Waterloo Catholic District School Board ordered to pay trustee $20,000 in court costs

CTV’s Spencer Turcotte explains why a WCDSB trustee was accused of breaching the board’s code of conduct.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board has been ordered to pay a trustee $20,000 in court costs after she was accused of breaching the school board’s Code of Conduct.

Trustee Kathy Doherty-Masters asked for a court review to aside sanctions against her stemming from a perceived conflict of interest involving her husband, Fred Masters, who is a financial literacy expert.

Doherty-Masters was elected to the board in the fall of 2022. In the spring that followed, the Catholic Parent Involvement Committee (CPIC), a parent-led group that Doherty-Masters was not part of, hired her husband to give a paid presentation to school parents.

Months later, Doherty-Masters and her fellow board trustees voted to receive a report from the CIPC as information. That document referenced her husband’s presentation.

After that meeting, the board claimed Doherty-Masters breached its Code of Conduct and barred her from attending board meeting and sitting on board committees for six to nine months.

Doherty-Masters asked for an internal appeal, but that request was dismissed by the board. She then applied for a judicial review.

A history with the board

The case was heard at a Hamilton courtroom on Jan. 27.

According to the documents about the case, although funding for the CIPC comes from the school board, the budget for the 2022-2023 school year had been approved before Doherty-Masters had been elected.

The documents also noted that although Fred Masters had been paid for his work, he had an established relationship with the board dating back to 2018 or 2019.

Superintendent Judy Merkel, the staff representative for the CIPC, reached out to Masters on Feb. 15, 2023 to ask for a quote for a presentation. Masters provided the quote that included both a speaking fee and the price for 100 of his books that would be distributed at the event.

“Superintendent Merkel said the idea to invite Mr. Masters had come from a parent at a CPIC meeting in December 2022. Superintendent Merkel had personally been involved in considering hiring Mr. Masters for presentations prior to Trustee Doherty-Masters’ election to the board,” the court documents state.

Masters’ quote was given to the CIPC and they voted to move forward with the event. Doherty-Masters was not part of that meeting.

In March, Masters emailed the superintendent and said he had spoken with his wife about the event, and she had raised concerns that there might be a perceived conflict of interest. In response, the superintendent noted the longstanding relationship between the board and Masters.

The CIPC event on April 27, 2023 went forward as planned and Masters was paid in May.

In June, the school board considered a consent agenda including the CPIC minutes that referred to the approval of the Masters event. The board unanimously approved a motion to accept the agenda as information without any further discussion.

In December of that year, an anonymous email accused Doherty-Masters of a conflict of interest and falsely claimed she had been part of the CPIC before her husband had been invited to speak. The email called it, “a clear case of cronyism and nepotism at its finest.”

Around that time, the board also raised concerns that Doherty-Masters’ son, Brendan Masters, was a supply teacher or contract employee with the board. The concerns surrounded her involvement in discussions about the board’s budget and collective agreement with employees, and a belief that her involvement could have an impact on Brendan’s livelihood.

However, Brendan had already left the board for a full-time teaching position elsewhere by the time Doherty-Masters was elected. He had been on a leave of absence from the Catholic board since July 2022. Before Doherty-Masters’ election, Brendan had also signed a deal to run a three-week summer school course.

Investigator hired and board sanctions issued

In April 2024, the board hired an investigator, Bruce Best from Rubin Thomlinson LLP, to look into the situation. He found that Doherty-Masters made no attempt to influence the superintendent to hire her husband and she had no role in the CIPC decision to move forward with the event.

“Given my findings above that Trustee Doherty-Masters had acted in accordance with the [Municipal Conflict of Interest Act] and with the Trustee Code of Conduct, there is no basis on which any actions should be taken against her,” Best’s report said.

Despite those finding, during a Dec. 12 meeting, the board voted on a motion stating, “Trustee Doherty-Masters breached the Code of Conduct by failing to avoid a situation that might create the appearance of a Conflict of Interest.”

That motion passed by a vote of four to three.

In the days that followed, Doherty-Masters was asked to pen a written apology, and she was barred from attending all board meetings and sitting on committees.

“The decision was unreasonable”

The case was brought before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where the court ruled “the decision was unreasonable.”

While the court decision noted the board is within its rights to disagree with the findings of an investigator, the reasons for that disagreement were not clear.

“There was no factual basis on which to conclude that Trustee Doherty-Masters had anything to do with CPIC’s decision to engage Mr. Masters. The evidence was to the contrary,” the court decision said.

The conclusion of the court decision stated, “there is nothing in the record to support the board’s conclusion that Trustee Doherty-Masters violated the Code of Conduct.”

It went on to say, “… it is impossible to understand how the board could rationally reach the conclusions it did. The decision is untenable and must be set aside.”

The court ruling means all sanctions against Doherty-Masters have been dismissed and the school board must pay her $20,000 in court costs.

In a statement to CTV News, Doherty-Masters said: “I am pleased that the court has provided clarity. The judicial review findings speak for themselves.”

Board of Trustees reacts

In an emailed statement to CTV News sent on Thursday, WCDSB Board of Trustees Chair Renée Kraft says the Board is now focused on moving forward and working together. She says the matter relates to a decision made under the Trustee Code of Conduct process that was in place at the time and aligned with the requirements of the Education Act.

“Since then, legislative changes to the Education Act have updated how Code of Conduct matters are addressed, and the Board’s procedures have been revised accordingly should future matters of this nature arise,” Kraft said, in part.