Gazette Vaudreuil-Soulanges
June 4, 2014
At the May 26, 2014, Lester B. Pearson School Board Council of Commissioners Meeting, Chairperson Suanne Stein Day (SSD) assigned a commissioner to be the timekeeper of one of the new rules regarding the Public Question Period.
You may recall the new rules, which were implemented at the November 2013 Council meeting, called for a reduction in time of the Question Period, and the reduction of time for the tax paying public to speak.
Anyway, the official commissioner-timekeeper took his new job very seriously. At that Monday meeting, a lady was reminded by him that she had used up 2.5 minutes and only had 30 seconds remaining. Chairperson SSD reinforced: “30 seconds left!”
The speaker was talking about very important fundamental matters, including the dismantling of a Governing Board.
In my internet research, I could not find any school board that uses a timekeeper to limit a speaker , nor could I find any board that has barred, for over six months, a member of the public to speak at Question Period.
In practising democracy, unnecessary time reduction for the public to speak, is never a good idea.
Chris Eustace
