LBPSB Task Force on Equity and Inclusivity

Earlier today the LBPSB issued the following press release:

Lester B. Pearson School Board names Dr. Myrna Lashley as Chair of the newly established “LBPSB Task Force on Equity and Inclusivity”

Dorval, QC, July 15, 2020 – At the special meeting of the Council of Commissioners on June 22, 2020, the Council passed a resolution, “Declaration of Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination”, that not only reaffirmed the School Board’s anti-racist position, it went further by establishing a Task Force to be comprised of administrators, commissioners, staff, students, parents, and representatives of minority and disenfranchised communities to oversee the development of a comprehensive action plan to address all forms of racism and discrimination in the LBPSB.

The Task Force was mandated to start work immediately, with a status report to the Council of Commissioners no later than September 1, 2020.

A significant first step was achieved this week with the naming of Dr. Myrna Lashley as the Chair of said Task Force (Bio provided below).

Noel Burke, Chair of the LBPSB states, “I am confident that Dr. Lashley’s extensive experience in race relations and her community recognition will ensure a successful reflection on our current practices and a sustainable strategy to eradicate discrimination throughout our board and schools.”

From Dr. Cindy Finn, Director General of the LBPSB, “Growth and change are inherent outcomes in education. Under Dr. Lashley’s leadership, this Task Force will afford an opportunity to address inequities in our system and explore how we can bring about positive and constructive change for our entire community.”

The next steps to be taken include the naming of the members of the Task Force, clarifying its mandate, and creating a meeting calendar.

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Dr. Myrna Lashley (Biography)

Dr. Myrna Lashley holds a Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology from McGill University. Previously Associate Dean at John Abbott College, she is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill as well as a researcher and project leader at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital. She is an internationally recognized clinical, teaching, and research authority in cultural psychology, and serves as an expert psychological consultant to various institutions. She is also the Chair of the First-Line Psychosocial Science Committee of the Clinical Ethics Committee of the CIUSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Ile-de-Montréal.

Dr. Lashley has worked both as a consultant to First Nations and Jewish communities, and as the Cross Cultural Trainer for the Grievance Committee Office of the Secretariat for McGill University. She has also conducted training workshops locally, nationally, and internationally and has acted as a consultant to the Brazilian health care system. She was a director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and has also served on the Comité consultatif sur les relations interculturelles et interraciales de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal. From 2008 to 2017, she was the Chair of the Cross-cultural Roundtable on Security. She was the Vice-Chair of the board of the École Nationale de Police du Québec from 2004-2017. As well as conducting research on police matters, she has also been appointed to the Comité expert en matière de profilage racial of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal and to the Comité-conseil sur l’organisation d’une consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémique. In addition to academic publications, she has authored two training manuals on intercultural issues in the workplace and co-authored a chapter in the book Encountering the Other.

Dr. Lashley has received several awards, including the 2015 Woman of Merit Award from the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association, the Queen Elizabeth II 2012 Diamond Jubilee award, the 2006 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Award for Holocaust studies, the 2004 Martin Luther King legacy award, as well as the 1995 Merit Award from the Kahnawake Native Survival School. Her current research focuses on the intersections of culture, terrorism and national security. She is currently Barbados’s Honorary Consul to Montreal.