Michel St-Amant did not voluntarily retire, but was dismissed

Michel St-Amant, who was director of the French-speaking school board of British Columbia (CSF) of 1^is August 2019 to December 2022, did not retire voluntarily, as the board of directors at the time had however indicated. During his testimony as part of the CSF trial against the province and the Vancouver school board, Michel St-Amant said he was dismissed.

When the lawyer for the province asked him if he had experienced a cessation of employment, he responded in the affirmative.

However, on December 9, 2022, the board of directors of CSF published a press release to inform the public that Michel St-Amant retired well -deservedthat day, After 40 years of education service.

Michel St-Amant never wanted to interview on this subject. On January 23, 2023, the chairman of the board of directors of the CSF, Marie-Pierre Lavoie, during an interview in the program Western lightreiterated that Michel St-Amant had decided to retire, and that it was a classic retirement.

Friday, during a telephone interview, Pascale Bernier, current director general of CSFadmitted that Michel St-Amant had indeed been dismissed. She justified this by the fact that the board of directors wanted to take a different orientation.

She explained that the CSF said by press release that Mr. St-Amant had retired under a negotiated agreement between the two parties, and that he wanted to respect the agreement and the private life of Mr. St-Amant.

Friday, a document which had been handed over to Michel St-Amant on November 28, 2022 was presented to the court. In this document signed by the chairman of the board of directors, Marie-Pierre Lavoie, we learn that the board of directors would examine a resolution aimed at putting an end to the employment of Michel St-Amant, without reason, and that the reasons which led the board of directors to consider this termination of the contract were The desire of CA to see a change from the organization’s perspective and leadership.

Tensions between Michel St-Amant and the CA

The presence of a former managing director in this kind of cause is exceptional. To the knowledge of three lawyers which cover the legal causes linked to education in French in a minority environment for at least 20 years, including Roger Lepage for 45 years, it is the first time that a former director general of a council French -speaking school testifies against his former employer.

During his testimony, there was talk of different visions between the former director general and the board of directors of the time.

For example, Michel St-Amant did not believe, unlike the CAthat it was necessary to ask for schools covering the levels of kindergarten to the twelfth year everywhere, especially in the regions where the Supreme Court of Canada had granted nursery schools to the sixth or seventh year.

Lawyer Brian Duong asked him if this special request made the court judgment more difficult to enforce. Michel St-Amant responded in the affirmative. He believes that the CSF lost land that would have agreed for a primary school.

Michel St-Amant was asked to qualify his relations with the employees of the Ministry of Education of the province. He spoke of an honest and accessible relationship.

He suggested that he favored negotiation with the ministry. According to him, law 22, which allows the provincial ministry to force school councils to bequeathed from excess schools to CSF, should only be used in the last use. However, he indicated that some school advisers found the law unnecessary if it was not used immediately.

He also talked about his difficult relationship with two former secretaries-treasurers of CSFSylvain Allison and Lucie Pineau. Michel St-Amant said that it was difficult to advance the files to the board of directors whose members, according to him, were fighting individually for their regions. According to him, if there was better collaboration between school advisers and the administration, the files would advance more quickly.