On Tuesday, 26 May at 6 pm, Ontario’s Education Minister Paul Calandra is ordering the trustees of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB), Canada’s second-largest Catholic board, into a special meeting with one purpose: to reverse their own 9-1 vote keeping ideological flags off Catholic school flagpoles.
You read that correctly. Trustees you elected are being marched back to overturn a decision they already made twice.
Here’s what happened.
On 27 June 2025, Minister Calandra seized control of the DPCDSB and stripped all 11 elected trustees of their powers overnight. He installed Rick Byers, a provincial supervisor, in their place.
But buried in the Ministry’s own supervision order is a clause that matters: Byers can make every decision normally made by trustees, except on “denominational matters.”
In plain English, the flag policy at a Catholic school is exactly that. It can only be decided by the elected Catholic trustees you and your fellow voters chose. Not by an unelected supervisor. Not by Queen’s Park. And certainly not by a politically driven teachers’ union.
Cardinal Frank Leo, Archbishop of Toronto, has been clear: Catholic schools must not borrow symbols “from ideological fora, promoted by lobby groups and endorsed by political movements.”
The trustees agreed. They voted 9-1 to keep school flagpoles neutral, with only the Canadian, Ontario, and municipal flags. A clear, common-sense policy.
You would think a 9-1 vote would settle the matter.
But the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) cannot accept losing. For months, this unelected, unaccountable union has lobbied to overturn the policy, just in time for Pride month. And Minister Calandra has bent to the pressure.
This fight is bigger than one flag.
It is about whether elected Catholic trustees can govern Catholic schools, or whether a teachers’ union with a political agenda can dictate to your children’s schools through a captive Minister.
It is also about a positive trend you helped start. After Dufferin-Peel passed its neutral flag policy, other boards followed. Now the entire province of Alberta is moving in the same direction, removing politics and ideology from classrooms so kids can focus on real learning.
That trend is exactly what OECTA and Minister Calandra want to crush on Tuesday.
If they succeed at Dufferin-Peel, every other Catholic board in Ontario will hear the message loud and clear: resist the union and the Minister will come for you too.
That is why I need you to act today.
This is one of those rare moments where a few thousand signatures, delivered before Tuesday at 6 pm, can give your trustees the backbone they need to hold the line.
They are facing enormous pressure from OECTA. They need to know parents, parishioners, and Catholic voters across Ontario are standing behind them.
Your name on the petition is exactly that signal.
With determination,
Gregory Tomchyshyn and the CitizenGO team
P.S. Minister Calandra’s own supervision order protects “denominational matters” for Catholic trustees. The flag policy is exactly that. Tuesday’s meeting is a test of whether elected Catholic voices still matter at DPCDSB.
Add your name now and demand DPCDSB trustees keep the neutral flag policy in place.
More information:
The DPCDSB is under pressure to change its flag policy again
Alberta government says new bill intended to remove politics, ideology from schools | CBC News
Previous CitizenGO campaign to stop Education Minister Paul Calandra’s power grab over school boards
Last year’s CitizenGO petition defending the DPCDSB’s flag policy
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