Ward 7 — Humber River-Black Creek

Nicole Dason is a graduate of York University’s Schulich School of Business. According to her website, she currently works in the banking industry and is passionate about women’s rights and community involvement. Dason is the Innovation and Research Co-Chair for the Women in Capital Markets Ontario Steering Committee, and she was given the Women in Capital Markets Emerging Leaders Award in 2017. Her priorities if elected include collaborating with parents, trustees and community members on crucial community decisions for consensus and ensuring that funding is put strictly towards bettering schools and learning experiences for students.

Matias de Dovitiis is the Chief of Staff for incumbent city councillor Anthony Perruzza, and the former Executive Director of the Duke Heights BIA. As the Executive Director, de Dovitiis helped lead infrastructure improvement initiatives in the neighbourhood. He previously ran in the 2021 federal elections as the NDP candidate for Humber River-Black Creek, placing third out of six candidates. In this election, the Toronto & York Region Labour Council has endorsed his candidacy. As part of his campaign for Ward 4 TDSB trustee, de Dovitiis says he wants to work alongside advocates fighting anti-Indigenous racism, sexism, ableism and homophobia to build an equitable system with quality education for all. He is interested in improving school infrastructure and wants to continue working with parents and community members to ensure there are equitable resources and programs for students.

Kim King previously ran for the position of TDSB trustee in 2014 and in 2018 for Ward 1 and placed sixth (with 1046 votes) and third (with 1968 votes) respectively. According to her LinkedIn profile, King is currently a Food Access Coordinator for Rexdale Community Health Centre, and an Advocate at Advocates for Youth. She notes she is also a long-time volunteer for the Community Police Liaison Committee of 31 Division, where she served as treasurer. While details about her campaign are limited, King believes that students’ success should not be determined by their level of access to opportunity or food, where they live or their background.

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.

Pragneshkumar Patel is a realtor with Homelife Miracle Realty.

Elected in 2018, Ida Li Preti is the incumbent TCDSB trustee for Ward 3 (Humber River-Black Creek). A mother of three with over twelve years of human resources management experience, Preti is also a member of the Toronto Board of Health. According to her bio on the city’s website, she is passionate about social justice and closing the poverty gap. In 2019, she voted in favour of changing the Toronto Catholic School Board’s Code of Conduct to include the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” and to declare June as Pride Month. In 2021, Preti wrote a letter of support for councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam’s city council motion that labelled several articles in an Italian-language newspaper “homophobic and transphobic.” She also ran for MPP for Humber River-Black Creek in the 2022 Ontario general election as the Ontario Liberal candidate, placing second behind Ontario NDP incumbent Tom Rakocevic.

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.

Geneviève Oger is the incumbent trustee for Conseil scolaire Viamonde Ward 4 – Ouest. She was elected in 2018 and has won the election by acclamation for the coming term, given she is running unopposed. Oger is the acting Senior Policy & Issues Advisor to the Deputy Minister’s Office at the Ontario Ministry of Francophone Affairs. She was the former media spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, and was formerly a journalist. She is also vice chair of the Conseil Scolaire Viamonde – Ouest board and sits on the board of directors for Association des Conseils Scolaires des écoles publiques de l’Ontario. As part of her 2018 campaign, Oger said she prioritizes inclusivity in schools, providing support for multicultural, multilingual families to pass on their language and culture to the next generation, and ensuring the engagement and consultation of parents in decision-making.

Nathalie Dufour Séguin is the incumbent trustee for MonAvenir Ward 3 – Toronto Ouest and has been re-elected by acclamation for the 2022 term as she is running unopposed. She was first elected trustee by ballot vote in 2006 and received acclamation in 2010. In 2014, she decided to step down to pursue other projects and was re-elected by ballot vote in 2018. Outside of the TCDSB, Dufour Séguin is an Education Community Relationship Manager for Groupe Média TFO, a media company that generates educational and cultural content for the Ontario Francophone community. She is also a former board member and former president of Toronto Francophone Women’s Shelter La Maison d’hébergement francophone de Toronto.

Dufour Séguin is on the MonAvenir School Council, having originally joined in 2006 when she became trustee (when the school was named Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud). After serving as vice president for two years, she was elected president in 2012, a role she held until 2014. In 2013, under Dufour Séguin’s leadership, the school council launched a discrimination action against the province as a means of forcing the Ministry of Education to replace one of their Hamilton-based schools with a new, larger building for the expanded student population. An issue Dufour Séguin said people have been advocating for since the 1990’s, the council invoked charter rights by arguing the Francophone school was not being resourced adequately and therefore access to education was not equal to those in Anglophone schools.