Believing that the bond of trust has been broken, the teachers at Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe are demanding the resignation of Director General Emmanuel Montini.
At a general meeting on Wednesday, teachers unanimously voted to withdraw their confidence in the institution’s director general and chief executive officer. They are now demanding her resignation.
“Cégep’s image is tarnished, there is an obvious breach of trust and the working atmosphere is toxic,” explains Le Devoir Selma Bennani, president of the Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe teachers’ union. “We have to rebuild ourselves and we won’t be able to do that with the current CEO. »
At the end of April, the minister for higher education, Pascale Déry, had asked her ministry to draw up a “state of the art” after reading an article in Le Devoir “worrying allegations” about the tense climate between workers management as well as the high drop-outs – and failure rates of CEGEP computer science students.
The teachers have sent a letter to the minister hoping to meet her and intend to “use pressure tactics until the director-general and chief executive leave” in the near future.
Injunction against a media company
An article in the Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe also set teachers on fire. He revealed the existence of a report on the working atmosphere among CEGEP executives, dating back a few years, which mentions some not very kind words to the Director-General.
Emmanuel Montini and Cégep also tried to prevent the publication of this report by sending a formal notice and an injunction to the media. The establishment has labeled this information as “false and defamatory” and “a deliberately malicious campaign by certain CEGEP executives to oust it.” [le] Director General “.
“It’s an attempt to muzzle us. It is pure and simple intimidation, paid for at state expense,” the newspaper’s editor, Benoit Chartier, said in an interview with Le Devoir.
The first week received a formal notice on Wednesday morning last week. A restraining order followed around 8 p.m., and the judge did not announce his decision until very late in the night, when the newspaper went to print. The judge approved the newspaper and the distribution could finally begin. “If I had lost, I would have had to reprint the newspaper. “It’s unbelievable,” says Benoit Chartier in disbelief. We are printed at Transcontinental and they print newspapers. You’d seldom seen that in the print shop. It’s downright abuse. »
Editor-in-Chief Martin Bourassa adds that this is not the first time Le Courrier has received formal communications. But “a restraining order is a first,” he says though. “The Courier has a 171-year history and as far as we can check our archives I have seen no precedent. »
Since then, the newspaper has received another formal notice this Wednesday, asking it to remove the article from its platforms and destroy remaining copies of the newspaper.
The Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe, who was asked to comment, had not yet responded to Le Devoir at the time these lines were written.