The person in charge of Peel District School Board’s anti-discrimination work has taken the board and its director of education to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario accusing them of racism, harassment and of “silencing and diminishing” her work while not dealing with anti-Black racism in schools.

Poleen Grewal, the only Sikh woman of South Asian ancestry to hold an associate director position in an Ontario school board, said in her complaint that she went on a seven-month medical leave after the board left her in the lurch following media criticism over her stance on teaching “To Kill A Mocking Bird,” and as a result of “targeted behaviour” toward her by director of education Peter Joshua.

Her complaint, in which she said the board infringed on her “right to be free from discrimination and harassment,” and created “a poisonous work environment,” listed at least seven instances of how, she said, her attempts to raise issues of racism and implement anti-racism steps were thwarted in the past two years.

“It is not our board’s practice to make comments or share information about personal or private matters about any of our employees,” Joshua said by email on Tuesday.

None of the allegations have been proven. Neither the Peel board nor Grewal’s lawyer Andrew Pinto would confirm to the Star if the board has responded to the complaint, or if the tribunal will hear it. As of press time, the Star was unable to reach a spokesperson for the tribunal.

The application, filed in March, was first mentioned publicly at a heated Peel school board meeting on Oct. 22, when a community member asked the board about it. “We cannot comment on that,” trustee Brad MacDonald responded. “This person has put a claim through the Human Rights Tribunal. It will get resolved by the Human Rights Tribunal, they will investigate it. It’s out of our hands.”

Grewal, who has been associate director of instructional and equity support services since August 2017, is seeking a written apology from Joshua and a $20,000 donation by the board to community organizations that support Black youth membership. Other monetary redress requested includes covering her legal fees and reimbursement for psychological services.

“Ms. Grewal is not prepared to comment at this time,” her lawyer Pinto said by email Tuesday.

One instance Grewal alleged in her complaint was the interviewing of candidates for a supervisory officer position at the board in the fall of 2017. There were two South Asian candidates, whom Grewal had supervised previously. Grewal recused herself from one, she said, because she was friends with the candidate. But she said Joshua removed her from the entire process and pressured her to fill out a conflict of interest form.

This, she said, reinforced the stereotype that racialized people face, in this case that South Asians are a homogenous group and all are related to each other. “Joshua’s handling of the matter undermined my professional responsibility,” she wrote in her complaint. “Also intersecting with his handling of the matter was the implied ‘doubt’ regarding my personal integrity as a South Asian woman.”

In another incident, she alleged in her human rights complaint, that in May 2018 the communications department posted a photo of the senior leadership team on social media. Grewal objected to the lack of inclusivity in the picture, specifically the absence of four racialized women including Grewal and three Black women. “Joshua did not address my concerns yet approved a white male superintendent to be photoshopped into the picture.”

She alleged there were other instances around lack of equity in hiring and promotional practices, said the board stereotyped Grewal raising’s issues of equity as a person of colour having an axe to grind and that it did not have a strategic plan to deal with Islamophobia in Peel schools.

According to the complaint, matters came to a head when Grewal sent an instructional memo to school principals in June 2018 asking them to teach books such as “To Kill A Mockingbird” from an anti-oppressional perspective. This was played out in the media as controversial, the complaint said, citing coverage in the National Post and the Toronto Star.

Grewal said in her complaint that while her memo to principals was vetted and approved by the Peel board, the board remained silent when she was named and derided publicly.

The complaint alleged there was an instance when Joshua admonished her for asking why the board had not publicly supported her, another when he did not quash “scurrilous rumours” that she was drunk at a meeting and called senior staff racist, or rumours that she was not in the office because she was being penalized for her stance around “To Kill A Mocking Bird.”

“The lack of public response from PDSB,” wrote Grewal in reference to the Peel board, “became amplified within my team and exacerbated by Joshua’s dismissive attitude.

“He failed to appreciate the impact on the Black community that I work closely with.”

The board’s public meetings have turned into a showdown between the board and Black and brown community members. As I wrote previously, a racist remark by a trustee that went unaddressed by the board went on to expose systemic issues with anti-Black racism.

Since the public board meetings began, at least seven Peel staff of different backgrounds have called this journalist to share their experiences at the board.

A white school board staffer accused Joshua of not taking anti-Black racism seriously. She said that in at least one instance, “He goes to the We Rise Together community meetings, comes back, laughs and mocks them.”

“I’m very disturbed. Several colleagues are wondering if we should be retiring when there is so much wrong with the board. Everything is being undone, for what?”

Joshua denied this. “I unequivocally reject the suggestion that I was anything but respectful and supportive of the board's anti-Black racism work,” he said in an email. “I have always worked to develop strong, positive working relationships with the We Rise Together Community Advisory Committee members and others supporting this initiative in the Peel District School Board community.”

The Peel school board’s handling of anti-Black racism has come into focus in the past weeks after a trustee referred to McCrimmon Middle school, a school with predominantly Black and brown children, as “McCriminal.” When it appeared the board did not address this internally, the Black community began protesting at the board’s public meetings. Trustee Will Davies apologized after a report of the meeting appeared in the Star.

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After the Oct. 10 meeting where the board refused to allow the Black community to make presentations over a technicality, three trustees of colour who objected, citing board rules that would allow the presentations, said they were being investigated by the board’s integrity commissioner.

The meetings showed that the trustees themselves had only received half a day’s anti-racism training, the chair of the meetings was unable to define the term anti-Black racism when asked to in the first meeting, and was unable to agree that the “McCriminal” remark could be deemed racist.

On Wednesday, the Peel board released a statement on the McCrimmon issue. “What we have learned, and what we know now, is that not issuing a statement resulted in members of our community, especially members of the Black community, feeling unsupported and abandoned ... We recognize the severity of the hurt and harm that this reference has caused for members of the Black community.”