PDSB Chair David Green falsely claims Province prevented the board from naming new centre after beloved Black advocate

Following a ceremony last week to celebrate the opening of the Peel District School Board’s Centre for Black Excellence, the board’s Chair, David Green, made false claims about why Kola Iluyomade’s name was dropped from the building despite a 2022 commitment by PDSB officials to name the facility after the widely revered Black advocate. 

Iluyomade was instrumental in exposing the harmful anti-Black racism systemic within the PDSB. He passed away in 2021.

The following year, the PDSB committed to naming the new centre after him, and a report from Director Rashmi Swarup in 2023 described Iluyomade as a “modern-day Superman”. Naming the Centre for Black Excellence in his honour, she wrote, would become “a symbol of acknowledgement by the Peel District School Board of Kola's transformative leadership.” The report made it clear that naming the new centre after him was in line with the board’s official policy. 

A screengrab from Director Rashmi’s Swarup’s 2023 report that outlined potential names for the Centre for Black Excellence—including Kola Iluyomade—which aligned with the Naming and Renaming of Schools policy.

(PDSB) 

Trustees who had opposed Iluyomade’s advocacy, and had allowed him to be targeted in a board threat to ban him from entering PDSB properties, ignored the report and stripped Iluyomade’s name from the centre. They cited an updated policy—approved by themselves a few weeks earlier—that prevented them from naming the centre after "identifiable individuals”. 

Green had previously claimed he was threatened by one of Iluyomade’s closest allies, Idris Orughu, resulting in the police being called to a public board meeting, and triggering a trespass order that was issued to the Black community advocate, while a warning was also issued to Iluyomade that a similar trespass notice would be served on him if he was not careful. Peel police, after reviewing all the recorded footage of the meeting and interviewing attendees, later determined there was no evidence to support Green’s claims of threatening behaviour during the public meeting. 

After a provincially-appointed supervisor took over governance of the board when Green and the other trustees were stripped of their responsibilities, an official apology was issued by the PDSB, highlighting that calling the police and issuing a trespass order were acts of anti-Black racism.

Green has also falsely claimed it was the provincially appointed supervisor who recommended the changes to the naming policy. The supervisor, Bruce Rodrigues, was appointed in June 2020 after trustees repeatedly failed to show they were capable of eliminating the systemic anti-Black racism within the board.

Following last week’s opening of the Centre for Black Excellence, when asked by The Pointer about the changes to the naming policy shortly after the board had committed to recognizing Iluyomade by putting his name on the building, Green repeated the claim that trustees were just following directions from the Province. (Listen to a recording of the interview here.) 

"We didn't create the criteria. It had already been created by the supervisor, and all we did was pass on what was already created. So the present trustee (sic) did not create that. It's misguided information that's out there. We didn't create it."

This is blatantly false. 

Draft versions of the policy available online clearly show that the clause prohibiting naming schools and facilities after "identifiable individuals” was added after Rodrigues left the supervisor position in January 2023. 

The draft of the Peel District School Board’s naming policy, circulated on January 18, 2023, two days before the departure of provincial supervisor Bruce Rodrigues, did not contain the clause prohibiting the naming of buildings after identifiable individuals.

(PDSB)

An updated draft version of the policy, circulated to trustees in early April 2023—months after the departure of the provincial supervisor—is the first time any language about naming schools after “individuals” is included.

(PDSB)  

The final version of the policy as approved on April 26, 2023 by the PDSB trustees and the wording stipulating schools and other facilities should not be named after “identifiable individuals”.

(PDSB)

Minutes of the April 12, 2023 meeting of the PDSB’s Governance and Policy Committee make it clear that the direction to prohibit naming schools after identifiable individuals was given by members of the committee—the PDSB’s trustees including Green who make up the committee—not the province or its appointed supervisor: “Superintendent of Education, Donna Ford, noted that the Naming and Renaming of Schools, Special Function Areas, and Facilities Policy is brought back following consideration of the feedback provided by this Committee. She advised that the Committee expressed a preference that schools are not named after people.”

Members present at that meeting included trustees Stan Cameron, Satpaul Singh Johal, Karla Bailey, Chair David Green, Brad MacDonald, Jill Promoli, Lucas Alves, Jeffrey Clark and Susan Benjamin.

Chair Green did not respond to a follow-up request seeking clarification on his statements to The Pointer last week.

In 2023, following the board’s decision to keep Iluyomade’s name off the Centre for Black Excellence, community backlash and a letter from Advocacy Peel prompted Stephen Lecce, the minister of education at the time, to send a letter to the PDSB, ordering trustees to honour their commitment to name the Centre for Black Excellence after Iluyomade: “I am satisfied that promises were held out to community members that this would be done…I expect, that as a Board of Trustees, you will, without further delay, take the needed steps to fulfill the commitment to name the Centre for Black Excellence after Kola Iluyomade,” Lecce wrote in a July 2023 letter to PDSB Chair David Green and obtained by The Pointer. 

Former Minister of Education Stephen Lecce’s letter to Chair of the Peel District School Board David Green ordering the board to fulfill its promise to the community and name the Centre for Black Excellence after Kola Iluyomade.

Despite the clear wording, Green claims the letter was not an instruction to attach Iluyomade’s name to the centre. 

“The letter did not say that you need to do this," Green told The Pointer last week at the opening ceremony for the Centre on November 5. "The letter was clear. The letter said, 'Make sure you do whatever the board decides to do. Do its due diligence’.”

Green’s contradiction, on one hand claiming the province ordered the naming ban, then claiming Lecce left the decision about the name up to the board, has been called out by community advocates. 

“If the board is claiming it’s following the province’s direction, why have they ignored minister Lecce’s direction to name the centre after Kola? Which one is it? Are they following the province, or are they ignoring the province?” Danielle Dowdy, a stakeholder directly involved in the work to get the new centre opened, told The Pointer, after hearing Green’s claims last week.

She previously questioned why the board of elected trustees doesn’t simply turn around its own decision, since it has the power to do so, and that’s what the community wants.

Green’s latest claims about Lecce’s direction are not what the former minister wrote in his letter. Lecce did not say the decision to drop Iluyomade’s name was up to the board. He directed trustees to name the Centre after him: “You will, without further delay, take the needed steps to fulfill the commitment to name the Centre for Black Excellence after Kola Iluyomade”, Lecce instructed the board. 

Instead of featuring Iluyomade’s name on the front of the new centre, during the ceremony last week a plaque was unveiled to honour the late advocate. 

Along with Green, the event was attended by Rashmi Swarup, PDSB’s Director of Education, and several board trustees. Swarup refused to be interviewed when approached by The Pointer, saying she would not speak to the outlet, and that she did not want her refusal to speak with The Pointer mentioned in the article. She did not respond to follow-up requests. 

Swarup, in her speech during the ceremony, recalled Iluyomade’s efforts to transform the lives of Black students.

“Today we remember and celebrate the life and legacy of Kola Iluyomade, a leader whose passion for justice was matched only by his deep love for his community,” she said. “Kola was dedicated to fighting for better outcomes for Black students and believed in the power of education, not only to change lives but also to change systems.”

Green framed the unveiling of the plaque as part of the steps taken in accordance with Lecce’s direction.

"Everything that we did to get to this day is the direction that we got to follow step by step," he told The Pointer.

“When an education minister says, ‘do your due diligence,’ you have to look into different ways and means of how you go about doing this. And that step was followed to the T—all those steps were followed.”

Tim Vining, who co-founded Advocacy Peel alongside Iluyomade, called out Green’s comments, explaining that the direction from Lecce was to initiate a thorough vetting process on Iluyomade’s name, which was completed. Following that process, there was a clear expectation that the board would fulfill its earlier commitment and follow Lecce’s direction to name the building after him, not just a plaque.

"If you can name the plaque, you can name the building after him," he said. "That comment with David Green, I think, is being dishonest, because I think he knows quite well that what was intended in there was the vetting of the name to see that there were no major obstacles."

Kola Iluyomade (left) with Tim Vining (second from left) during a PDSB meeting.

(Courtesy of Tim Vining)

PDSB Trustee Kathy McDonald, who worked with Iluyomade and other advocates to initiate the sweeping 2020 provincial government review that revealed the extent of the PDSB’s systemic racism, told The Pointer she would not comment on the policy change after the Board voted to approve it.

She informed The Pointer that the current naming policy can be reversed in the future if the newly elected trustees bring a motion.

“Yes, it can be reversed. This is just a policy," McDonald said. "It’s ultimately the board’s decision. The current board has decided on a plaque, but nothing is permanent. Any time a motion is brought forward and fails, you have to wait a year before bringing it forward again, but the process can always be repeated.”

Ahead of last week’s event, no public notice was issued by the PDSB about the centre’s opening, and key proponents, including families and advocates, were not invited.

Kola Iluyomade's family and advocates for the Black community stand next to the plaque unveiled on November 5 at the Centre for Black Excellence.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

 McDonald said, “It was shocking” not to invite prominent advocates to the event. Some have told The Pointer they are deeply frustrated by the decision by the board to drop Iluyomade’s name and feel betrayed, which has further fractured the relationship between Peel’s Black communities and its largest school system. Dowdy previously described the tactics used by trustees to keep his name off the new centre, and the exclusion of key stakeholders from last week’s event as the latest proof that systemic anti-Black racism across the PDSB is still thriving.

While the board backtracked from its commitment, Vining said Advocacy Peel will continue to push for Iluyomade’s name to be added to the centre.  

"I can't say exactly what our strategy will be, but we have not let this go, and we will keep fighting and doing everything at our disposal to see that his name is on that building."

Email: [email protected]

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you