Canadian school board suspends parent for opposing Indigenous land claims

by Anthony Murdoch

Catherine Kronas, re-elected to the school council in October 2024, was told she violated the conduct code and was banned from the next meeting.

(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian school board has been legally warned for suspending a parent from a local school council after she respectfully objected to going along with Indigenous land acknowledgments.

On April 9, Catherine Kronas, who is a concerned parent with a child enrolled at Ancaster High Secondary School in Ancaster, Ontario, was told that her objection to land acknowledgments would be noted in the official school minutes. Kronas was re-elected to serve on her school council in October 2024.

There was no drama or disruption at the meeting. Kronas simply requested that her viewpoint be noted.

On May 22, the school board informed Kronas that her being on the school council was “paused” due to her allegedly violating a code of conduct policy. She has now been banned from attending the school council’s next meeting.

As a result, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said it sent a legal warning letter to the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board as a result of suspending Kronas from her school council role.

Kronas was not happy with the decision, saying, “I was taken aback by the Board’s decision to suspend me from the School Council after delivering a respectful objection, especially given assurances made at a previous council meeting and outlined in the Council bylaws that open dialogue and diverse perspectives are welcomed.”

“By barring me from the next meeting, the Council sends a troubling message to all parents: that even respectful disagreement may be met not with dialogue, but with disciplinary action. I am grateful to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms for assisting me in this matter,” she noted.

JCCF attorney Hatim Kheir noted that Krona’s comments objecting to land acknowledgments “were a reasonable and measured expression of a viewpoint held by many Canadians.”

“The Board’s decision to suspend her from the Council, which she has a right to sit on as an elected parent member, is an act of censorship that offends the right to freedom of expression,” he clarified.