Chair Joe Ortona said he hopes the era in which members of the board “weaponize the ethics process as a way of intimidating their political adversaries” is over.
In two separate decisions issued earlier this summer, an ethics officer for the English Montreal School Board ruled that former commissioner Sylvia Lo Bianco and current commissioner Agostino Cannavino breached the board’s ethics code, and demanded public apologies from each of them.
In a decision rendered on June 27, EMSB ethics officer Vincent Guido imposed sanctions on Lo Bianco for breaching six sections of the board’s code of ethics, and disregarding established rules and procedures in her handling of a parent’s 2018 complaint regarding her child’s treatment at school. Guido ordered Lo Bianco to issue a public apology for her actions and that a reprimand be read at a public meeting of the commissioners.
In a decision rendered on Aug. 30, Guido imposed similar sanctions on Cannavino for “acting in bad faith” in filing an unsubstantiated complaint against EMSB chair Joe Ortona and for a series of violations of the EMSB’s code of ethics.
In the Lo Bianco case, the ethics officer ruled that she had “overstepped her duties, obligations, role and responsibilities, power and authority as a commissioner” in her handling of a parent’s complaint, which was essentially that the school and the school board had not provided required educational services and an “individualized education plan” to their child, who had a learning disability.
Instead of passing the complaint on to the EMSB director general or one of their assistants, who are responsible for the day-to-day management of the school board’s resources and activities, Lo Bianco intervened directly with the school principal and others.
Lo Bianco did not run for a position on the EMSB council of commissioners in the last school board election.
According to a source who asked to remain anonymous, the EMSB is seeking reimbursement of $187,000 from Lo Bianco for legal fees she racked up fighting the ethics charges.
The Gazette could not reach Lo Bianco for comment Monday.
In the second case, Cannavino had accused Ortona of a series of ethics violations dating back to 2023. Cannavino accused Ortona of redrawing the board’s electoral map in the spring of 2023 in a deliberate and bad-faith effort to disadvantage Cannavino, and of discrediting Cannavino in his role as an elected member of the council of commissioners and vice-chair of the board.
The ethics officer found Ortona had indeed mandated the board administration in the spring of 2023 to draw up a new electoral map, but this was mandatory, as board elections were approaching.
Ortona had raised concerns that in previous years, the EMSB electoral map had been drawn up by a committee that included elected commissioners, raising the possibility of political interference. Since the EMSB had been under trusteeship due to practices that were deemed inappropriate, Ortona and the director general made inquiries as to how other school boards and municipalities drew up electoral maps; they found the process was typically conducted by the administration without involvement from elected officials.
The ethics officer wrote that Cannavino had “failed to demonstrate, factually or legally, how exactly the alternate map proposed by the administration disadvantaged his electors or rendered his election more difficult.”
Cannavino had also alleged Ortona moved to have him replaced as a member of a school tax committee as retribution for opposing Ortona in another matter. Guido dismissed this complaint, saying Cannavino failed to prove Ortona had engaged in unethical conduct simply by adding an item to a meeting’s agenda or by voting in a certain way on that item.
The ethics officer also dismissed Cannavino’s allegation that Ortona had breached the code of ethics by supporting a motion that Cannavino’s remuneration for 2023-24 be reduced, along with that of the other commissioners. The EMSB council voted in favour of the pay reductions.
Finally, Cannavino alleged it was a breach of EMSB ethics when Ortona added to the Dec. 19, 2023 council meeting agenda a motion to remove Cannavino as vice-chair of the council of commissioners. Guido wrote: “I fail to see any abuse of power on the part of Mr. Ortona. On the contrary, the negativity and hostility demonstrated by the complainant … lasted several months and if anything, I commend Mr. Ortona and his fellow commissioners for having tolerated such behaviour for so many months.”
Guido also dismissed Cannavino’s submission that Ortona acted in bad faith, and instead concluded it was Cannavino who acted in bad faith. He concluded that Ortona did not breach the code of ethics, but that Cannavino had in several ways. He sanctioned Cannavino to make a public apology and ordered that a written reprimand be read at a public session of a meeting of the council of commissioners.
At the Sept. 10 meeting of the EMSB board, Cannavino refused to apologize and announced he would be filing for a judicial review of the decision. Reached on Monday by The Gazette, Cannavino declined to comment and noted he has 30 days from the decision to file his request for a judicial review and is in the process of doing so.
Speaking to The Gazette Monday afternoon, Ortona said he was very pleased with the decision “because justice was served.”
“The complaint was completely frivolous, the allegations were fabrications, and I am glad the commissioner did the analysis he needed to do and came to the appropriate conclusion,” Ortona said.
He said he hopes the era in which members of the board “weaponize the ethics process as a way of intimidating their political adversaries” is over.