If the Supreme Court of Canada agrees with a father that the North Vancouver school district discriminated against his dyslexic son, it runs the risk of giving licence to parents across Canada to demand the government pay for private schooling, according to one of the lawyers arguing against it Thursday.
Robert Charney, arguing for the attorney-general of Ontario, told the justices of Canada's top court that siding with Rick Moore and granting him the ruling he seeks would be unreasonably costly for provincial governments.
"This remedy will have profound implications for the public school system and it will inevitably undermine the capacity of the public education mandate, including the provision of special education services and programs to children with special education needs," Charney said.
The appeal centres around a case that has been winding its way through the court system for a couple of decades. In the early 1990s, Moore pulled his son, Jeffery, out of Braemar Elementary after the North Vancouver school district closed an intensive program to assist disabled children.
Moore, who then paid to put Jeffrey in a private school to meet his needs, filed a human rights complaint, alleging his son was discriminated against because of his disability.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal agreed, but the B.C. Supreme Court overturned the ruling. That court's decision was upheld by the B.C. Appeals Court.
Those courts also stated the tribunal overstepped its mandate by ordering specific policy changes of the school board that should have been left to the legislature.
According to one of Moore's lawyers, Frances Kelly, education is a public service and Jeffery wasn't able to get the proper access to education because his disability couldn't be accommodated.
Kelly told the court Moore was not looking for an expansion of the school system, but rather "meaningful access" to education.
The school board had ended a program - called DC1 - that once offered the assistance required by Jeffery. While the private school where Moore sent his son offered a similar program to assist with his dyslexia, Kelly argued the public system should have been able to provide the same service without forcing Moore to pay for it.
The lawyer for the North Vancouver school district, David Bell, said there was no discrimination by the school board, because at all times Jeffery was treated as an individual and the board offered all the help it could.
Laura Bakan, Bell's cocounsel, told the court Jeffery began one-on-one remediation in Grade 1 once it became clear he had a learning disability. A diagnosis of dyslexia came soon after, allowing for continued one-on-one education during his time at Braemar Elementary - education Moore's lawyers say was inadequate.
On behalf of the Crown, Leah Greathead argued Jeffery wasn't denied access to education, but rather he required even more intensive schooling than the public system was able to offer - a point that Moore's lawyers said would have been solved if DC1 had been left open.
The Supreme Court decision isn't expected for several months.
