At the heart of all challenges to societal oppressions lies a simple question: whose voices and perspectives do we focus on?The human rights case between the Peel District School Board’s anti-discrimination leader and the board along with its director of education Peter Joshua provides a microscopic view of that key issue. In a response obtained by the Star from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the board and Joshua denied all allegations brought forward in March by Poleen Grewal, its associate director of instructional services and equity support services, including racism, harassment and creation of a poisonous work environment.According to the response which was filed in May, the issue boiled down to a clash of leadership styles between Grewal who brought the complaint and Joshua, Peel board’s director of education who was named as a defendant along with the board. The board called the allegations against Joshua “at best misguided and for the most part, extremely unfair.” In her documented reply to that response, Grewal maintained all allegations.None of the allegations have been proven. No mediation or hearing dates have been scheduled, the tribunal said. However, a high-profile anti-Black racism researcher named in the case found part of the board’s response that was put to him by the Star offensive.York University professor Carl James, whose authorship of several studies has helped to quantify race-based discrimination in education in Ontario, was retained on contract by the Peel board to lead research around Black student perspectives. When he submitted a draft report, the Peel board was in the midst of a public controversy on its instructions that books such as To Kill A Mockingbird be taught with an anti-oppressional lens. In his report, which James says was shared with Grewal before she went on medical leave related to the allegations, he asked the board to reconsider whether that text should be continued to be taught ...
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