Attempt at contempt

>> School-closing opponents want English school board prosecuted as criminals

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Although commissioners might not have been issued striped inmate uniforms or tin cups to rattle on bars of the big house, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) could soon be facing criminal charges for contempt of court. Parents opposing school closings accuse the board of blatantly disregarding last year's famous legal victory won by school mom Beverly Boyle, who bested the board's high-powered legal team to win a judgment that would keep St-Patrick's school open.

In spite of that ruling, much of the Roy Avenue school has since been transformed into an adult learning centre and elementary student enrollment has decreased from 150 in 1998 to 40 this year. While nobody's taking the EMSB braintrust's belts and shoelaces away and it's too early to be making dibs on prison bunks, parents say that the Board could and should be criminally prosecuted for the actions of former chief George Vathilakis and the 19 commissioners.

But first the parents need a judgment from a Quebec Superior Court civil judge to convince the Crown Prosecutor to pursue the charges. The process is currently stalled as the board continues to withhold documents which parents hope to get from them via court order on September 20. Boyle complains that the board's delaying tactics are part of an unfair war of attrition designed to exhaust the parents' committee's financial resources. Unlike the board, whose legal bills are picked up by the public, opponents of school closings often run out of money to continue their fights.

But Boyle says that it won't happen this time, as she now claims the support of Alliance Quebec, the Societé St-Jean-Baptiste and even Mayor Bourque in her battle against the EMSB. Boyle, who now lives in NDG and no longer has a child of elementary-school age, claims to have smoking-gun documentation proving that the EMSB never intended to follow a judgment to keep St-Patrick's open. "I have the minutes of their meeting of July 6, 1999, where it's clearly stated 'regardless of any judgment the school board is going ahead with its plan.' When that gets filed in court, they're finished," she says. "The ordinary guy doing something like that would be in jail. I don't understand how they believe they could get away with that."

The provincial education minister refuses to intervene. "Both sides are convinced that they're right. It's not our business to decide on these things," says rep Gilles Lamirande. The EMSB cites the ongoing litigation as grounds for refusing comment.

"That's because they have nothing to say. Their actions speak louder than words," says parents' committee lawyer Nina Fernandez. "They modified the structure of St-Patrick's, they reduced the number of students who could enroll there and they managed it so that the kids could start school in dire circumstances. There were no drinking fountains--kids had to bring bottled water. Also, when it was time to do the enrollment they had no secretary or personnel in place to take the names of the parents or students to enroll. The parents had to negotiate their locales like a library or a gym, despite promises made. And yet [the EMSB] is using tax payers' money to fund their defence where they acted in an illegal fashion. I think it's an outrageous misuse of pubic funds," says Fernandez.