{"id":10506,"date":"2025-06-18T23:57:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T03:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10506"},"modified":"2025-06-18T23:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T03:57:39","slug":"ancaster-parent-suspended-from-hamilton-school-council-for-objecting-to-cringing-land-acknowledgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10506","title":{"rendered":"Ancaster Parent Suspended from Hamilton School Council for Objecting to Cringing Land Acknowledgement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Ancaster Parent Suspended from Hamilton School Council for Objecting to Cringing Land Acknowledgement<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Legal warning sent to Ontario school board for suspending elected school council member<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HAMILTON, ON:<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jccf.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms<\/a> announces that a legal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jccf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Kronas-Catherine-Response-to-May-22-2025-Correspondence-Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warning letter<\/a> has been sent to the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board&nbsp;after it suspended a parent from her role on the School Council for respectfully objecting to land acknowledgements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Catherine Kronas, a concerned parent with a child enrolled at Ancaster High Secondary School, was re-elected to serve on School Council in October 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a Council meeting on April 9, 2025, Ms. Kronas asked that her <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CatherineKronas\/status\/1912520881319932256\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">respectful objection<\/a> to land acknowledgements be noted in the minutes. No disruption occurred; her comments were limited to requesting that her dissenting viewpoint be recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On May 22, 2025, however, the School Board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jccf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Communication-May-22-2025-Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">informed<\/a> Ms. Kronas that her involvement on the Council was being \u201cpaused\u201d based on allegations that she had caused harm and had violated a Code of Conduct Policy. She has not been permitted to attend the next scheduled meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Kronas was unsettled by the Board\u2019s decision, saying, \u201cI was taken aback by the Board\u2019s decision to suspend me from the School Council after delivering a respectful objection, especially given assurances made at a previous council meeting and outlined in the Council bylaws that open dialogue and diverse perspectives are welcomed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy barring me from the next meeting, the Council sends a troubling message to all parents: that even respectful disagreement may be met not with dialogue, but with disciplinary action. I am grateful to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms for assisting me in this matter,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir said Ms. Kronas\u2019 comments \u201cwere a reasonable and measured expression of a viewpoint held by many Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Board\u2019s 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,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Kheir is calling for Ms. Kronas to be immediately reinstated to the Council and to be allowed to fulfill her elected role without further retaliation for expressing her views<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CATHERINE-KRONAS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"415\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CATHERINE-KRONAS.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CATHERINE-KRONAS.jpg 415w, https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CATHERINE-KRONAS-249x300.jpg 249w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ancaster Parent Suspended from Hamilton School Council for Objecting to Cringing Land Acknowledgement Legal warning sent to Ontario school board for suspending elected school council member HAMILTON, ON: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a legal warning letter &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10506\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5934,5935,5936,1213,5937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10508,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506\/revisions\/10508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}