Last week we reported that Ontario has advised GAJE that it will seek leave to appeal the decision of the Superior Court allowing GAJE to plead its case for fairness in educational funding.
We remind our supporters that Judge Eugenia Papageorgiou did not decide upon the merits of GAJE’s application for fair educational funding. That was not her purpose for the motion brought by the governments of Ontario and Canada. Her role, rather, was to decide whether the governments of Ontario and Canada were right to try to prevent GAJE from being heard at all to convince a court of the merits of our case. Indeed, she “released” the federal government from the lawsuit.
In 46 pages of reasoning, Judge Papageorgiou explained why she decided that GAJE’s application deserves a hearing. Ontario’s Ministry of Education, however, disagrees. The ministry is determined to prevent GAJE from having a full hearing on whether the Supreme Court’s decision in 1996 would be or should be decided in the exact same way today, nearly three decades later.
In seeking permission to appeal Judge Papageorgiou’s decision, the Ministry of Education is apparently unmoved by the sheer labour, detail, logic, and comprehensive sweep of her reasoning.
Ontario’s decision is far more than disappointing. It is baffling, and an unsubtle contradiction, if not also rebuke, of its own values.
In 2009, then Minister of Education, Kathleen Wynne, introduced Ontario’s new equity and inclusive education strategy” as a way of “realizing the promise of diversity”. She eloquently wrote: “If we are to succeed, we must draw on our experience and on research that tells us that student achievement will improve when barriers to inclusion are identified and removed and when all students are respected and see themselves reflected in their learning and their environment.” (Our emphasis)
(See: https://files.ontario.ca/edu-equity-inclusive-education-strategy-2009-en-2022-01-13.pdf)
GAJE agrees with those sentiments. Indeed, Minister Wynne at the time, was applying the very same logic for allowing public funds to follow students to the schools of their parents’ choice where children would very definitely see themselves reflected in the learning environment that best matches the child’s overall, comprehensive needs.
In 2017, and then updated in 2022, the Secretary to Cabinet, Steve Orsini, published the government’s roadmap for addressing systemic barriers and building diverse and inclusive workplaces with equitable outcomes for all in the Ontario Public Service.
Secretary Orsini referred to the roadmap as creating a workplace that harnesses the richness and strength of our diversity.
(See: https://www.ontario.ca/page/ops-inclusion-diversity-blueprint)
Why are the foundational values of equity, diversity and inclusiveness appropriate for building an excellent Public Service, but not for educating all of Ontario’s children from the ages of 4-18?
Why does Ontario not allow the Ministry of Education’s foundational values of equity, diversity and inclusiveness to be applied for the education all Ontario children ages 4-18?
If Ontario cannot recognize and acknowledge this inconsistent application of the important values of EDI, then it cynically converts the Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness into mere platitudes, and ultimately into empty, valueless assertions of purported lofty ideals. We cannot imagine that is the Ontario of which the government wishes us to be proud. There may indeed be equity, diversity, and inclusiveness in Ontario. But not for everyone.
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If you wish to support GAJE’s lawsuit, 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.
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Shabbat shalom.
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
September 8, 2023
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 