Dion v Peace River School Division, 2025 ABKB 359

In a free and democratic society, elections allow the people to choose their representatives, including their school board trustees. This process is being undermined in Canada by Boards who abuse their power to remove elected trustees from their roles.

Unjust Disqualification

Moïse Dion was elected by members of his local community to the Board of Trustees of the Peace River School Division in 2021. As is expected on a board, the members had differing perspectives. In 2023, following a disagreement between Mr. Dion and some of the board members and a school board executive, the Board sanctioned Mr. Dion for a breach of its Trustee Code of Conduct. The Board ordered, among other things, that Mr. Dion apologize to the executive. He did, but the executive did not accept the apology (she thought it was not good enough). As a result, the Board refused to lift the sanction.

Another executive again complained about Mr. Dion in 2024, claiming he felt insulted when Mr. Dion suggested that, since he was not a lawyer, he was not in a position to interpret the Education Act and that therefore Mr. Dion had again breached the Code of Conduct. The Board again ordered Mr. Dion to issue an “appropriate” apology or be disqualified as a trustee. In light of the prior experience, Mr. Dion elected not to apologize because he believed it would again not be accepted. In addition, he did not believe he had anything to apologize for and that the Board should not be forcing apologies through the threat of disqualification.

In a board meeting in September 2024, the majority of trustees voted to disqualify Mr. Dion from his Board position. This removed him from his democratically elected role of trustee.

Justice Prevails

Mr. Dion retained James SM Kitchen of KITCHEN WELLS LLP to bring his case before the Alberta Court of King’s Bench. In a precedent-setting decision, the Court ruled in Mr. Dion’s favour, agreeing that the Board had committed two errors of law by purporting to require him to issue an “appropriate” apology and by disqualifying him, which was unjust, disproportionate, and excessive. As a result, the Court granted Mr. Dion’s request to be reinstated as a school trustee.

The Alberta Government recently amended the Education Act to remove the ability of School Boards to disqualify trustees for breaches of the Trustee Code of Conduct. This was, in part, in response to the case of disqualified school trustee Monique LaGrange, who is also represented by Mr. Kitchen. Mrs. LaGrange’s case is currently before the Alberta Court of Appeal.