Fake or fabricated issues to undermine Catholic Education
The Sun King Syndrome – the infamous Louis IV’s approach to the responsibility and transparency philosophy of cause and consequence, après moi le deluge – is alive and well at all levels of governance. It is a malaise that should be nipped in the bud.
The York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) is its latest victim. A local television outlet seems to have been manipulated into airing one person’s dissident view of educational goals prompted by Minister Calandra’s public musings on the role of trustees and boards of education. Parents may want to review the background below.
Pursuant to the report of an independent investigator, the Board had accepted the conclusion that trustee McNicol had acted in an inappropriate fashion towards her colleagues. The Board voted to discipline her, two years ago.
In the August 26, 2025, meeting of the Board, Trustee Mc Nicol presented three motions whose content appeared designed to seek personal redress for perceived ills she brought upon herself.
The Board defended, in the Courts, its contested decisions in a judicial review the technical administrative timeline requirement, for such a disciplinary decision like that brought on by the actions of none other than Trustee Mc Nicol. The Board lost.
The substance and cause of the discipline imposed by the board, after an Independent Investigator reported her findings, was never addressed or rebutted. Mc Nicol therefore remains under the cloud of convicted as accused. During the August 26 meeting, she claimed the entire exercise cost the YCDSB more than $700,000. The Chair, Elizabeth Crowe dismissed the allegation.
Now, on the 26 of August, McNicol presented the three motions above. No trustee on the ten-member board, including those considered to be friends and allies, seconded any of the motions – none.
Less than two weeks after that meeting, on September 10, the TV outlet in question claimed to have received a document acquired through freedom of information (FOI) attesting to the actual amount of $207,998.03. Assuming this to be true, who received the monies? If not Mc Nicol, who has “profited” from this charade? Moreover, how did whoever circumvent privacy issues, non-disclosure agreements and breaches of code of conduct which would weigh in upon disclosure?
The Corriere Canadese staff, had followed all the events swirling around the issues leading up to the Judicial Review – including the court hearing. I attended, in person, the first five months of Board meetings when anti-Catholic, progressive activists, led by the local teachers’ negotiating team (OECTA), tried to influence the decision making at the Board. Security was heightened; Police were called in at each of those meetings. Parents were threatened with expulsion.
York Region is a growing municipality. So are its school systems. Catholics, approximately 24% of residents, have their school board, as per requirements of the Constitution and the Education Act. The overwhelming number of Catholic resident-ratepayers in York are Italian in origin.
Through all those meetings, they talked of student accommodation, school supplies, teacher competencies and Catholic values upbringing. The then Chair of the Board, Frank Alexander (not an Italian), shared those values. He prompted the investigation into McNicol and the censure that followed.
She countered with her own lawyers, who co-incidentally are reputedly “OECTA lawyers”. The Corriere, at the time, reached out to the YCDSB, Mc Nicol, OECTA and the two law firms purportedly representing her claim. Only the YCDSB responded.
On September 10, only OECTA was available to the TV outlet for “response to the breaking news”.
It seems to this humble observer that Minister Calandra’s challenge in his new role is that he should throw out the bathwater and not the baby.
