TORONTO —
Unable to agree on whether their children should attend school in-person or online this fall, Canadians with co-parenting arrangements are increasingly asking the courts to settle the matter for them.
One judge in Ontario noted in late August that her court had received “several urgent motions” along those lines in the past week and expected more to come before September arrived.
“School attendance in the midst of a pandemic is a challenging issue for many parents,” Justice Andrea Himel wrote in an Aug. 25 decision.
“Unfortunately, for some separated and divorced parents this is another battleground; one more arena where their child may become the prisoners of the war.”
Although the number of cases where Canadian judges have made rulings remains quite small, a clear theme has emerged – and given the prominent position existing case law holds in the Canadian justice system, it is likely that cases yet to be decided will proceed in the same fashion.
In most cases, judges are concluding that if governments say it is safe to hold classes in-person, it is not for them to find otherwise. Therefore, most judges are siding with the parents who want their children to be physically present at school this fall.
Exceptions are only being made when the opposing parents can provide robust evidence that their child faces special circumstances that could lead to in-person school attendance posing a unique risk to them or others they come in contact with.
This approach can be traced back to two decisions made by the Superior Court of Quebec in May, as the province prepared to reopen its classrooms following a two-month hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In one, Justice Claude Villeneuve of Bedford, Que. found that “it is not for the courts, but rather for the competent government authorities, to assess the potential risks of contamination in a pandemic situation,” according to a translation of his decision, and ordered that the two children at the centre of the dispute resume attending their school.
In the other, Justice Claudia Prémont of Chicoutimi, Que. declined to order that a six-year-old boy return to the classroom because of a family member who was considered to be at an elevated risk of serious complications should they contract the novel coronavirus.
The legal record fell silent after those decisions, as the issue was rendered moot by most other provinces deciding to keep the rest of the school year virtual. Only in the past few weeks have questions about schooling amid the pandemic returned to courtrooms, thanks to parents in Ontario arguing over the safety of the government’s plan in that province.
A judge in Ottawa ruled Aug. 20 that a mother could move to New Brunswick with her eight-year-old son, taking him away from his father, in part because of the lower COVID-19 risk there.
More often, though, the cases being heard pit a parent who wants their child to return to a physical classroom against an the other partner who says they do not accept that doing so is safe.
In the case heard by Himel in Newmarket, Ont., for example, a mother wanted her nine-year-old son to be able to attend school when it resumed, while the boy’s father wanted him to stick to virtual classes until the schools “safety protocols are proven successful.”
Himel sided with the mother. Acknowledging that even the Ontario government has said it cannot be considered completely safe to put children back in classrooms, “there is no end in sight to the pandemic and, as such, no evidence as to when it will be 100% safe for children to return to school.”
Her reasoning was echoed Sept. 1 by Justice Jasmine Akbarali, who similarly ruled that it was in the best interest of a six-year-old Toronto girl (identified in the decision as N) to return to school, despite her father’s desire to see her remain in virtual classrooms and the increased COVID-19 risk her stepmother may face as a frontline health-care worker.
“The point is not that the stepmother’s work is placing N at risk; rather, it is that as life returns to some kind of new normal, risk cannot be eliminated,” Akbarali wrote.
The Toronto judge laid out six factors that, in her view, judges should consider when they are presented with similar requests:
Risk of COVID-19 exposure to the child if they are in school versus not in school
If the child or anyone in their family faces an increased risk from COVID-19
Risks to the child’s mental health, well-being, and social and academic development from online learning
Measures proposed that may lessen any of these risks
The child’s wishes, if known
The ability of the parent or parents to support online learning
None of this means that wanting a child to attend school in-person automatically means winning the argument when it goes before a judge. One judge in Ontario recently ruled that two siblings must only attend class virtually, because one of them faces an increased risk due to asthma.
Another father learned this lesson when he was denied a request to alter his existing custody argument so that his two children could live with him and attend school in Burlington, Ont., rather than live with their mother and attend school virtually, as she wished.
“In my humble opinion, the courts are not generally in a good position to second-guess the decisions of parents on this issue of bricks and mortar versus remote school programming,” Justice Clarence Conland wrote in his Sept. 1 decision.
“These children are strangers to me. I’m not about to play ‘big brother’, professor, psychologist and scientist all rolled-up into one and start opining on things that I know nothing about.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
