A Peel school board trustee under fire for what many are calling a racist comment did not contravene the school board code of conduct, the boardâs integrity commissioner has found. Trustee Will Daviesâ reference to McCrimmon Middle School, a school with predominantly Black and brown children, in Brampton as âMcCriminalâ does not amount to unprofessional conduct or an act of racism, Sandhya Kohli wrote in her 30-page report released to the public Friday. According to the report Davies didnât even say âMcCriminal,â he said âMcCrimmonal.â âItâs a pun, not a moniker, and thus does not have an attachment to a particular student profile,â Kohli wrote. âHe spoke of his own children, described them as âMcCrimmonalsâ who attended âMcCrimmonalâ.ââThe term âMcCrimmonalâ and not âMcCriminalâ ... is applied as a humourous slang term,â she wrote, repeatedly describing Davies as a âjovialâ character.That was not the spelling Davies himself used when he referred to his own comment in an email to the Star.On Oct. 10, Davies wrote to my colleague: âI acknowledge that I did refer to the school my own children previously attended as McCriminal. This is a nickname that has been used to refer to the school over the years, and, although I never intended it as a racist comment, I have learned that the reference could be perceived as not only offensive, but racist.âThe âMcCriminalâ comment was made to two senior board staff in June, not in April as the Star reported, the report said.The Starâs identification of the month was based on a trusteeâs recollection and the record stands corrected. Based on public statements of students and parents of students who went to the school, the school has been frequently called McCriminal. None of them saw it as a pun. In giving context to why such a comment coul ...
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