A Peel school board trustee under fire for what many are calling a racist comment did not contravene the school board code of conduct, the board’s integrity commissioner has found.

Trustee Will Davies’ reference to McCrimmon Middle School, a school with predominantly Black and brown children, in Brampton as “McCriminal” does not amount to unprofessional conduct or an act of racism, Sandhya Kohli wrote in her 30-page report released to the public Friday.

According to the report Davies didn’t even say “McCriminal,” he said “McCrimmonal.”

“It’s a pun, not a moniker, and thus does not have an attachment to a particular student profile,” Kohli wrote. “He spoke of his own children, described them as ‘McCrimmonals’ who attended ‘McCrimmonal’.”

“The term “McCrimmonal” and not “McCriminal” ... is applied as a humourous slang term,” she wrote, repeatedly describing Davies as a “jovial” character.

That was not the spelling Davies himself used when he referred to his own comment in an email to the Star.

On Oct. 10, Davies wrote to my colleague: “I acknowledge that I did refer to the school my own children previously attended as McCriminal. This is a nickname that has been used to refer to the school over the years, and, although I never intended it as a racist comment, I have learned that the reference could be perceived as not only offensive, but racist.”

The “McCriminal” comment was made to two senior board staff in June, not in April as the Star reported, the report said.

The Star’s identification of the month was based on a trustee’s recollection and the record stands corrected.

Based on public statements of students and parents of students who went to the school, the school has been frequently called McCriminal. None of them saw it as a pun. In giving context to why such a comment could be hurtful, they spoke about it being another slight in a host of anti-Black racism experiences they had in Peel schools.

Their sharing of experiences and the board’s response has led to acrimonious public meetings that have revealed fissures not only between the community and board, but within the board, itself.

The Star also revealed that the associate director of equity, the board’s highest-ranking anti-discrimination staffer, herself, has taken the board and its director to the Human Rights Tribunal alleging racism, harassment and the creation of a poisonous work environment. The board denies the allegations.

Last week, the Ministry of Education launched a review of the board and its leadership over allegations of anti-Black racism.

Following this announcement, the board cancelled its scheduled meeting for Wednesday night. But a few dozen people braved bad weather to turn up in protest, saying they were being shut out. At least three trustees also showed up in support of the community.

That evening a Brampton community activist said the board of trustees chair Stan Cameron, the director of the board, Peter Joshua, and Kohli needed to vacate their positions.

“They have not demonstrated they’ve done their job,” Idris Orughu said.

“That an issue that should have been dealt with a straight apology is allowed to fester to this level is a failure. It should not be taking four or five months to get to a solution.”

Unbeknownst to the gathered public, the board had just received the commissioner’s report on the “McCriminal” issue.

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Less than 12 hours after the protest meeting dispersed, Cameron invited the trustees to a “supplementary meeting” on Tuesday.

This begged a few questions: could the cancelled meeting not have been reinstated especially as the report was directly of interest to those community members?

If the Wednesday meeting was cancelled because of the Ministry review, what had changed that now allowed for this supplementary meeting? Would they be taking public questions at the supplementary meeting?

Was the board trying to avoid Black and brown community members?

I put these questions to Cameron, the trustees’ chair. The report was received the night of the cancelled meeting and it could not have been reinstated on such short notice, he said. The meeting was cancelled, not just due to the review, he said, but also because there was no quorum. (The board’s public statement did not say that.) Tuesday’s supplementary meeting would be open to the public and the board would be taking questions, Cameron said.

Coco LaRain Veira, a youth advocate and motivational speaker who has been working with the board, was also present Wednesday night as a member of the public. Her son Jordan died in June after an asthma attack. Jordan went to McCrimmon in his youth and Veira said he was involved with anti-Black racism initiatives at the board, but was frustrated by his experiences.

At the Oct. 10 public meeting where the “McCriminal” remark was discussed, Veira injected a tone of faultless civility into the proceedings, starting with “thank you for allowing the questions.”

Her request was clear: “I’d really love if we could put aside the anger and the shame out of the conversation and come together as a community, and, as very respected trustees, and say what are we challenged with, how have we dropped the ball.”

Joshua, the director of education, had responded positively and called it “a very viable suggestion.”

“We want to start that conversation quickly about how we can mobilize and have that type of session. That’s going to be a very important opportunity and it was a wonderful suggestion to do more than just talk but to look for more viable action,” he said.

On Wednesday, Viera said she had given her contact information to the board in October. They still hadn’t reached out to her, she said.

“It wasn’t easy for me to talk about my son. I was willing to put myself on the line here. To me, their show of compassion looked like lip service.”