OCDSB trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth vows not to resign in face of second code of conduct complaint

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth says she refuses to resign from her position, despite facing a second code of conduct complaint.

Trustees will vote on sanctions at a Tuesday meeting following recommendations from the board's integrity commissioner.

The complaints relate to Kaplan-Myrth's conduct before, during, and after a heated special board meeting on Sept. 11, 2023 in which she was facing a different code of conduct complaint relating to text messages she sent to a fellow trustee a year prior during a vote on mask mandates. Seven trustees voted in favour of declaring her actions a violation of the code of conduct, but four abstained, and the vote failed. Eight votes were needed for the motion to pass.

"Trustee Kaplan-Myrth's conduct and statements, in particular on social media, were intentional and deliberate and had a negative impact on those who were being criticized. These statements fuelled continuing public confusion over the credibility of management of the Board and resulted in the discrediting and compromising of the integrity of the Board and the fracturing and dysfunction of the Board," Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig wrote in a 185-page report coming before the board Tuesday.

The report also deals with complaints made against trustees Donna Blackburn and Donna Dickson, but Craig found neither of them had violated the code of conduct and therefore recommended no sanctions.

Craig is recommending the school board bar Kaplan-Myrth from attending the next board meeting and from attending any committees, including committee of the whole, for a length of time the board deems appropriate.

Speaking to CTV News Ottawa by phone Sunday, Kaplan-Myrth said such sanctions would be an "affront to democracy" if the board were to impose them.

"They would be removing the only Jew on the second largest school board in Ontario from speaking. They would be silencing the thousands of constituents who voted for me," she said. "I am not going to be muted. I am not going to be silenced."

Kaplan-Myrth has frequently been the target of hateful, antisemitic, misogynistic, and violent messages and threats for years, dating back to her COVID-19 vaccine and mask advocacy prior to becoming a school board trustee. The hateful messages have continued since her election. She has frequently shared them on social media as an example of what she is facing.

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"I will not resign. I will not give them, the people who have been sending me these threats since the day I decided to run, the satisfaction of resigning," she told CTV News Ottawa.

Kaplan-Myrth said she would not attend Tuesday's meeting in person out of fear for her personal safety.

The complaints

Craig's report focuses on Kaplan-Myrth's behaviour and comments during the public meeting on Sept. 11, during her interactions with media after that meeting, and on her own social media channels over a week in September both before and after that meeting.

During the Sept. 11 meeting, Kaplan-Myrth interrupted Trustee Donna Blackburn by saying, "you have had it out for me since day one," and accused Blackburn of racism for referring to her as a "white woman", which she said was an antisemitic comment that was dismissive of her Jewish heritage. Craig deemed the outburst to be a "personal and demeaning" statement that violates part of the code of conduct.

According to Craig's report, Kaplan-Myrth called her comment about Blackburn "accurate" and a "cri de coeur" and accused Blackburn and Trustee Donna Dickson of making personal attacks against her in media interviews.

"Trustee Kaplan-Myrth was distressed by being the subject of a Code investigation and the long period of time that it had taken to complete the review. However, the Code is a Board approved process," Craig wrote in her report.

"Trustee Kaplan-Myrth has expressed her belief that the Code and its procedure is being used to 'silence progressives', is a 'bloody waste of money, time and energy', and 'a vexatious trial'. Trustee Kaplan-Myrth was disrespectful and compromised the integrity of the Board during the meeting by blurting out allegations that Trustee Blackburn 'had it out for [her] since day one', by interrupting the Complainant to make an untimely objection that the Complaint was time barred, and by talking over the Chair who was calling the meeting to order. Her statement was personal and disparaging of a fellow Board Member."

Craig then found that Kaplan-Myrth "acted with disrespect and intimidation in her comments and behaviour after the Sept. 11 Special Meeting." Kaplan-Myrth had gone to a room where members of the media were waiting, pointed at two individuals in the media waiting room and at Blackburn and ordered them to get out. When Blackburn refused, Craig said Kaplan-Myrth blocked the door and, with a raised voice, demanded that Blackburn and all members of the media leave the room, except those journalists with whom she wished to speak.

At special in-camera meeting prior to the public meeting, to which Kaplan-Myrth was not invited, board chair Lyra Evans encouraged trustees not to speak to the media and to direct any requests for comment to the chair. Craig found, however, that despite not attending that meeting, Kaplan-Myrth's conduct after the board meeting "seemed at odds with her expressed goals of working together with all her trustee colleagues."

Speaking to CTV News Ottawa, Kaplan-Myrth denied this.

"As a politician, I have a right to speak to the media," she said. "What would they have me do?"

She also said that one of the people to whose presence she objected was a man who had been harassing her prior to the meeting.

Craig also wrote at length about Kaplan-Myrth's decision to enter the media room, which was not believed to be a "safe space" under her safety plan.

Craig noted that Kaplan-Myrth's apparent disregard for the safety plan was not the source of a code of conduct breach, but was still notable.

"Trustee Kaplan-Myrth may rightly believe that her movements should not be dictated by a requirement to adhere to a safety plan and the fact that she has been constrained to operate in this environment because of third party threats is unconscionable. However, not adhering to processes put in place to safeguard herself, her family and others at the Board facilities, is tantamount to dismissing the professional expertise of those who have been tasked with ensuring the safety of the Board facilities and those within them," Craig wrote.

"Not speaking to the media was not part of my safety plan," Kaplan-Myrth told CTV News Ottawa. "I was not at that meeting where it was said we shouldn't speak to the media. It's a very blame-the-victim kind of approach."

Finally, Craig said Kaplan-Myrth chose "a path of conduct that she knew or ought to reasonably have known would create an 'intimidating environment', which did not contribute to a respectful workplace and that she did not make every reasonable effort to resolve issues arising from friction, conflict or disagreement in a respectful and professional manner."

Craig cited Kaplan-Myrth's use of social media to criticize fellow trustees and the school board itself.

"Undoubtedly, Trustee Kaplan-Myrth has been the recipient of hurtful, hateful, and vile communications on social media from some known and some anonymous sources. However, the fact that some Trustees may disagree with Trustee Kaplan-Myrth on matters that come before the Board, should not result in her directing anger at her Trustee colleagues. Disagreeing with Trustee Kaplan-Myrth is not tantamount to causing her harm or encouraging others to do so," she said.

Craig describes a pattern of behaviour of escalating rudeness and insulting comments coupled with an unwillingness to admit wrongdoing.

"She demonstrates no desire to resolve issues taking offense to any comments in which someone disagrees with her comments or opinion. She engages in threats and intimidation rather than listening and attempting to understand an alternate viewpoint," the report says.

Some trustees and staff told Craig they hesitate to engage with Kaplan-Myrth because of what they described as her volatile personality.

"She's like a wounded bird but then she snaps at you," one person is quoted in the report as saying. Another said, "I want to wrap my arms around her and protect her but then she turns on me."

In a legal response to the draft report, Kaplan-Myrth's lawyer, Mark Freiman, claimed the report "has the effect of unfairly prejudicing the reader against Trustee Kaplan-Myrth based on matters that cannot be challenged or contextualized by Trustee Dr. Kaplan-Myrth and whose relevance cannot be demonstrated."

In a response in the report, Craig wrote that most of the facts that she reviewed were in print or in video recordings.

"There is probative value in reviewing how the Respondent reacts with others," Craig wrote.

"The OCDSB has a Code of Conduct in place that was duly deliberated to determine its contents and approved by vote of the Board. Publicly attacking the approved policy referring to it as a  'waste of money, time and energy' is a form of using one’s trustee voice, which is much louder than an ordinary citizen, to deride a document and policy approved by trustees to enhance good  governance and public trust."

Sanctions follow a 'dangerous pattern', Kaplan-Myrth says

Kaplan-Myrth claimed this latest code-of-conduct complaint follows a "dangerous pattern" of politically targeting school boards.

"We're seeing this in the U.S. They attack boards to take away progressive voices," she said.

"I didn't have to run for trustee. I don't want a career in politics. I'm not a career politician. The people who wanted me to run asked me to run because I speak so clearly on the issues," she said. "I continue to show up and I get bombarded with threats. Since I was elected, I did everything I said I would do. I've advocated for 2SLGBTQ rights, I've advocated for the environment, I've advocated for students with special needs, I've stood up to antisemitism."

In a thread on X, Kaplan-Myrth accused the OCDSB of having a "pattern on weaponization of the Code of Conduct process" and claimed the board's actions reflected "unchecked antisemitism."

"Imagine if any other member of an equity-seeking group whose identity was attacked was muted," she wrote. "If any other person had been told not to speak when subject to hate. If other OCDSB trustees objected, I could have remained silent. This is a reprisal for unmuting myself about Jew hate."

She included a sample of the extreme vitriol she said she's faced and has brought to the attention of school board staff and police.

Kaplan-Myrth has filed a human rights complaint against the OCDSB, alleging the board has failed to address her complaints about being subject to antisemitic treatment online and in-person, and claiming the board failed to view antisemitism as a serious issue requiring protection. Craig did not comment on this complaint, except to say Kaplan-Myrth is entitled to file one if she so chooses.

Craig, however, said it is apparent Kaplan-Myrth lacks confidence in the OCDSB to keep her safe, but her own actions are diminishing public confidence in the board.

"The confidence of the public in the institution itself requires that its decision-making process follow good governance principles. Very similar to corporate governance principles, courts have held that a Director of a Board or a Trustee member of a public school board 'is not entitled to prefer their personal interests over that of the corporation or school board'," Craig wrote. "Trustee Kaplan-Myrth's actions subject of this Complaint, is making the Board about herself and her issues rather than allowing the Board to focus on issues properly before it."