A longstanding trespass order banning a Sudbury couple from certain Rainbow District School Board properties has been fully lifted.
On the first day of school, Wednesday, Sept. 5, Dylan and Anita Gibson received a letter from Rainbow District School Board director of education Norm Blaseg that notified them.
“Be advised that effective immediately, all restrictions identified in the Notice of Prohibition of Entry dated October 2, 2012 and Amendment to the Notice of Prohibition of Entry dated September 8, 2017 issued under the Trespass to Property Act (Ontario) have been removed,” reads the letter, which they posted on Facebook.
The Rainbow board has dropped the ban against the Gibsons even as the board has attracted attention for its treatment of Manitoulin Island trustee Larry Killens.
He has been barred by his fellow trustees from participating in school board meetings until Nov. 30, when his current term is up.
For their part, the Gibsons are vocal opponents of accommodation reviews (the process preceding the closure of a school) who often attended Rainbow school board meetings before they were banned.
Keenly interested in school board politics, they also both ran unsuccessfully to become Rainbow board trustees in the 2014 elections, and are now both running to become trustees in the upcoming Oct. 22 election.
Their two children attend Rainbow board schools.
They were banned from the board's high schools and its downtown board office in September 2012, after what they say was a seemingly innocuous interaction with a now former Rainbow board trustee, Tyler Campbell.
In September 2017, they received word that they were no longer barred from entering the board's high schools.
However, they were still prevented from entering the board's downtown board office, which is now defunct. And a new restriction was added, banning them from the board's new Centre for Education, located in the former Wembley school.
But after nearly six years, those restrictions have been dropped, and they no longer have any trespass orders against them.
“After 6 years of battling to have the un-justified and un-warranted trespass notice removed from myself and Anita, the Director of Education has finally done so,” Dylan wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.
“Effective immediately all restrictions placed upon Anita and I have been removed. I have always stated and I maintain that Anita and I did nothing wrong, we did not violate the board's code of conduct.
“We were convicted by the director, who has admitted to the Ontario ombudsmen that he did not follow the school board policy. The director used shaky and assumptive statements from trustee Dena Morrison to justify the removal of Anita and I from board meetings.
“The other witness statements do not support her claims. We also know, through FOI requests, that it was actually trustee and chair Doreen Dewar that instigated this sham.”
Anita also wrote about the situation on her Facebook page.
“Good News! We have been successful in persuading director of education Norm Blaseg to remove the unlawful trespass notice,” she said.
“The negotiation was overly long and complicated due to the tactics employed by both trustees of the board and Mr. Blaseg; but ultimately, we have prevailed. It shouldn't take almost six years to act on your admitted mistakes but now Norm Blaseg can no longer choose to try and bully those who pay attention and ask questions.
“The tide is turning, and the message is clear: Your abuses of power will no longer be tolerated.
“I am buoyed by the support of the Ministry of Education and grateful for the assistance from a vast community of concerned citizens, parents and staff, all of whom care deeply about education in this province. Thank you all for being informed and involved.”
The Gibsons issued a written statement in 2016 explaining in detail what they say happened in September 2012 that they think led to the ban.
It involves a conversation after a school board meeting with former Rainbow board trustee Campbell, who stepped down in 2016 amid conflict of interest allegations.
“In a nutshell, Trustee Campbell was unnecessarily and overly aggressive when he insisted that I answer his questions about a personal comment I had made to my husband (quietly) as we exited the building after a board meeting,” the Gibsons' statement said.
“The comment was not intended for Mr. Campbell. I did not appreciate his wagging his finger in my face. I was annoyed, but quickly got over it. It was nothing extraordinary; it was a conversation. Mr. Campbell was aggressive and I answered him back in kind. And then it was over. Or so we thought.
“(What did NOT happen) There was no physical interaction between Ms. Gibson, Mr. Campbell or Mr. Gibson. All parties were involved in discussions, and only Mr. Campbell chose to invade personal space.
“Moreover, the discussion was concerning board business and was not discourteous in any fashion. There has never been any legal action against me, I have never been arrested, charged or found guilty of any crime.”
Dylan said in his Facebook post he's happy he can now start attending school board meetings once again, even if it's just as a member of the public.
“I am glad attention is being applied to this board,” he said. "I see that other people have recognized and are appalled by the poor behaviour being exhibited by the current group of trustees. I look forward to attending, in person, the next meeting in September."
Dylan is taking on current Rainbow board chair Doreen Dewar in Area 5 (Wards 9 and 10) in the upcoming election.
Anita is running in Area 2 (Wards 3 and 4) against Ruth Ward, who was selected by trustees in 2017 to replace Campbell after he stepped down, as well as Richard Eberhardt, an NDP organizer, former teacher, parent of two elementary school-aged children and chair of the board's Parent Involvement Committee, and Gordon Ewin, a retired director of education with the board.
