a free speech place, that it should be safe, that we should be able to push back."

To Kronas, this isn't just about a disagreement over wording, it's about power and the growing expectation that citizens adopt certain political messages or risk being silenced.

"We're starting to go down the totalitarian route with it," she said. "Maybe it's a form of soft totalitarianism where it just seems that these political messages... in this land acknowledgment—it's like a creed, some sort of ritual. It just seems to be encroaching on more and more of our spaces, which should perhaps not be political or at least politically neutral."

"School council should be fairly independent, and we should be able to decide what gets said in our meetings or not, so I would probably be objecting to any forced statement that the school was trying to force on a school council."

Despite being barred from attending last week's council meeting, Kronas confirmed that the board has now acknowledged the legal demand letter sent on her behalf and stated it will respond formally in due course.