The Niagara Catholic District College Board (NCDSB) has discovered the trustee who in contrast the Delight flag to the Nazi flag violated the board’s code of conduct.
Because of this, the trustee, Natalia Benoit, has been censured, relieved of her duties and barred from attending all conferences till June 30, the board mentioned in a media launch this week.
She’s going to nonetheless obtain her $10,470 trustee honorarium, the board confirmed to CBC Hamilton.
Benoit, who has denied making a direct comparability of the flags, has at the least 14 days to attraction, the board mentioned.
CBC Hamilton contacted Benoit however did not instantly hear again from her. She has been on go away from her position since September.
“Whereas I’m sorry that we needed to undergo this course of, I imagine we made the proper determination,” Chair Danny Di Lorenzo mentioned within the media launch.
Video confirmed trustee making comparability
A video posted to YouTube in Might 2023 by Peter Taras, a former Ontario candidate for the Individuals’s Get together of Canada, confirmed Benoit saying she did not need the varsity board to fly the Delight flag.
Somebody behind the digital camera requested Benoit what occurred as she leaves a board assembly, and whether or not trustees had been alleged to vote on “not [flying] the Delight or the Trans flag.”
“Nicely, any flag in any respect… Just like the Nazi flag, we do not need that up both, proper?” Benoit mentioned within the video.
Nazi fascists in Germany murdered six million Jewish folks throughout the Holocaust within the Second World Struggle. The Nazis additionally jailed as much as 50,000 LGBTQ folks and despatched as much as 15,000 to focus camps, based on Holocaust Memorial Day Belief.
The college board’s director and a member of the Niagara Area Anti-Racism Affiliation criticized Benoit’s feedback, saying she in contrast the Delight flag — an emblem of affection — with the Nazi flag — an emblem of hate.
A grievance from Trustee Paul Turner spurred the board to have lawfirm Parker Sim LLP do an unbiased investigation and it discovered Benoit breached the code of conduct.
Trustees voted in assist of the report, the sanction and to “disassociate itself from any actions or statements beforehand made by Trustee Benoit.” Trustee Joe Bruzzese was the one one to vote in opposition to the findings within the report and abstained from voting to dissociate the board from Benoit’s previous actions and feedback.
Trustee beforehand denied making comparability
Benoit beforehand mentioned in an e mail to CBC she wasn’t evaluating the Delight flag to the Nazi flag.
“In response to a query about what flags shouldn’t be flown, my reply doesn’t embrace the Delight flag,” Benoit wrote.
“There is no such thing as a comparability of flags. It’s a assertion that no flags must be flown which might trigger battle and controversy in our faculties. Alleging the comparability was solely spreading lies frightening a hostile surroundings.”
Benoit mentioned her feedback got here after she offered a movement to solely fly nationwide, provincial, faculty board and Catholic flags.
“My movement intends to guard the protection of our faculties by way of a neutrality coverage for all college students,” she mentioned.
“Inclusivity in a Catholic faculty board will solely actually start after we uphold the teachings of our religion by way of Jesus Christ and focus solely on schooling.”
Nonetheless, when CBC Hamilton requested Benoit to explain precisely what Jesus Christ mentioned within the bible about homosexuality, Benoit refused, saying solely “I can’t when sacred scripture speaks for itself.”
Requested about how flying the Delight flag creates an unsafe surroundings or promotes hate, Benoit mentioned Catholics must be allowed to apply their religion “with none confusion.”
“The scholars that maintain deeply held non secular beliefs, they’re those who expertise an unsafe surroundings too,” she mentioned.
“The cross is greater than sufficient to let everybody know they’re welcomed.”
She added faculties must be a spot “the place youngsters are centered on studying and never a spot for intolerance towards youngsters of Catholic religion.”
