Ancaster School Council member reinstated after suspension for objecting to land acknowledgements

John BestJuly 19, 20252 Mins read

Catherine Kronas, member of Ancaster Secondary School Council

The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board has reinstated a member of the School Council of Ancaster Secondary School after suspending her for publicly objecting to the routine reading of an Indigenous Land acknowledgement at a school council meeting in April. At the meeting Catherine Kronas registered her complaint and requested that her objection be noted in the minutes of the meeting.

In a letter this week reinstating Kronas, Yohana Otite, Human Rights and Equity Advisor · Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, described the events following Kronas’ objection at the April Meeting writing, “The Board received allegations of hate and harm from parents and community members concerning your conduct. As a result, HWDSB’s Human Rights Office conducted a threshold assessment.” Adding “while the board reviewed the concerns the interim measure to pause your engagement with the school council (our emphasis) was taken to prevent further harm…”

In reinstating Kronas, Otite wrote, “the threshold assessment indicates your conduct does not amount to a Code of Conduct or Human Rights Policy Violation, however, the parents and community members who brought forward their concerns shared that they have experienced significant harm, which continues to create a concern around the school council climate.”

The Kronas suspension received no local coverage but was the subject of an article in the National Post. Kronas appealed for assistance from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms which issued a legal warning letter to the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board over its suspension of Ms. Kronas. Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir stated that Ms. Kronas’ comments “were a reasonable and measured expression of a viewpoint held by many Canadians. “The Board’s decision to suspend her from the Council, which she has a right to sit on as an elected parent member, is an act of censorship that offends the right to freedom of expression,” explained Mr. Kheir. The Justice Centre is called for Kronas to be immediately reinstated and permitted to fulfill her elected duties without further retaliation for expressing her views. In the letter to the Hamilton Board the lawyers wrote:

The following information, which is necessary for Ms. Kronas to understand the allegation against her, is missing: Who made the complaint? Who experienced the harm allegedly caused by Ms. Kronas? What is the nature of the harm allegedly experienced? What did Ms. Kronas say or do that is alleged to have caused the harm? How did Ms. Kronas’ comment cause the alleged harm? Which provisions of the HWDSB Code of Conduct or Provincial Code of Conduct are alleged to have been breached by Ms. Kronas?

Kronas, who ran for the Board of Education in Ward 15 in 2022, was then described as an “anti-woke” candidate in a media profile for her objection to the HWDSB board’s DEI policies and its policies around gender. She told the Ancaster News the board should teach students to treat people equally regardless of skin colour or other factors, rather than seek equity’s “equality of outcomes among groups.” In the article she continued, “This comes down to the ideological basis. Are we living in a liberal society or are we living in a Marxist society?…I’m being called hateful, we’re being called racist, just for pushing back on some of these ideas.” In the election she finished second in the Ward 15 trustee race, but garnered 41 percent of the vote.