The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is being accused of dragging its' feet following a request for information.
Eric Renaud filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the board related to documents around the municipal election this past October.
Renaud, who lost his bid for a trustee's seat, is accusing the board, Bishop Ronald Fabbro and the Diocese of London of meddling in the election.
At issue is a letter released by the board urging churchgoers to not support any candidate who suggests merging the public and Catholic school boards — an idea Renaud publicly endorsed during the election campaign.
According to Renaud, the letter, in conjunction with the Diocese of London and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, was posted on church bulletins across the city the day before the election.
He has now written a letter to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Renaud says it's been more than a month since he made the initial request for information from the board.
"That was filed on November 5th," he says." Under the act, the board has 30 days to actually respond to me and now they've extended that deadline twice now,"
Renaud says he has 90 days to appeal the election results.
"I'm leaning toward the appeal. Because, like honestly, the board must be hiding something if the school board is fighting this hard to actually stop me from actually getting the documents, there must have been use of taxpayer resources somewhere," he says.
Renaud says the delays from the board will only give him a week to file an appeal.
None of the allegations made by Renaud have been proven in court.
AM800 has asked the board to confirm the delay in producing the documents and received a written response that states:
"We are not able to comment on specific Freedom of Information requests, however we can say that we do take all requests very seriously and strive to ensure that we comply with our legislated obligations. In cases where large volumes of information are requested, organizations are well within their legislative rights to extend deadlines to go through that information in order to determine the appropriate information to be released."