Citizen takes on the bureaucracy ... and wins
By MOIRA MACDONALD
Last Updated: 11th February 2009, 4:55am
Private citizen Michael Baillargeon's victory last Friday in a conflict of interest case against Toronto Catholic trustee Oliver Carroll deserved better play in this paper.
Pardon this education columnist's bias, but I would have put it in the front three pages.
Baillargeon's case was rare, making his victory all the more significant -- I know of no other such case at an Ontario school board during the 12 years I have covered education.
Last week Ontario Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly agreed with Baillargeon that Carroll had broken municipal conflict of interest rules last May when he participated in discussions, influenced and voted on teacher staffing decisions, despite having a daughter who teaches for the board and a son approved for the board's supply teacher list.
The result of that vote was a refusal to cut teachers to meet what was required under a deficit management plan and a decision later by Education Minister Kathleen Wynne to take over the board.
The upshot of being found in conflict for his involvement in the vote is Carroll loses his seat.
Well, maybe. Carroll, who is also a public member of the council for Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons (a provincial government appointment made under the McGuinty Liberals), isn't going down without a fight and is expected to head to court again next Wednesday to request a stay on the decision so he can hang onto his trustee job until his planned appeal is heard.
Sure, last week's decision is just another shovel of dirt on a fast- rising pile for the Toronto Catholic board. But it is a decision that ought to get the attention of every school trustee in Ontario.
But when I talked to Paula Peroni yesterday, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association, she told me "surprisingly" none of the association's members had called with concerns or questions about conflict of interest due to the case.
Perhaps Ontario's trustees feel comfortable in their knowledge of conflict of interest regulations.
But let's consider the fact that Baillargeon's case is rare. Why? Because when it comes to conflict of interest, Ontario has effectively left it up to private citizens to find the time, energy and most of all, money, to enforce rules legislated by the provincial government, often against others with deeper, taxpayer-funded support. So trustees are almost never challenged.
Conflict of interest rules say an "elector" -- anyone who can vote in a school board election -- may take a complaint to a court if they think there's been a violation. Most trustees believe that only means private citizens outside the board and sit on their hands when they see things they believe constitute a conflict.
"I never should have had to be the one who did this," Baillargeon told me yesterday. "The Education Act and its enforcement under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act are not there to prevent contravention, they're there to prevent anybody from filing an application."
The provincial government has known for a while there's a problem.
Three years ago Ontario's education ministry, as part of a discussion on trustees, asked the school sector whether they thought conflict of interest regulations were effective or appropriate.
But the minister at the time, Gerard Kennedy, flew to other pastures and the discussion evaporated.
'GOVERNANCE REVIEW'
It has been resurrected under minister Wynne and her "governance review committee." But when I asked Peroni about it, since she also sits on that committee, she said it was "not looking at that policy but certainly at a recommendation that a (conflict of interest) policy be in place at school boards."
Oh happy day. Yet again the education ministry -- led by a former trustee -- may consider letting school boards police themselves.
Mike Baillargeon got a hard-earned judge's decision that shows why that's a bad idea. And it cries out for change in how we enforce rules that are there to protect us all.
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