A Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) Trustee is again facing sanctions after breaching the code of conduct.
The board approved the impose various sanctions against Brockton/South Bruce Trustee Derrick Long as recommended by the Integrity Commissioner during a regular meeting of the board on April 15.
The sanctions include censuring Long, barring him from attending the June 17 regular meeting of the board, bar him from sitting on all committees of the board for a periods of 90 days starting June 1, and remove Long from the Audit Committee and appoint a new trustee for the remainder of the 2024-2025 appointment.
This comes after complaints which allege Long attempted to access his board email from outside Canada, contrary to BWDSB policy as it is deemed a breach of security.
Integrity Commissioner Michael Maynard of ADR Chamber says in his report it is alleged this was not an error on one occasion, but a deliberate and repeated attempt to improperly access his board email while he was in Florida at his winter home in November, 2024.
The report says after numerous attempts to log into his email, the board’s server blocked Long from being able to access his email via his cell phone.
Long, who’s account was later disabled, claimed he was not in Florida contrary to the evidence indicated in the report.
Long provided a formal response to Maynard in February, which an unedited version of the email says the process “lacks integrity.”
In the response, Long says his laptop stayed in Walkerton and questioned how it would have found its way to Florida.
“Maybe you can tell that in your omniscience,” says Long’s email in Maynard’s report.
After conducting an interview with Long in March about the complaints, Maynard says he has no concerns about the credibility of the complaints and adds Long was not a credible witness.
“He made vague statements, offered contradictory evidence, could not explain basic details related to his defence (such as how he managed to screen record a video he claims to have streamed with his own live commentary), and was generally a poor historian. He deleted posted from his Facebook account concerning matters at issue in this inquiry after it was launched, which gives the appearance of trying to cover up or hide evidence. he also outright lied to me at least once during the investigation, though he admitted to it after he was caught in the deception,” says Maynard’s report.
The BWDSB is required to provide Long with at least 14 days to respond to the sanctions and following the deadline, the board will have 14 days to consider any submissions by the trustee before confirming or revoking the sanctions.
The confirmation or revoking of the sanctions will be voted on at a future Regular Meeting of the Board.
Bayshore Broadcasting has reached out to Long for comment, but did not hear back by publication time.
