Anonymous phone call, fake apology, accidental email
Huibers said he went to Saint Martin in January to oversee the sale of a boat
The chair of the Niagara District Catholic School board says he took a trip to the Caribbean during January’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order to oversee the sale of a boat — an admission Larry Huibers made Monday after a board communication’s officer accidentally emailed the St. Catharines Standard a fake apology.
Huibers, elected as a St. Catharines trustee, said the Jan. 3 to 9 trip to Saint Martin was essential because he is the manager of a sailing club and he needed to take care of “technical things that need to be done on the boat” and collect six suitcases of gear belonging to the club.
In an interview with the Standard Monday, Huibers said he understands the optics of taking a trip during the provincewide lockdown are not good, but there was “no one else” to handle the matter.
The Standard learned last week Huibers had travelled during the lockdown. In response to questions from the newspaper, the board released a statement in which Huibers would not disclose where he went or why other than to say it was “necessary” and not a vacation.
On Tuesday, the board is expected to launch a code of conduct investigation into Huibers’ trip.
Huibers did not intend to disclose any details of his trip publicly, saying he wanted the investigation to play out, but changed his mind after a strange turn of events involving an anonymous tip to the school board, and a fake apology attached to an email.
Board communications officer Jennifer Pellegrini said Monday that in early January she received an anonymous phone call about Huibers being out of the country.
“This person said Huibers was in Saint Martin and I should look into that,” she said.
Without consulting Huibers, Pellegrini crafted a draft statement, written in the first person as Huibers, apologizing for travelling to the Caribbean island for a regatta.
The statement said Huibers “made a serious error in judgment” by going to the regatta and that doing so was “contrary to the messaging that so many Niagara residents have followed through the Christmas season, which is to stay home.”
“I recognize and regret that the choice I made may lower others’ opinion of me. I will do all that I can for the remainder of my term as chair and as a trustee to regain your trust,” the statement said, also adding Huibers will isolate for two weeks upon returning. “I will continue to serve the board and Niagara Catholic virtually and will do all that I can to undo the damage caused by my decision to travel.”
Huibers was not involved in writing the statement and did not approve it.
“Yes, I took some liberties,” said Pellegrini, who said she wrote the document to prepare for media inquiries. Then she accidentally sent the statement to the newspaper this weekend.
The Standard published a story Friday about Huibers’ January travel and the board investigation.
Pellegrini emailed Standard editor-in-chief Angus Scott asking for the entire official statement to be included in the story.
Attached to that email was her draft apology.
Shortly afterwards, Pellegrini contacted Scott to withdraw the statement, saying it was not factual and should not have been sent.
Huibers and Pellegrini spoke to the Standard after the newspaper asked questions about the statement, where the board chair actually was in January and why.
Huibers said he had no choice but to travel to collect the gear.
“Let me give you an example that is analogous, because, yes, the optics sound very glamorous and very casual,” Huibers said.
“If I am the player, manager, chief hotdog salesperson for a semi-professional hockey team that last year decided to go to five tournaments in Europe (and) we go to two of the tournaments and COVID hits and everyone has got to leave. And we leave our equipment, our Zamboni, in Europe with the idea that when this is all better ... we can go back to our hockey tournament, but that doesn’t happen. So now we are selling the Zamboni and we have to go and retrieve our equipment, it is analogous to that.”
Huibers said he takes COVID-19 seriously and told his daughter, who attends university in Europe, she could not fly home for Christmas because it was not safe to do so.
As for his trip, Huibers said he followed all safety protocols and isolated upon his return to Canada. Unlike his daughter coming home for Christmas, he said, the Saint Martin trip was “essential.”
The code of conduct investigation is going forward as per the board’s policy, said Huibers.