By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban
The fate of school boards, language rights, employees with religious garb and more may remain in the air for now but school board elections are still slated for November and EMSB chair Joe Ortona is not wasting any time.
A day after Ortona slammed Quebec French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge for scapegoating anglos by suggesting French instruction by school boards is insufficient, Ortona spoke to reporters in Mackenzie King Park in Snowdon to trumpet the board’s accomplishments and introduce a couple of candidates for the next elections and to confirm that he will be running again.
“In four years, we’ve rebuilt the credibility of the school board not only as an educational institution for which we always did an amazing job and a remarkable job, but also to rebuild the credibility of EMSB as spokespersons for the English-speaking community.”
The EMSB has been a strong defenders of “our rights for management and control of our school system, but also for our rights in other matters, and it’s part of the reason why we’ve launched court challenges against Bill 96 and Bill 21,” says the board chair. “I’m very proud of those and I’m confident that ultimately, we will be successful.”
The most important challenge, he added, is against Bill 40 which has already abolished French-language school boards but has been stayed pending a court ruling for English boards. “Because without school boards, there wouldn’t be any Bill 96 or Bill 21 challenges. There wouldn’t have been air purifiers installed in our classrooms, which we did on day one when we took office in 2020, and all of the other accomplishments that go with the English-speaking community’s local rights of management and control.”
Along with incumbent Ward 3 commissioner Julien Feldman, the sole elected member of the current EMSB council of commissioners in the current mandate as the office of chair and nine of the 10 available commissioners’ seats were won by acclamation. “I know everyone would like to be acclaimed,” Ortona told The Suburban, “but for the sake and strength of our democracy, I believe that all races should be contested.”
Ortona introduced Chelsea Craig as the candidate in ward 1 in Cote-des-Neiges, a seat held by longtime commissioner Ellie Israel. Currently director of operations for Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather, Craig is a board member of the Quebec Community Groups Network, and as she describes, “a proud product of our English public school system. And I know that our schools, they’re not just buildings, but they’re the nursery of our future and they’re also the heartbeat of our minority language community.” Craig says she believes strongly in an environment that celebrates bilingualism “and to me, that’s the EMSB.”
Feldman said the EMSB has managed to hold Quebec’s feet to the fire on constitutionality and creating a bilingual economic motor to serve the city of Montreal and Quebec while delivering for young families “an unshakable confidence that their children and young adults have the tools as Montrealers” to thrive and contribute. n