The York Catholic District School Board has voted to censure Newmarket’s incumbent trustee and request a ministry investigation into alleged discriminatory comments.
In two separate votes last month, the board requested the Ministry of Education investigate Theresa McNichol for alleged anti-Italian discrimination in relation to a dispute between her and five trustees of Italian heritage. In another case, the board determined McNicol had breached the trustee code of conduct for demanding an apology from another trustee at a January board meeting and moved that she must make a formal, written apology to the board.
The embattled trustee, who represents Newmarket, East Gwillimbury and Georgina, told NewmarketToday that she is willing to make the apology. But she pushed back on the idea that she was discriminatory and said she looks forward to any ministry investigation. She said the dispute also led to a threat being made against her.
“If there’s nothing there and people get hurt, that’s sad,” McNicol said.
The dispute is due to McNicol requesting security at board meetings and indicating a fear for her safety. The group — which includes trustees Maria Marchese, Maria Iafrate, Dominic Mazzotta, Rose Cantisano and Dino Giuliani — said McNicol responded to questions on that in Italian.
The group believes this has negative connotations toward Italian heritage. But McNicol has maintained that she made no discriminatory comments and both sides have indicated the dispute also relates to McNicol bringing a resolution forward last year to place Indigenous land acknowledgment before prayer in school board agendas.
Previously blocked by the chair from discussing the matter in the public portion of the board agenda — prompting five trustees to skip out on meetings and prevent a quorum — Giuliani was allowed to bring a resolution forward at the Sept. 27 meeting.
“I have to protect my heritage as a proud Italian-Canadian,” he said during the meeting. “Unfortunately, there are some that are not pleased with perhaps people of Italian heritage.”
The resolution requests that the ministry immediately conduct a public inquiry regarding “discriminatory comments made by sitting trustees against trustees of Italian heritage.” In a recorded vote, it carried unanimously after nobody raised a voice against it.
But McNicol said she has had a legitimate fear for her safety since she made that resolution regarding Indigenous land acknowledgment, for which only she voted in favour.
York Regional Police confirmed it investigated a threatening comment against McNicol on social media, reported Sept. 16.
“Through investigation, the investigators determined that the comments did not have the element to support a criminal offence charge. The investigation has concluded,” media relations officer Const. Maniva Armstrong said.
McNicol said she is unsure about why her colleagues are accusing her of discrimination.
“My best friends are all Italian, and none of them would ever accuse me of being racist,” she said. “I support the Italian heritage language program … I’ve been involved with the Italian festival in town, and I’ve always supported kids going to Italy to learn their heritage and their language.”
As for the motion for an apology, it comes after a third-party report from Bruce Best of Rubin Thomlinson LLP, who was brought in to investigate concerns about McNichol breaching the code of conduct at a January meeting.
McNicol had asked for an apology for a procedural error where she was not called on to vote for her motion on Indigenous land acknowledgment, and her support was not in the minutes. The report indicated McNicol was correct in that it was a procedural error, and that she was in her right to note it.
But the report said McNicol overstepped in asking for an apology from Mazzotta during a meeting for the error. Such a request must be done through the trustee code of conduct.
The controversy comes as McNicol seeks re-election in this month’s election, facing Peter Fracassi, who faced his own controversy while a trustee in the Simcoe-Muskoka board in the previous term. Meanwhile, four of the five trustees making the allegations against McNicol are not running for re-election.
McNicol said she has been willing to do mediation concerning the allegations, but the other side has not been.
She said some have been misinterpreting the story.
“Some people come up with their own interpretation, and it’s not even close.”
