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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A pr il 22 ,2 02 1 | 2 Get employee mortgage rates* Issued by HSBC Bank Canada *Conditions Apply. Employee Pricing is Exclusive to new customers who open their first HSBC chequing account at the Oakville Trafalgar Banking Centre from April 13, 2020 to April 30, 2021 and have not previously held any sole or joint account or other product with HSBC Bank Canada or its subsidiaries prior to the start of the offer period. Chequing account feesmay apply. 1Rates are subject to change without notice. The variable rate is equal to HSBC Prime Rate -1.23%. The rate will change as HSBC's Prime Rate changes. The annual percentage rate (APR) is based on a $200,000 mortgage for the applicable term assuming an appraisal fee of $300. Applications are subject to credit review and approval. Standard mortgage rates will apply at renewal. Scan here to learn more. Or contact Branch Manager, Gitanjali Chavan (647) 776-2369 when you use your HSBC Oakville Trafalgar chequing account for payments APR1APR1APR1 % APR1 %1.221.22 5 year variable closed term5 y ariable closed term5 year variable closed term not allowing non-Catholics to excel at the rate the Cath- olics are," she said. "Though my school community is very diverse, that is not nec- essarily reflected in the board." This leaves Barakat -- and other non-Catholic stu- dents in Oakville and across the region -- at a disadvan- tage, she says, as it prevents them from receiving a po- tential scholarship of $2,500 for serving in the position and becoming a voice at the table in board meetings. The 16-year-old recently launched an online petition to call on the board to amend policy I-26 to allow non-Catholics to be student trustees. It has garnered more than 200 signatures so far. Barakat also delegated at a recent board meeting with fellow students Katri- na Lefebvre, Alisa Robin- son and Nicole Arango -- all Catholics -- to shed light on the issue. Robinson said the board is "in need of greater diver- sity," while Lefebvre noted that the barrier means there "is an inaccurate re- presentation of what the HCDSB school communi- ties look like." Arango told the board that it already allows non- Catholics to enroll, "so why should we stop them from applying to leadership roles?" During the discussion, Oakville trustee Peter De- Rosa said that although the board tries to be inclusive, it has a fundamental obliga- tion to make strategic deci- sions and policies within the Catholic lens. That's why DeRosa said he can't reconcile the appeal to bring non-Catholics into a board environment -- though another trustee from Oakville, Nancy Guz- zo, shared the current real- ity of how student trustees "unfortunately" don't have a binding vote under the Ed- ucation Act. Barakat said that she was put into a Catholic school because her parents believed in the ethics and moral foundations of the school. "But they also wanted me to be treated the same as the peers that I sit with at lunch," she said. Earlier, she said that "you do not have to be Catholic to dem- onstrate Catholic teachings or ethics." Board chair Patrick Murphy thanked the dele- gates after the presentation, saying "it's so important to hear your lived experience and for us to have that infor- mation to percolate and en- ter into our discussions." The board of trustees then voted to receive the in- formation. An earlier attempt by Guzzo to send the issue back to the policy committee for further review and "to allow a fulsome conversation" failed to get enough sup- port. Barakat said that "it's not an individual issue" and that she has every intention of keeping the conversation going, citing the "over- whelming" support she re- ceived from students and community members -- Catholics and non-Catho- lics alike. "The plan is to keep put- ting pressures on these trustees," she said, adding that she is in contact with some who are supportive. The group is also working toward getting a full back- ing from the Catholic board student senate. Even though she was once told that as a minority she's going to have to give up on certain things, she be- lieves that all Canadian citi- zens "deserve equality." "We're just asking for eli- gibility to run ... just for the opportunity. The same op- portunity that our Catholic peers have," she said. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Upon hearing of a local student's efforts to overturn a Halton Catholic District School Board rule that prohibits non-Catho- lics from serving as stu- dent trustees, we wanted to examine how students and trustees felt about the issue. NEWS Continued from page 1 ALL STUDENTS DESERVE SAME OPPORTUNITY: BARAKAT Raghad Barakat hopes to change a Halton Catholic District School Board rule that only allows Catholics to serve as student trustees. Graham Paine/Metroland