When this update is posted today online or arrives in readers’ email inboxes, GAJE’s legal team will be in the Court of Appeal attempting to convince the court to allow GAJE to proceed with our application.
Our lawyers, Jillian Siskind and Lawrence Greenspon, are superb. They have submitted a factum (compendium of legal argument) of some 38 pages, the gist of which pleads with the appellate judges to rule that the Divisional Court was wrong in September 2024 to have reversed Judge Papageorgiou’s decision in August 2023, that had allowed our case to proceed.
At every turn, the Province of Ontario has been determined to prevent a hearing of our application on its merits. This has been the government’s approach from the very outset – rather than seek a solution that in the year 2025 provides the substantively best educational program for Ontario, while at the same time, conforming to, upholding, and protecting Canada’s Charter-enshrined values of equality before the law and the right to practice one’s freedom of religion.
Queen’s Park clings to its anachronistic, unjust educational funding policies by saying it is bound by the “historical compromise” of 1867 through which the then newly confederating provinces of Quebec and Ontario solemnly promised to protect the English and French language minorities in their respective provinces. That compromise was written into the Constitution of Canada. It remains there today.
In 1996, a majority of the Supreme Court ruled (in the Adler case) the section of the Constitution which codified the historic compromise (S.93) could not be invalidated by virtue of Ontario’s discriminatory funding.
GAJE does not ask, nor has it ever asked, that the funding of Catholic education be stopped or curtailed. GAJE’s original application asks the court to compel Ontario to treat its diverse religious communities equally. There has never been a provision in the Constitution that prohibits Queen’s Park from funding all denominational or other accredited independent schools fairly or at least to some extent – like the five next largest provinces do.
But Ontario will not be moved from its discriminatory educational funding.
The stinging irony of Ontario’s unyielding policy is that the solemn promise of 1867, on which it relies to maintain its discrimination, was cast aside by Quebec, the other signing party, nearly three decades ago. In 1997, the legal language enshrining the 1867 mutual commitment, was amended. Quebec no longer wished to be tied to a compromise its forebears agreed to 1867 but that clearly no longer reflected the educational needs of the realities of Quebec society in the late 20th century. The amendment in 1997 allowed Quebec to be released from the requirements it signed in 1867, as codified in section 93.
GAJE’s request of the Court of Appeal is straightforward. It is, in the words of Judge Papageorgiou, to consider our plea to be “one of those rare cases where the parties should be permitted to develop a full record so that a… judge can then determine whether it is appropriate to revisit the issues decided in Adler…”.
It is important to point out that GAJE launched its case long before October 7, 2023. Our lawsuit was always about bringing an end to unfairness and injustice in the provincial government’s educational funding. But today, it is also about much more.
A malign force struck at the sovereign Jewish State on “October 7”. That force thought they were the first phase of an unfolding, expanding assault that it hoped would bring about the Jewish State’s annihilation. The very next day, even before the IDF organized its full defense of the people of Israel, the same malign force and its allies, appeared from their dark places throughout the democratic world, including here in Ontario and in Canada, to strike at Jewish life.
In addition to remedying injustice, GAJE’s case is thus also about encouraging Jews and strengthening Jewish life. This is our generation’s fight that we wage for the everlasting wellbeing of our community and for the democracy we cherish.
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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here. Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of helping to underwrite the costs of the lawsuit. For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com Thank you, in advance, for doing so.
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Shabbat shalom
Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
November 21, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 