Hamilton public school board agrees to make secret report on Stoney Creek trustee Carole Paikin Miller’s sanctions public
Hamilton's public school board is finally agreeing to release the Sept. 2021 report that prompted trustees to sanction Stoney Creek trustee Carole Paikin Miller for a third time this term.
After considering the matter behind closed doors, trustees voted to make the report public pending a legal review" without discussion at their May 30 online board meeting.
As he did on the September sanctions, Ward 4 trustee Ray Mulholland cast the lone negative vote but gave no reasons for doing so.
The decision to release the report responds to an appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario by Hamilton Community News of the board's initial refusal to disclose it and cost of a related investigation.
At their May 9 board meeting, trustee addressed part of the appeal by making the investigation's $23,897 bill public, leaving release of the report as the appeal's outstanding issue.
Board chair Dawn Danko said the report's release will coincide with approval of the May 30 meeting's minutes at a subsequent meeting.
Trustees have two board meetings scheduled before the summer break, on June 6 and 13.
I don't have a timeline at this point," Danko said via email.
At issue in the appeal are three sanctions, or penalties, levied by trustees against Paikin Miller following a two-hour closed meeting Sept. 13, 2021.
The sanctions included a formal letter of censure; a request Paikin Miller formally apologize to Ward 3 trustee Maria Felix Miller, other trustees, staff and students for her conduct and the cost of an investigation; and a prohibition from sitting on any trustee committees for the rest of her elected term, which ends Nov. 30.
At the time, Danko said the board would make the letter of censure and report public after reviewing the latter due to the nature of some of the topics."
But she backtracked in November, citing a legal opinion that the Code of Conduct only required the board to publicly disclose findings of a violation, which trustees did at the Sept. 13 meeting.
Hamilton Community News filed a freedom of information request to the board Nov. 15, seeking release of the report, letter of censure and cost of the investigation.
The board responded Dec. 6, noting it had made the letter of censure public by posting it on the board's website, but denying the request for the report.
The letter of censure, written by Danko, is shy on specifics but criticizes Paikin Miller for failing to act respectfully and professionally when presented with differing views from your colleagues."
It also calls the Ward 5 trustee's behaviour unbecoming" and inconsistent with the principles of equity and a board priority to create a climate of positive culture and well-being.
Hamilton Community News appealed the board's refusal to release the investigator's report to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario on Dec. 15.
The disclosure of the investigation's cost and pending release of the report are in response to an agreement to try to mediate the dispute rather than have it formally adjudicated.
The Sept. 13 sanctions against Paikin Miller followed two previous sets of sanctions in March 2021 that included a call by trustees for her to resign for conduct an outside investigator's report called racist.
The report found Paikin Miller made overtly anti-Muslim and racist remarks" to other trustees and showed a problematic attitude toward equity issues" when she was a non-voting member of the board's human rights and equity community advisory committee.
The Ward 5 trustee has never made a public statement on any of the sanctions or responded to Hamilton Community News' requests for comment, nor has she issued any of the three formal apologies requested by trustees.
She has also not complied with a requirement for additional equity, governance and anti-racism training, according to an undated trustee sanctions report on the board's website.