Gazette Vaudreuil-Soulanges
Jul 2nd, 2014
Chairmanship candidate Eustace, who has been barred from asking questions at board council meetings for the past seven months, said yesterday that he fully endorses the ethics inquiry into the chairman and believes Stein Day should step down until “all this is cleared up.”
Eustace has been a vocal opponent of the chairman for several years and launched a similar ethics inquiry against Stein Day two years ago, the report of which has since been released.
He also claims that Stein Day, as a member the election readiness committee for the Quebec English School Board Association, has yet another conflict of interest when it comes to campaigning for the chairmanship over the next few months.
“Stein Day is a menace to democracy and her conduct in dealing with the public at meetings has been nothing short of a disgrace,” Eustace said in an email. “Even though the LBPSB minutes of the executive committee and regular council meetings list me as being present for the past seven months, I have not been allowed to ask one question at the public question periods.”
Vice-chair Angela Nolet was at the meeting last month when the inquiry request was made, and told the Gazette Vaudreuil-Soulanges that she and other members of the council feel this is the best move to make right now.
“If the complainants hadn’t made [a request] I think the council itself would have asked for one,” said Nolet. “I don’t know if we would have been authorized but we would have asked for something to happen, simply to put it behind everyone.”
Nolet is prepared for whatever answer the ethics commissioners comes up with, but hopes it will go in favour of the school board.
“I think the facts will override anything,” she commented. “They will look at what they have in documentation and if anyone comes up with their opinion they’ll have to look at that and that’s where the answer will evolve from.”
Stein Day inferred calls for a conflict-of-interest probe and her resignation are politically motivated. “Listen, there’s an election coming up and people like to stir up controversy,” she said. “Other than that, I can’t explain any of this.”
