The aftermath of last Monday’s chaotic WCDSB meeting: The Good (Trustee Phillips), the Bad (Trustee Ashby) and the Ugly (the school board’s head honchos)

Indeed, our recent report regarding the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) meeting last Monday is now receiving international attention – albeit, par for the course, there’s very little mainstream media attention in Canada... and what does exist is, predictably, pathetic. So it was that the WCDSB meeting in Kitchener on April 24th was downright fiery. Yours truly was frogmarched out the building by security and then the chairwoman phoned the police to deal with the concerned parents, you know, as opposed to actually dealing with the concerns of the concerned parents…

So, what’s happened in the last few days? Well, I’m here to present an update regarding this ongoing sordid saga. If you were to give it a headline, you could borrow the title from that classic Sergio Leone spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Before I present the update, here’s a reminder of what transpired at the meeting last Monday evening.

Here’s the scene-setter: after enduring a presentation on some topic that rivaled the effects of taking extra-strength Sominex, the presenter then asked if there were any questions. Oh, I had one. Namely, does the board condone or condemn Ashby’s tweet? The response: the board members and other staffers fled!

In terms of the ensuing fallout, in the department of Good, the first trustee to issue a statement was Marissa Phillips. Here’s what she stated on Wednesday:

As a newly-elected trustee in the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, I want to publicly express my personal dismay and sadness regarding the hateful comments made by my colleague on Twitter. These comments deeply hurt members of our Catholic school community and are entirely inappropriate, unacceptable, and should be condemned without hesitation. I stand with concerned parents and community members who denounce my colleague's words. Racism and Sexism against any group have no place in our society. These actions become especially heinous when they originate from an elected school board trustee whose hurtful comments are aimed directly at many of the families she has been tasked with representing.

Now, like the umpire behind home plate, we calls ‘em as we sees ‘em here at Rebel News. So, we’re saying bravo to Ms. Phillips for having the guts and the decency to make such a statement… a statement that the board itself should’ve issued itself several days ago. Ok, let’s move on to the Bad part of our follow-up. That would be the so-called apology issued by Ashby. Here goes:

I apologize for my tweets that offended people and I apologize to my board colleagues for how this has impacted them. Conversations about inequality are often uncomfortable. As a Métis woman and in my professional role, I encounter these discussions regularly and part of these discussions is to challenge our existing systems. A great deal of my education and advocacy work is around understanding and furthering diversity, equity and inclusion. I have decided to remove my Twitter account to ensure that my comments and advocacy will not be taken out of context in the future. I remain dedicated to continuing to work with my colleagues and our community to support all students.

Yeah, it’s one of those “I’m sorry if anyone was offended” apologies as opposed to: “I am sorry” period, full stop, end of sentence. And why is she bringing her Metis heritage into this? Why is the loony left so obsessed with race? Now, here comes the Ugly segment, which is to say the meandering milquetoast statement issued by the school board, in which the WCDSB essentially doubles down on… cowardice.

Waterloo Catholic District School Board Trustees represent citizens of Waterloo Region. The Board remains committed to providing a quality, inclusive, faith-based education with a goal of providing all students the opportunity to succeed and belong.The Board of Trustees of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board does not support statements made by Trustee Wendy Ashby in social media posts.The Board is aware of concerns raised by community members regarding the contents of the posts by Trustee Ashby and is doing its due diligence in ensuring that those concerns are heard. Whenever there are allegations of a breach in the code of conduct, the Board follows up with a review into those allegations.At a Board meeting held on Monday April 24, 2023, a number of individuals were disruptive, causing the meeting to be briefly recessed. Waterloo Regional Police were called to ensure the safety of all those in attendance. No arrests were made, and no further police action was required. The meeting resumed and Trustees received the presentation from the meeting’s sole registered delegation.The Board will continue to be accountable and accessible to our community, but we will not tolerate hate of any kind or disrespectful behaviour that is disruptive to public meetings.There will be no further comment from the Board of Trustees at this time. Please refer to a separate statement issued by Trustee Ashby.

Did you catch that? The board “will not tolerate hate of any kind” and by that they don’t mean Ashby’s vile sexist/racist/anti-Christian tweets… they mean the “impolite” questions of the parents that attended the meeting! Unbelievable!