Me Martin,
We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 12, 2014. Please be advised that we are mandated to represent Mrs. Stein Day, Chairman of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, in the present matter.
As you are probably aware, as Chairman of the Board, it is Mrs. Stein Day’s responsibility to preside over Council meetings and to ensure order, peace and decorum at said meetings.
Your client, Mr. Eustace, is not permitted to participate in the public question periods because of the numerous inappropriate comments and actions, and false allegations he has made at public question periods in the past. This is not the first time that your client has lost the privilege of asking questions in public meetings: he lost that privilege in similar circumstances under Chairman M. Tabachnick. in April 2011, Mrs. Stein Day allowed Mr. Eustace the privilege of asking questions but, unfortunately, Mr. Eustace did not use that second chance appropriately.
Mr. Eustace must understand that Public Question period is not a forum for a speech or a statement of opinion or a debate. Mrs. Stein Day is willing to consider granting Mr. Eustace permission to regain this privilege under the following strict conditions:
- For each period question, he will be allowed a total time of 3 minutes for questions and answers;
- Questions must be related to Lester B. Pearson School Board activities. Questions related to
other school boards or organizations will not be answered; - Questions must be clear and concise, without personal editorial either preceding or following
the question; - Respectful and appropriate language must be used at all times;
- This allocated time must not be used as a forum for personal attacks;
- Comments that defame the School Board or its representatives will not be tolerated;
- False allegations or presentation of misleading information will not be tolerated ;
- Questions at the second Question Period, will be limited to the topics appearing on the agenda
of that meeting; - Questions must fall within the mandate of the committee being addressed (i.e. no questions at
Executive Council meeting regarding matters that fall under Council of Commissioners’
mandate).
it is only with both the full commitment in writing from your client, accepting all of the above
conditions, and a meeting with your client, that Mrs. Stein Day would permit Mr. Eustace to participate
again in the Public Question period.
Regards,
Me Francois Hamel
Comment
When asked for one example from the “numerous inappropriate comments and actions, and false allegations,” SSD does not say. Her predecessor, Marcus Tabachnick, used to say “I’ll take it under advisement.” Both pretend there is something there, but there isn’t.
The conditions and restrictions above are to camouflage the many conflicts of interest of Chairperson Stein Day. SSD is a director of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) ; and a member of the QESBA Elections Committee ; member of the School Tax Committee, and a (former) director of the QFHSA. All come with privileges that the taxpaying public supports, which I want to do something about , if I were elected chair.
But that will be very difficult considering, it has been reported that SSD is running for chair, yet she is on a committee overseeing the elections, and, recently, Mr. Tabachnick was given the job of Executive Director of QESBA .
Author Upton Sinclair said it best:
” It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
