TORONTO – Brevity is the soul of wit. As in literature, so also in Law. Charles Lugosi, who represents TCDSB Trustee Michael del Grande, beamed with optimism on reading the Endorsement of the Court of Appeal for Ontario rendered on September 18,2023:
“Motion for leave to appeal granted. Cost of this motion awarded to the applicant in the amount of $5,000 to be paid forthwith.”
Dr. Lugosi, licenced to practice Law in Ontario, British Columbia and in the USA is currently a Professor of Law in Virginia. He has been spearheading the Del Grande v. Toronto Catholic District School Board case since Campaign Life Coalition decided to take up Del Grande’s cause in defense of Constitutional “Denominational Rights”.
The Endorsement has the effect of reversing a prior Divisional Court decision that confirmed the TCDSB’s position that it has authority to change its own decisions once they are made and published.
Dr. Lugosi tempered this assessment with a caution: “The Court has agreed we have a case… we will be given an opportunity to make it”. The Del Grande team will have five days to submit a factum before the Court can begin scheduling for that eventuality.
The Endorsement does not limit the Appeal to any specific item in Law or in fact. All three judges who considered the Motion to Appeal signed in approval. Lugosi noted that a cost for the Motion be awarded to the applicant to be paid forthwith.
The TCDSB will have to pay! Ironically, it has already doled out hundreds of thousands in legal fees to persecute Del Grande for defending the Catholicity of the Catholic curriculum in a Catholic School System – in the conduct of his sworn duty of office.
Nonetheless, the endorsement must still represent a ray of sunlight for Del Grande (and his supporters – institutions and individuals) in what has been an excruciatingly depressing and stressful four years for him and his family.
Corriere Canadese has followed and covered the shenanigans coming out of the TCDSB since 2015, live and via video. Were one to judge the Administration and Board on the basis of “Catholic values” on which its existence relies, the pressure would be intense to find good or sufficient examples.
Examples of contrary values are an easier find, beginning with that fateful day in September of 2020, when the newly appointed Director caused the re-visiting and reversal of a Board decision taken on August 20, 2020, before he took office. The original decision, on that day, found Del Grande was in compliance with the Trustee Code of Conduct.
