Toronto – Claim Alleges Ontario Discriminating Against Disabled Kids at Private, Religious Schools

Toronto, Canada – Eight families are taking the Ontario government to court over claims that the province is discriminating against disabled children who attend private religious schools — a case that could reopen Ontario’s contentious education funding debate.

The families, whose case will be heard May 27, said that children are being forced to choose between their faith and their disability because the province won’t pay for services for blind, deaf and learning-disabled students who attend private religious schools.

Those children can receive those government-funded services only if they switch to a public or Catholic school — both of which receive public funds in Ontario, said Allan Kaufman, one of the lawyers representing the families. Yet children with other disabilities, such as speech impairments, can receive government-funded therapy and services at a private religious school, he said.

The province is essentially discriminating against certain disabled kids because they belong to the wrong faith, he said.

“It’s bad enough that we have a Constitution that’s 120 years old that favours one religion and one religion only,” Kaufman said.
“Do we really want to extend that discriminatory practice to the disabled when we don’t have to?”

Dayna Blustein, a 14-year-old student who is deaf, said she had to leave the Jewish school she’d attended in Toronto since Grade 1 because of her disability.

At the private school, her parents paid for special equipment and staff to help her learn, she said. Now that she’s at a public school, the government is picking up the tab.

The issue is complicated by the fact that two government ministries are providing funding to help disabled children, Kaufman said.
The Health Ministry delivers services for children who have been medically diagnosed with a disability, while the Education Ministry provides services for disabled kids who have undergone an “educational assessment,” said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

“There are services available to any child who comes into the publicly funded educational system for any of those educational needs.
“That is the most fair delivery of services that we can provide.”

Yet the Health Ministry has $14.4 million each year to help those students, but only uses about $4.5 million, Kaufman said.

Health Minister David Caplan couldn’t confirm those numbers or explain why the government may be spending less than it has set aside for disabled children.

“This court action is a last resort,” said Ira Walfish of the Multi-Faith Coalition, a group that has lobbied the government to extend funding to religious schools.
“We have tried to meet with the government to work out a settlement, but so far the government has not been receptive.”

The lawsuit was launched in June 2007, a few months before the issue became a political hot potato during the provincial election campaign.

Former Progressive Conservative leader John Tory’s doomed campaign promise to extend funding to faith-based schools tanked with voters and led to one of the party’s worst showings ever. Tory never recovered and resigned the leadership after failing to win a seat in a March byelection.

The group behind the Ontario lawsuit insists it’s not trying to force the government to fund all faith-based schools, but the case could be the “crack in the door” that leads to full funding, said interim Progressive Conservative Leader Bob Runciman.

“The voters of Ontario made it pretty clear that this is something they don’t want to see,” he said.