École La Voie

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville has announced that the Ministry will launch an investigation into 17 schools in Quebec, including three in Montreal. Those three are already the subject of recently announced audits.

The Montreal-area schools being investigated are École La Voie, a high school in Cote des Neiges; École Bienville, an elementary school in St. Michel; and École Saint-Pascal-Baylon, also in Cote des Neiges.

The schools are being singled out for their apparent non-compliance with the province’s Secularism Law, commonly known as Bill 21. It is the intention of Education Minister Bernard Drainville to legislate further if necessary in order to reinforce secularism in schools.

Drainville said the investigation is being launched following complaints by citizens. As in the case of École Bedford, there have been complaints in these three schools about issues like toxic climate, quality of education, or, “behaviours that could potentially threaten the physical or psychological safety of the students.”

The findings of a report into École Bedford found that a “dominant clan” of teachers said to be of Maghrebi descent was ignoring the province’s secularism law, introducing “Islamic religious concepts” into the school, among other disturbing allegations. Similar concerns have been raised about École La Voie, École Bienville, and École Saint-Pascal-Baylon.

All of the schools being investigated are part of the French system, subject to the service centres created after the government abolished French school boards. The Centre de Services Scolaire de Montréal came under scrutiny in recent months after a journalist and Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy exposed similar issues at École Bedford. Eleven teachers were dismissed in the wake of the Bedford scandal. Rizqy had also called for director-general Isabelle Gelinas to step down. The MNA, the Official Opposition Critic for Education, ended up asking for police protection due to threats she received following the incident at Bedford.

“The nature of the allegations (in the current investigation),” reads a press release issued by the Ministry of Education, “is cause for concern, and an in-depth investigation is needed to shed light on the conditions prevailing in these schools.” The ministry says the “audits” will be kept private for now, but a final report is expected out in January.

Quebec schools “must offer (children) a safe and healthy environment,” Drainville said in a statement. “We will not compromise on this. Since the publication of the report on Bedford School, I have acted on the facts. This is what I will continue to do when problematic situations are reported to us.”

The Minister added that the CSSDM is cooperating with the government “to support students throughout this process, to ensure their well-being, safety, and academic success.” n