This is a complicated one with a lot of moving parts. CHEK and Black have attempted to summarize a portion of it:
A member of the Greater Victoria School District’s (SD61) Indigenous Ad Hoc Committee has resigned from his role in an open letter to the district, citing “a pattern of systemic racism” and “deeply entrenched paternalistic attitudes.”
Carey Newman says recent actions by the district during its budget talks – namely, limiting Indigenous representation during a meeting, and using discriminatory language within its survey and presentation slides – were the final straws, but that the problems started earlier.
https://www.vicnews....lls-for-change/
One incident Newman remembers happened March 1, where Education Policy Committee Chair Ryan Painter cited a bylaw to remove Esquimalt and Songhees Nation representatives.
“Our bylaws are pretty specific around representation at the table,” said Painter in a publically available zoom meeting. “We stick by those pretty strongly and those are typically a member from each nation may be represented at the table.”
The last straw for Newman came in a meeting over SD61’s budget.
https://www.cheknews...-change-798401/
Indigenous reps have some legitimate beefs--it looked like they were being made the scapegoat in a music vs. Indigenous education budget bunfight.
Here's the video of the March 1 meeting in question. Ffwd to 11:05.
https://youtu.be/2buyaGbsu2A?t=665
This is a sticky situation because normally a school board meeting is open for public viewing. But in this era of Zoom the line between board and audience is blurred and when several people pop up unannounced Chair Painter cites Robert's Rules and tries to claim it's an invitation-only meeting. The meeting starts to fall apart and Painter can't get control and it's abandoned before they can even approve an agenda.