A unanimous decision was reached during last night's Halton District School Board (HDSB) meeting to rescind a previous motion to rename Iroquois Ridge High School. Now, the board says they will prioritize consultation with the local Indigenous community before renaming the Oakville high school.
The HDSB has faced growing public scrutiny, especially from local Indigenous communities and their leaders who claim they were not consulted before the original motion for renaming was passed.
Read more here: Erasing ‘Iroquois’; Halton’s Indigenous communities say they weren't consulted on high school name change
It became apparent that the board recognized conversations and information presented to them was insufficient prior to voting on a motion to initiate the renaming process.
Jody Harbour, co-founder of Grandmother’s Voice, was a delegate at the April 3, 2024 meeting. Harbour addressed the lack of consultation of Indigenous people in the decision to initiate the renaming process of Iroquois Ridge High School.
"As treaty people, our community was not consulted," Harbour said. "Consultation is the first step in everything that we do and not the last one."
Harbour continued, referring to the board's code of conduct and said that they didn’t make it through the first two steps: "The conduct and approach of this board didn’t even get through the first two steps of their own standards of behaviour."
Those steps, according to the board, are:
- Respect and comply with all applicable federal, provincial, and municipal laws
- Demonstrate honesty and integrity
"What I’ve witnessed and have been thrust into since March 7 [when the announcement was made] is disrespect for these frameworks, perpetuation of systemic oppression, systemic racism, discrimination, and most disappointingly coercion that has caused further harm, with a divide and conquer attack on our urban indigenous people."
In a statement to Oakville News, Harbour commented on her delegation saying, "It was confusing for me, maybe because I speak from my heart and I'm sensitive to energy. I remember at one point closing my eyes and saying please let them understand for our children... The children/youth should get to decide."
After hearing the delegations from Harbour, Trustee Margo Shuttleworth said she was confused about the motion that passed last month. Trustee Shuttleworth asked whether the motion from March 6 intended to rename the school because the term Iroquois had already been established as derogatory, or to initiate the renaming process and illicit discussion from the community.
Associate Director of Education​ Tina Salmini confirmed that the intent was to initiate the process of renaming.
Trustee Shuttleworth then said, "I reviewed the naming and renaming process and that’s founded on the idea that conversations and research have already taken place."
"I’m just wondering, have we truly engaged in all of those conversations before we’ve gotten to where we are?"
Associate Director Salmini said, "Trustees always have the option once that work has been done to select one of those names or to decide not to make the change as well according to the current procedures."
Trustee Tanya Rocha replied that what’s being said is contradictory: "Coming in here (March 6), we’re being told 'it’s derogatory, start renaming,' so that means consultation has happened, research has been done, create a committee and solicit new names."
"Soliciting new names does not mean there’s an option to keep ‘Iroquois,’ there’s a huge disconnect there, so I need to be 100% clear; is the school going to be renamed because it was deemed derogatory?"
Superintendent of Education Jennie Petko also spoke about the process and claimed that the name did not have to be changed if the board of trustees did not approve.
"At no time did anyone say that the name must be changed," said Petko. "At no time did anyone say that consultation will not happen, but there seems to be confusion around that, and maybe even the understanding of what consultation is.”
Superintendent Petko stated that the board simply had to consider whether the name change request was something that needed to move forward.
Trustee Rocha said, "What was said on March 6 doesn’t match up with what’s being said today."
On March 6, the board was told that they had consulted with their treaty partners and determined the name “Iroquois” to be derogatory. The motion to defer at the March 6 meeting was denied by the board's Chair, Amy Collard, who said that delaying the name change could cause further harm.
"We were told that consultation had happened, and now we’re hearing that we still need to go out and get more consultation, specifically (consultation from) the Haudenosaunee."
Trustee Rocha asked Associate Director Salmini to rescind the report that was presented to the board on March 6: "Do the consultation first, come back with an informed report, with enough details, that does adhere to our multi-year plan, to our indigenous education policy, that specifically says that there has to be meaningful engagement, consultation, and consent."
After discussions and debate, a unanimous decision was reached by trustees to rescind the previous motion and prioritize consultation with the Indigenous community.