Letter: ‘Critic silenced at LBPSB board’

Mr. Chris Eustace has been barred, not because of personal comments made, but because he chose to break the rules that were explicitly laid out on several occasions. This was a decision taken by council, not by me, after the suggestion was made in caucus. No commissioner present had a dissenting opinion on the decision. 

Our council will not tolerate personal attacks on individuals in our community, not on Commissioners, past or present, not on any of our staff members. Mr. Eustace knows this and chose to ignore this. I asked him to take a seat three times. He did not comply and therefore I requested assistance from our security guards. This is my job at Council meetings—to maintain order.

The story was also inaccurate about my comments to questions he asked. I did not say that the board will wait until all testing for radon is complete before releasing more information. What I said was that in any given school, it would be irresponsible to report on the findings until the results from that school were completed. In fact, we have finished testing almost two thirds of schools and have reported the results. Further, the story neglected to mention that the results at St. Patrick’s school were well below standards and our measures were preventive, not remedial. Should any Governing Board (which is not mostly made up of parents, but, by law, has an equal number of parents and staff), they only need ask their principal to get the report. Schools report to Governing Boards, not Council.

As for replacing two retiring commissioners, my answer was that we had several candidates who met our criteria express interest and that we felt that widening our postings would not have yielded better candidates for the short remaining time in this mandate. Lester B. Pearson School Board remains totally transparent in its dealing with our community. 

Suanne Stein Day

Chairman, LBPSB

Editor’s note: We stand by our reporter on specific details. Mr. Eustace was told to sit down without ever asking a question nor was there a response given when Mr. Eustace asked “Why?” Only when our reporter asked after the meeting about the ban was the information outlined in this letter proffered. The questions on radon were asked by The Suburban and not by Mr. Eustace.