Ontario's Education
Act classifies (categorizes) many people and/or things. Here's how the
classes are defined:
"... for the purpose a class may be defined with respect to any attribute
and may be defined to consist of or to exclude any specified member
of the class, whether or not with the same attributes."
(You may have to read the above (direct quote from the Ed Act) more
than once for the meaning to sink in; I did!)
In other words, this government has the power to establish classifications
for various people or things (within the educational system), with the
classes based on specific attributes, but can then conveniently ignore
their own definition of who or what belongs in each class, as it suits
them.
Seems just a little arbitrary to me!
Now, just who, or what, will suffer this gross injustice? Well, this
classification method is used various places in Ontario's Education
Act, and applies to:
- school boards
- all school board employees (which would obviously include teachers)
- institutions allowed to collect, directly (by asking) or indirectly
(by any other method,) personal information on students
- the person that may collect, use, or disclose education numbers
- assets of a board
- liabilities and debts of a board
- permanent improvements to facilities
- financial obligations of a board
If you want to see for yourself, check sections 57.1 (4), 58.4 (2),
194 (3.6), 232 (3), 241 (7), 242 (5), 247 (4), and 266.5 (3) of Ontario's
Education Act.
These powers were introduced into the Education Act by Bill 160. And,
of course, Bill 160 wasn't about absolute, Fascist-style power...
Regards,
Rick Jones e-mail: rickjone@kitwat.enoreo.on.ca
