The Esquimalt Nation was blindsided by the multiple versions of a school safety plan the Greater Victoria School Board filed this week and called the board’s handling of the controversy “incomprehensible.”
In a letter to Education Minister Lisa Beare released Thursday, the nation said that even four days after the release of all the board’s plans, the board still has not notified First Nations about all the alternate versions and what they mean.
“Continuing to work with a board that repeatedly dismisses the nations’ role as rights holders is unacceptable,” said the letter, signed by Esquimalt Nation education director Kalie Dyer, on behalf of Chief Jerome Thomas. “A safe relationship requires respect, transparency , accountability and trust.
“The board’s ongoing response undermines these elements, creating a dynamic that will continue to perpetuate a dysfunctional and harmful relationship.”
It’s the second time in five weeks the Indigenous government has vehemently objected publicly to the school board’s handling of controversy over its decision to bar local police departments’ efforts to make liaison officers routinely available in schools.
Thomas and Songhees Chief Ron Sam wrote to the board Dec. 2 saying the policy imposed last year curtailed the work of a well-thought-of Indigenous RCMP liaison officer and was imposed with no direct consultation. They said the board did not follow up on their earlier objections.
They said there was also no consultation when the board filed its first effort to comply with the education minister’s directive in November to produce a safety plan.
That effort was rejected and the minister ordered the board to try again, this time with a special adviser in place. That led to this week’s submission of three safety plans, with various approaches to the key issue of having police liaison officers in Greater Victoria schools.
The board accompanied the versions with a resolution disputing Beare’s jurisdiction to insist on a safety plan and warning it may go to court over the matter.
It also released a lengthy memo that outlined the scramble to comply with the Jan. 6 deadline imposed by the minister to either produce a satisfactory safety plan or be terminated.
Kevin Godden, a former superintendent of the Abbotsford School District, was appointed by the minister Dec. 5 to assist the board on its second attempt. He convened a working group on Dec. 17 when 19 people, including individuals from the Esquimalt, Songhees and Métis Nations and the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, met to work on the new plan.
The Esquimalt Nation’s letter said its representative stressed the need to consult and be transparent. At one point, a band councillor tearfully stated: “We’re being forgotten … please don’t forget us.”
The Esquimalt Nation’s representative could not attend the next meeting on Dec. 31, but trusted their input was understood. The nation was satisfied with the first version of the safety plan.
But this week they learned that the board had rejected that plan, ordered up two others that differed on the school police liaison officer issue and submitted all three to Beare without their knowledge.
The multiple versions were ordered by board chair Nicole Duncan, who asked for one version that included police liaison officers and one that did not. Last week, staff and Godden submitted another plan to the board, which trustees rejected.
Around that point, Godden stopped dealing with the board. After the plan was submitted, the board produced another version, before submitting all three to the minister this week.
To sum up, the board has now made four grudging attempts (including the rejected November one) to file a district-wide safety plan.
The trustees have maintained a suspicious, hostile stance to local police, even while maintaining the ludicrous view that they consider them “valued partners.”
They have discounted continual warnings about the need to get a grip on increased gang activity. They have ignored repeated pleas from youth workers that SPLOs could help ease growing threats and problems involving youth.
They have belittled the education minister’s concerns about youth safety, and refused “to concede that a standalone safety plan was necessary or justified,” or that the minister has the jurisdiction to proceed.
Now it is revealed that the incoherent farce they produced this week involved double-crossing Indigenous leaders who represent one of the key groups in the school system.
Various versions of the “safety plan” include a section on the importance of “relational work” with Indigenous groups.
“Protocols, laws, customs, and traditions of local first nations must be respected,” it states.
The main emphasis is on — guess what? — communication.
If this does get to the point of terminating the trustees, there are no officials who deserve it more.
In a statement, the school trustees said the Esquimalt Nation misunderstands the trustees’ position, and that the board participated in good faith in talks with the nation.
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