After hearing back from the Ontario Ombudsman's office about complaints he submitted last summer, former Rainbow District School Board trustee Larry Killens has asked the Ombudsman to reinvestigate his case.
“I don't look at it ending, and definitely not from my side,” he told Sudbury.com. “I have not finished.”
In his appeal, he said the four-page response he got from the Ombudsman's office following a review of his complaints against the Rainbow board was “cursory at best and not satisfactory to the complainant.”
He said in his opinion, it was “incomplete, and did not address the complaints or issues which required a full and detailed investigation.”
Last July, Killens was barred by his fellow trustees from all Rainbow board meetings until Nov. 30, when his term was up. Killens, who represented Manitoulin Island, did not seek re-election in the October trustee elections.
The board said he breached the code of conduct trustees must follow, something Killens has denied.
He also said under the Education Act, sanctions that can be taken against a trustee include admonishment, preventing them from sitting on committees and banning them from a meeting or part of a meeting.
His interpretation of that, Killens said, is the board wasn't allowed to ban him from more than one meeting at a time, meaning his five-month sanction shouldn't have been valid.
On Feb. 11, seven months after his initial complaint — and his banning — Killens received a response from Jean-Frédéric Hübsch, counsel in the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman.
He said the Ombudsman's office spoke to the school board and Ministry of Education about this issue. Both provided “different rationales for why the board of trustees was entitled to impose this ongoing sanction.”
After reviewing these responses, the Ombudsman's office escalated its concerns about this sanction to senior officials within the Ministry of Education.
It noted “the Education Act did not plainly state that trustees could be barred from meetings indefinitely, and that the legislation should clearly provide for this outcome if that is the intention.”
It also noted that the apparent lack of clarity could lead to inconsistent application of sanctions.
The Ombudsman's office said it has spoken with senior officials at the Ministry of Education about the interpretation of the Education Act’s penalty provisions for trustees.
They also asked about the status of consultations on trustee conduct matters that had been announced in March 2018, and the Ministry stated that it intended on pursuing this avenue but declined to provide a timeline.
“We explained that our Office is committed to monitoring the Ministry’s response to our concerns and that we may follow up with the Ministry if the concerns are not addressed,” the letter from the Ombudsman's office to Killens said.
Another complaint dealt with in the review was Killens' concerns about how the school board had recorded his attendance at meetings of the board of trustees following the sanction and its handling of travel expenses related to his attendance.
The Ombudsman's office said with respect to these issues, “our discussions with the Director and Chair indicate that the School Board was seeking to comply with certain provisions of the code of conduct.”
The document concludes that since Killens is no longer a trustee, and the sanction is no longer in effect against him, “our office will not be taking any further action with respect to your individual complaint.”
Killens said while the part of the Ombudsman's response about holding the Ministry of Education to account is positive, on the whole, he said the watchdog did not deal with several of his complaints.
For example, the board said Killens had six sanctions against him for violating the trustees Code of Conduct, but Killens says this is untrue.
He said he also complained about what transpired after he requested under Freedom of Information legislation a document he said was penned by Norm Blaseg about the reasons behind his banning.
Killens said Blaseg himself responded, denying his request, while the response should have come from Nicole Charette, who deals with Freedom of Information requests for the board.
He also said the fact that he's no longer a trustee should have no bearing on the Ombudsman's ruling, as he was still a trustee at the time of actions he's complaining about.
Killens wasn't the only person who complained to the Ontario Ombudsman's Office about the circumstances surrounding the former trustee's banning.
Manitoulin Island resident Kim Bilbija also submitted a complaint about the situation, and on Feb. 11, she received a nearly identical response from the Ombudsman's office.
She too asked that the Ombudsman's office reinvestigate her complaints, some of which she said were not dealt with, including what she said was the board's lack of adequate response to emails about Killens' banning.
Sudbury.com did ask the Rainbow board if they had any response to the Ombudsman's review of Killens' complaints.
Speaking on behalf of the board, Charette said the board did not have a response to the document, saying “the board has not received the letter that you attached to your message.”
