Artgate

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

The lawsuit launched by parents against the Lester B. Pearson school board (LBPSB), known internationally as Artgate, has reached $2.34 million with 13 parents joined in the legal action.

After nearly two months Martin B. DeBellefeuille, the lawyer representing all of the parents in the lawsuit, was electronically notified that the law firm Morency Avocats was appointed to the file, representing both the Lester B. Pearson School Board and the teacher Mario Perron.

“Two months is an excessive amount of time, when you think about it; to source out, then finally secure legal representation in a case that has drawn worldwide media attention, is really long in my opinion,” Joel DeBellefeuille, one of the parents filing the lawsuit said. “It leaves room for some serious speculation. You have a school board deeply entrenched in an historical, never before seen copyright infringement case in Quebec, let alone in the history of all Commonwealth countries and it took them two months to find a lawyer?”

On February 8, second-year high school students from Westwood Junior High School discovered the sale of their artwork assigned to them as a school project by their teacher Mario Perron. Students were previously advised by their teacher that the project entitled “creepy portraits” was a mandatory assignment. In total, the works of 96 students was discovered online for sale, allegedly listed by Perron with print on demand options such as wall art prints, face masks, men and woman’s apparel, mugs, greeting cards and stationary.

Parents who reached out to the school’s principal and the school board were met with a non-apologetic silence and the teacher continued to contact students by e-mail assigning art projects. While refusing to have a discussion with parents, the school’s principal also called down students related to the issue to her office to question them, without informing parents.

The parents suing for copyright infringements and moral damages demanded that the artwork listed without their permission or the knowledge of its creators until it was discovered be removed immediately and demanded an apology.

“So far, no apology,” DeBellefeuille told The Suburban. n