Trial by Trustees: The “wokeplace” mobbing of Trustee Linda Stone

The DDSB is yet another school board that appears to have been overthrown by the anti-west radical left

The Durham District School Board

By

James Pew

If you ask questions, or express disagreement with any of the tenets of social justice, you will be accused of bigotry and of causing harm. If you have an employment contract, or a workplace code of conduct, you will be accused of breaching it. You will be investigated and put through a trial-like procedure. Attempts to humiliate you will be intense and deliberate. All of it will be public. It doesn’t matter if you are in the right, or if you made an honest mistake, when the woke catalyze this process, you will be ruined.

If you are a trustee, and you ask about the number of genders teachers are required to know, or about the term “white supremacy,”-  like Trustee Linda Stone did when she explained to an Ontario school board that it was derogatory - you will be accused of denying the “right to exist” of historically marginalized communities.

A Tweet from Linda Stone that was used by the woke mob to have her removed from board meetings and committees for the remainder of 2023

In Linda’s case an investigation into her conduct was sparked by complaints that came from three other trustees. Trustees who later voted to have her removed. Which begs the question, how is a trustee initiated investigation, and then a “trial by trustee” process, in any way democratic? Linda Stone was elected by parents and citizens. None of whom complained about her. Only woke trustees did, and through bureaucratic procedures and what appears to be an ideologically captured board, had Linda removed for the remainder of the year.

Woke trustees are a very specific breed of awful, their terribleness manifests in the belief that their virtue - as encoded in the academic Theories of woke ideology - is unanswerable, is superior to any other idea or principle - especially the traditional ones held by the working class.

Since working class Canadians who do not agree with woke social justice activists are unfairly called bigots, oppressors, white supremacists, racists, transphobes, and more, it is reasonable to bring this up at school board meetings. It is reasonable to point out that these derogatory terms are connected to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Anti-Racism; Decolonization; and many other recent social justice initiatives, programs, ideologies, and principles, that have nothing to do with the thing parents want most from schools: academics.

Another Tweet from Linda Stone used against her by the woke mob

It is reasonable to notice the obsession and emphasis on social justice and equity at the expense of core academics. It is reasonable to challenge the board, and their use of divisive terms. It is reasonable to mention that Canadian students are under-achieving academically, while at the same time the social justice movement seems to be doing things that no parent in a million years would ask for. This is not democracy, and it is reasonable to point that out.

It was reasonable for Trustee Linda Stone to have brought forward the concerns of parents, to have asked questions and made relevant comments in board meetings and on social media concerning topics many people were engaging in. It is implied in a healthy democracy that an elected trustee would be reflective and communicative in this way with board members, teachers, parents and the public. But the DDSB appears captured by ideologues who deal ruthlessly with dissenters, and would not tolerate Linda’s probing.

Another Tweet from Linda Stone used against her by the woke mob

On February 6th, trustees at the Durham District School Board (DDSB)  unanimously determined that Trustee Stone breached the board’s code of conduct on six occasions. If ever the reader needed an example of what totalitarianism might look like, just describe a school board with 10 trustees who vote unanimously against an 11th, on six different issues. If we do the math (10x6=60), out of 60 possible outcomes, all of them were in the same direction. 10 out of 10 voting trustees voted exactly the same way six times. Even the two non-binding student trustees voted in line unanimously. Not a challenger or dissenting voice in sight. This does not imply a perfect score, this is an alarming indication of totalitarianism.

Below is the Feb 6th Meeting of the Totalitarians at DDSB:

This was not the first time the authoritarian tendencies of the DDSB were on public display. Last year, as the board was preparing to update its human rights policy, Trustee  Paul Crawford took issue with the policy's use of the term “white supremacy.”

“It goes against much of the document when we’re talking about not centering out groups, or saying things about groups that could put them in a bad light...a term that should not be used as an insult to a large group because of the abhorrent actions of a small minority group, such as the KKK.” -Trustee Paul Crawford

The DDSB defines white supremacy as  “a racist ideology based on the belief that white identity is the norm, standard and ideal.” But how do they even know this so-called belief that white identity is the norm, standard, or ideal, even exists? And at what quantity? And secondly, since it seems only the countries with white majorities are labeled white supremacies, is it not obvious that what they call a supremacy, is really just a majority?

Further, can we not forgive someone who lives in a white majority for thinking the norm is white identity? Is it so evil to notice that white people, who are indeed in the greatest numbers in North America, and  the cultures/identities associated with their various sub-ethnicities, will be seen as the norm? Just like in any African country, where black ethnicities are dominant. Are Africans considered black supremacists? Is black identity not the norm, standard, an ideal in Africa?

The board voted in June of last year and found Paul Crawford to be guilty on three accounts of breaking the code of conduct - again, for his questioning of the derogatory term “white supremacy.” A term that, if Canadians were permitted a say, perhaps in a referendum, they would assuredly have it prohibited (especially as it has come to be defined by Canadian school boards like the DDSB). 

Both Linda Stone and Paul Crawford resigned in 2022 as a result of the unfair allegations made against them. This amounted to a total of six DDSB trustees all resigning within the same term. What the hell is going on at the DDSB? Linda’s resignation last year effectively ended the investigation against her, however when she was re-elected in October, the DDSB re-opened the previous years investigation, then unilaterally decided that the democratically elected Trustee must be removed for the rest of the year. 

Has the DDSB been colonized by the woke? Was pushing out Linda Stone the final step in the completion of a mini totalitarian regime? We would have a better sense of how woke this board is, had it set up its voting protocol differently.  This comes from an idea I first encountered in Charles Pincourt’ s book, Counter Wokecraft. I explained it best on Twitter in the following 3-part thread:

1/ The secret ballot is important to ensure a pure democratic process. Woke School boards want all trustees to vote out in the open, meaning no secret ballot voting on motions in school board meetings.

2/ It is done this way to silence those who would dissent, if the ballot were secret, but go along since it’s not. Not wanting their colleagues to know they might hold unpopular views, they falsify their preferences, and the woke know it.

3/ Non-woke trustees should demand all decisions be made by secret ballot voting during meetings.

If you review the video from the February 6th DDSB meeting (above), you will notice that the procedure followed by the board concerning how trustees voted on the six motions, was not by secret ballot. The board was very intentional in making public the votes of each trustee. This is no accident.

When I looked at the faces of the various trustees as they voted to ostracize Linda, I was quite certain in many cases that I saw the signature radiance of woke smugness, but in some cases I wasn’t so sure. Again, this begs the question, would all trustees have voted unanimously on all motions every single time had the ballot been made secret?

The six occasions where Linda Stone was said to have breached the board's code of conduct are detailed in the report concerning the investigation conducted by the highly Orwellian “Integrity Commissioner,” who appears to have found that Linda, and by extension the majority of parents who agree with her, have no integrity. This farce of an investigation claims that Linda’s innocuous and open minded comments, which reflected the concerns of many parents, were somehow in breach of the woke orthodoxy. My guess is the Integrity Commissioner is just as woke as the board, and the trustees who complained, likely knew this. The reader can dive into all 55-pages of this maddening woke managerialism and decide for themselves if the Integrity Commissioner's findings pass muster.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll leave it at that for today. But I am not finished with the DDSB, not by a long shot. I will soon have more details about Linda Stone and the insufferably woke school board that undemocratically pushed her out. Stay tuned.

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Thanks for reading. For more education analysis from this author read - Ed symposium insists on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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