Mr. Minister Drainville,
Three days ago, we learned in an article from Duty that you had agreed to renew the permit of a Hasidic Jewish school despite an unfavorable opinion from the Advisory Commission on Private Education. After analyzing the file, the Commission revealed a significant number of failings which have persisted for several years regarding compliance with the Basic School Regulations.
Nothing new under the sun. Thus, in 2009, this school, which was part of a group of five establishments which had reached an agreement with former minister Michelle Courchesne, had until 2012-2013 to comply with the minister’s requirements. More than ten years later, the gaps persist. Worse, the instructions relating to health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic were never observed, the formal notices were ignored and no sanctions were taken.
As for the agreements concluded with Minister Courchesne, suffice to say that they were signed to calm the ministry without any real intention of respecting them. The Commission also produced a rather devastating report on these schools, which noted that breaches of the law are recurrent. Even the threats to revoke the permits remained a dead letter, for the simple reason that the ministry did not follow up on them. In short, we procrastinate and, during all these years, the children of these communities who have the same rights as all children in Quebec do not receive the education they should receive to be able to take control of their destiny. It’s a shame !
In 2017, the legislator amended the laws on private education, on public education and on youth protection in order to provide more effective means to ensure compliance with these laws relating to public order. This is also what led Judge Castonguay to reject, in December 2020, the motion for declaratory judgment brought by Yochonon Lowen and Clara Wasserstein against the Attorney General of Quebec, among others. These applicants showed great courage since they started out in life without having the necessary education to ensure themselves — and their children — a decent life.
The objectives pursued by these laws were, among other things, to establish monitoring mechanisms to better identify children, to ensure an exchange of files with other ministries to improve monitoring, to give increased powers to school boards to monitoring and to enable increased collaboration between the DYP and the school boards.
Judge Castonguay notes in paragraph 147 of his judgment: “Sections 18.1, 18.2 and 18.3 of the Private Education Act allow the Minister to refuse the renewal of a permit or to do so by imposing mandatory conditions. »
The conditions attached to the permit granted in the past, for more than a decade, have never been respected, or very little, only to give the lie and save time. The minister should have taken action a long time ago. We can no longer pretend that the laws do not give him the power to do so. Unfortunately, to avoid tension with the directors of Hasidic schools, the Rabbinical College of Montreal and the other authorities that run these communities, the minister prefers to sacrifice the future on the altar of so-called good understanding. of these children, who number in the thousands, who will absolutely not have the tools required to function in the open society of tomorrow and fulfill their destiny according to their aspirations.
Quebec has chosen secularism in order to allow everyone to flourish while respecting their freedom of religion. The two elements are not incompatible, but complementary. Citizens fund schools that do not respect the laws that apply to everyone in Quebec. This greatly undermines the foundations of our society and risks, in the more or less long term, creating problems of social cohesion.
Mr. Minister, you do not respect your own laws, how do you expect people to take you seriously and how do you hope to eventually convince the courts of the justice of these choices? Then, beyond the question of funding schools that persist in not respecting the rules, which in itself is downright unfair and discriminatory, there is the future of children.
Mr. Drainville, you say that it is the fate of children that concerns you, prove it!