OPINION: If the Rules Don’t Apply at the Top, They Don’t Apply at All

By Howie Silbiger

Let’s stop pretending this is normal.

An independent ethics investigation runs for fourteen months. It concludes that a sitting commissioner breached the code of ethics during an election. A ruling is issued. A sanction is imposed. The process works exactly the way it was designed to work…And then the political majority at the English Montreal School Board simply vote it off the table.

If that does not make you uneasy, it should.

This is not about whether you like Julien Feldman. It is not about whether you voted for Joe Ortona. It is not about which slate you supported. It is about whether the rules at the EMSB mean anything at all.

For over a year, an independent ethics commissioner did the job the board itself created that position to do. Investigate. Review. Decide. The outcome was not dramatic. It was not career ending. It was a short suspension, a public apology and a modest fine. Hardly the end of the world.

But instead of accepting the ruling, instead of challenging it properly if they believed it was flawed, the board majority chose the easiest and most damaging option, they erased it by voting it “invalid” during the last Commissioner’s meeting. The vote was based on a resolution forwarded by the Governance and Ethics Committee, whose Vice Chair is the same Commissioner found guilty of the violation.

Imagine telling a principal that a student discipline decision is invalid, because on the recommendation of the student, a group of his friends voted it away. Imagine telling a teacher that a policy breach no longer counts because the majority decided it was politically uncomfortable. We would laugh at the absurdity. Yet that is exactly the standard now being set at the School board Commissioner’s table.

When a governing body decides that it can override its own oversight mechanism the moment it becomes inconvenient, the message is crystal clear. Ethics are real only when they apply to someone else.

And let us be honest about something else. This is not happening in a vacuum. The commissioner at the centre of this has a history of ethics findings stretching back years. That pattern alone should have made everyone at that table tread carefully. Instead, the majority closed ranks.

One dissenting voice raised procedural concerns. One. The rest voted in favor.

You cannot run a public institution like a private club. The EMSB oversees schools, staff, budgets, and tens of thousands of students. It demands professionalism from administrators and teachers. It expects compliance, transparency, and respect for process and that standard must start at the top.

Supporters of the decision will hide behind technicalities. They will say the board has the authority. They will say procedure was followed. Fine. Authority is not the same thing as wisdom and procedure is not the same thing as integrity.

If the original ethics ruling was wrong, there are proper ways to appeal it; courts, independent review and a miriad of other options exist. What does not exist, at least not in any serious governance model, is the idea that you can neutralize an ethics finding with a political vote from your allies. Once you cross that line, you damage something far bigger than one case.

You damage trust.

Parents, staff and students are watching, and what they are seeing is a board that appears more comfortable protecting its own than defending the independence of its oversight system. This is how institutions rot. Not with dramatic scandals, but with quiet votes that send a loud message: the majority always wins, even over the rules.

The EMSB needs to decide what it wants to be. A public body governed by independent standards, or a political machine where ethics can be adjusted when they become inconvenient.

Because you cannot demand accountability from everyone else while voting it away for yourselves.

Howie Silbiger is the host of The Howie Silbiger Show on Truetalkradio.com and Political Hitman on Israelnewstalkradio.com. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Montreal Jewish News.