A Brewing Constitutional Crisis: Control and Expulsion
TORONTO – The issue of who controls the education system is particularly important in Canada and its constituent provinces, especially Ontario and Quebec. Without diminishing the significance of the great “compromise” that led to our Constitution and constitutional rights, local authorities ((i.e. school boards) had jurisdiction over all matters recognized by the settlers as early as 1815, long before anyone could have imagined the creation of a “super-colony” that would eventually become Canada.
The fundamental distinguishing factor was the religion espoused and practiced by the colonials: Catholicism or Protestantism. Protection for those distinctions were built into negotiations for expansion and consolidation. Rightly or not, Catholics and [public] Protestants schools were the foundation stones of all political and socio-economic legislation leading to today. The “guarantees were etched in stone” (Section 93, Constitution Act) and not easily tampered with.
Serious people, who primarily look to the future of the country and its families, promote respect for the basic legal guarantees that allow us to live in collaborative, productive harmony. It was and remains a tripartite local dynamic: Church, School and Family. The Family, assessed catholic ratepayer, provided, then as now, the financing.
Notwithstanding current “ideologies” and colours on the spectrum identifying pressure/lobby groups, parents are the ultimate authority and the Church (adherents to its faith) its ultimate teacher (magistra = magisterium). Candidates to its governance model (board of Trustees), Directors of Education, organizations representing them, or Teachers Unions (regardless of how the call themselves) have no constitutional rights to intercede in that trilogy save as to what is permissible under the law through parents and the magisterium.
We can change that. It requires a Constitutional Amendment. The effort has proven costly and unsuccessful because people rightly ask, “why are you taking away what is mine by law and by birthright”? Recently, we have focused on some trustees and directors in the GTA whose egregious behaviour and management style has prompted Ministry of Education investigators to recommend suspension and supervision.
Some of them should have been “turfed”: Director De Faveri in York Catholic, Director Browne in Toronto Catholic; Toronto trustees De Domenico, Kennedy, Li Preti, Rizzo and York trustees Grella, Mc Nicol, Wigston.
Over the last two mandates, Corriere has tried to attend Board events in at least six GTHA districts, so we make bold to suggest some alternatives: Sara Concordia (Ward 2), Sal Piccininni (Ward 4), Gregory Rodriguez (Ward 7), Jonathan Santos (Ward 3) and Gianfranco Cristiano (Ward 5). In York Catholic, anyone but.
In the pics below, from left: Sal Piccininni at the St. Fidelis Parish; Sara Concordia in front of All Saints; Gianfranco Cristiano in front of the St. Charles Borromeo Parish
