Top court rules special education for North Vancouver student is not ‘dispensable luxury’

A ruling from Canada’s top court that the North Vancouver school district discriminated against a dyslexic student when it cut services that were essential to him sends an important message to all school trustees, legal experts said Friday.

“This is a warning to them,” said Frances Kelly of the Community Legal Assistance Society, who represented Rick Moore during his historic, 15-year legal battle on behalf of his dyslexic son Jeff and other severely learning disabled students. “They have to comply with their duties under the human-rights code to ensure that students with learning disabilities have the same access to education as other students.”

Her comment was backed by Margot Young, an associate law professor at the University of B.C., who said the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision requires all school boards to think carefully about potential discriminatory impacts when terminating services to balance budgets.

“We know that many of the constellation of programs around the core classroom experience have been threatened by government cuts to the education budget,” she said in an interview. “This case tells people making those decisions that they’d better be careful that they’re not restricting meaningful access to the public good of education for individuals who are protected under human-rights legislation.”

How quickly changes might occur, or what they will cost, was not immediately evident. Young said one of the frustration of human-rights litigation is that it can take quite a while for governments to implement programs in response to court decisions.

The North Vancouver district said it was reviewing the judgement and wouldn’t be able to provide full comment until next week.

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Read more: The Vancouver Sun