As we advised readers two weeks ago, the Governments of Ontario and Canada responded to our legal effort to end discrimination in educational funding by bringing a motion to strike down our application even before the courts have had the opportunity to consider it upon its merits.
The governments’ motion to strike was postponed until April 20, 2023 to allow the Ontario Federation of Independent Schools (OFIS) to seek permission from the court for leave to intervene as a “friend of the court” (amicus curiae) in the case that GAJE and other individuals have launched against the governments. OFIS’ request is scheduled to be heard on October 3, 2022. If OFIS is granted permission to “join” the lawsuit, one assumes it will also have the right to oppose the governments’ attempt to strike down our action.
Currently, 1,556 independent schools are registered in Ontario. They are attended by 150,666 students, or 6.9% of all students enrolled in the province.
OFIS was established in 1974. It is the largest independent school association in Ontario with 97 affiliated schools. It is also the most diverse independent school association in the province with membership from faith-based schools, culturally-based schools, alternative educational (pedagogical) schools, special needs and neurodiverse schools, community-based schools, and arts & athletics schools.
Of course, GAJE wishes the adjournment of the motion to strike were for a shorter period of time but we understand that the courts are still dealing with severe administrative backlog wrought by COVID. On the other hand, we effusively welcome the attempt by OFIS to try to make its views also known in court regarding the governments’ discriminatory educational funding policies.
If OFIS is granted standing to participate in the case, the collective voices pleading for a remedy to the injustice of Ontario’s educational funding scheme will be deeper, broader and more representative of the widely multi-cultural swath of parents who send their children to school in this province too.
Perhaps, in that case, the pleas for justice will be better able to catch the ear and the conscience of the government?
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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.
Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
August 12, 2022
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 