'It's embarrassing and ridiculous': Father calls for dissolution of western Manitoba school board
CBC
A Métis father of two says the continued controversy surrounding a western Manitoba school board has left his family feeling alienated and he worries it will affect the education his children receive.
"It's embarrassing and ridiculous. It is absolutely appalling and disappointing as a whole. I think it reflects poorly not only on my community but it reflects poorly on our society," said Chris Lark, who lives in Dauphin. "It's really disheartening."
Lark says he's concerned the Mountain View School Division board, which is in charge of the division's purse strings and policies, is focused on non-education-related issues instead of students' success.
A byelection to fill four trustee seats is scheduled for Oct. 30.
The school board has been under provincial scrutiny since April, when trustee Paul Coffey gave a board meeting presentation saying residential schools began as a good thing and called the term "white privilege" racist. Two months later, the province established an oversight committee to watch over the board.
However, issues continued.
In mid-September, four trustees voted — despite not having enough trustees at the meeting to make formal decisions — to ban all but Canadian, Manitoba and school flags. This happened after the trustees butted heads with the province's oversight panel.
Mountain View School Division oversees 16 schools in an area that stretches west to the Saskatchewan border and east to Dauphin Lake and Winnipegosis, with Riding Mountain and Assessippi parks along its southern border and Duck Mountain to the north.
Lark isn't the only community member concerned about the ongoing controversies.
He says at this point it's clear the current board members are unwilling to change, and he'd like to see the province dissolve the board.
"This is exhibiting very childish and petty and mean … behaviour," Lark said. "My thoughts now have changed from let's help these people learn to let's get rid of the board."
A person who works in the school division, whose identity CBC News is protecting because they fear losing their job, says students are also upset and fearful about the school board.
One young Indigenous student worried that Coffey's presentation about residential schools meant the board was in support of reinstating them.
"It breaks my heart that I can't tell them with confidence that they're protected," the worker said.
Ontario legislation that mandated air conditioning in all resident rooms in long-term care (LTC) homes has saved dozens of lives, according to a new study.
Gusty winds, rapid fall in temperature prompt special weather statement for Waterloo region and area
The mid-week warmup in Waterloo region, Guelph and area will abruptly come to an end on Friday, Environment and Climate Change Canada warns.
Water in two more schools in the N.W.T. show lead levels above Health Canada's guidelines for drinking water, according to the territorial government.
Ontario's ethics watchdog says it will investigate whether the province's labour minister contravened any laws in his handling of a controversial training fund.
Mitchell Rose, the 32-year-old man charged with three counts of attempted murder in St. John’s, will spend the next month on the forensic unit of a psychiatric hospital.
Nearly eight years after Halifax sold the historic Khyber building in the hopes it could be revived, the municipality says the site has become a “threat to safety” — and is taking it back.
The New Brunswick government has a strategy for reducing chronic homelessness in the province by 40 per cent over the next three years, Housing Minister David Hickey said Thursday.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé is stepping down.
A Winnipeg mother whose kids attend Winnipeg School Division schools says officials waited too long to let parents know classes would be cancelled on Thursday amid a winter blizzard that created dangerous road conditions across the city.
After one day of calm, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says a second Alberta clipper storm will begin to hit western Saskatchewan early Friday morning.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government is increasing how much it costs to apply for a citizen-initiated referendum by 5,000 per cent, saying it's about making sure applicants are serious.
A special unit established to solve cold cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people has solved the murder of a B.C. man in Washington State nearly a decade ago.
A judge ruled Thursday to remove an injunction in place since the summer against Alberta's law prohibiting doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth.