Ontario Education Minister Bans School Boards Under Direct Provincial Supervision from Continuing to Live-Stream Public Meetings of Their Special Education Advisory Committees

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

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Ontario Education Minister Inexcusably Bans School Boards Under Direct Provincial Supervision from Continuing to Live-Stream Public Meetings of Their Special Education Advisory Committees

October 8, 2025

SUMMARY

In an exceedingly troubling and undemocratic move, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra has banned the four Ontario school boards that the Government has taken over and is directly supervising from continuing to live stream meetings of their Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) or other board committees. This seriously weakens the voices of parents of vulnerable students with disabilities/special education needs who seek to tear down the many disability barriers in Ontario schools.

This first came to a head on Monday, October 6, 2025, when the Toronto District School Board’s SEAC was forbidden by Minister Calandra from its five-year old practice of live streaming its public monthly meetings. City TV covered this on October 7, 2025 in an excellent online report set out below. It was accompanied by a long and detailed report about 30 minutes into its 5 pm Toronto news broadcast on October 7, 2025.

The Chair of the TDSB’s SEAC is David Lepofsky, who is also Chair of the AODA Alliance. On behalf of the TDSB’s SEAC he wrote Minister Calandra on October 7, 2025 to object to the Minister’s action and to ask the Minister to rescind this ban on live streaming. That letter is also set out below. It explains why the Minister’s action is so harmful and unjustified.

The agenda of TDSB SEAC’s October 6, 2025 meeting proves the point. At that meeting, TDSB’s Director of Education had an informative and lively discussion of a wide range of issues concerning students with disabilities/special education needs. He answered many questions from SEAC members, which raised concerns on behalf of some 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs at TDSB. Two parents made moving and informative delegations about barriers their children have faced. They made constructive recommendations on how TDSB could improve these situations. TDSB senior staff made a detailed presentation about their new action plan for meeting the needs of students with disabilities/special education needs. This led to an informative exchange with SEAC members about that action plan. What possible harm could there be in letting the broader public watch this?

According to the October 7, 2025 City News report, the Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra has stated the following as his reason for banning the live streaming of public meetings of a school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee and other committees of the school board while that board is under provincial supervision:

This is no justification for hampering the voices of parents of students with disabilities/special education needs. All the discussions at the meetings of TDSB’s SEAC over the past ten years have been focused solely on what is needed to advance student success for students with disabilities/special education needs. For at least five years, these meetings at TDSB have been lived streamed and are archived on YouTube. Anyone can verify this.

No one from the Ministry of Education has ever raised a single concern about this with TDSB’s SEAC over the past five years. The Minister of Education had no discussions with TDSB’s SEAC about the content of its meetings before making this harmful decision.

The Minister’s reason for banning live streaming of SEAC meetings is extremely troubling. In a democracy, freedom of expression is treasured as a fundamental constitutional right. It is not the role of a provincial cabinet minister or a government to try to regulate or limit political speech or commentary. It violates the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a cabinet minister to try to use their powers to curtail political expression. No legislation gives the Minister of Education the power to do that. To do this against the voices of the parents of vulnerable students with disabilities/special education needs is inexcusable.

The Supreme Court of Canada held over three decades ago that an attempt by government to restrict discussion because of the content of one’s message has a purpose to violate the freedom of expression – something which the Charter of Rights forbids. Discussion and advocacy at a Special Education Advisory Committee to remove disability barriers in the school system could well be called “political commentary.” Political commentary lies at the heart of the protection for freedom of expression.

The Minister of Education banned live streaming of SEAC meetings only after he took over direct responsibility for running the TDSB in place of the elected trustees whom he ousted. Now, when students with disabilities/special education needs face any disability barriers, it is the sole responsibility of the Ontario Government. The Minister can no longer blame TDSB trustees or anyone else for what goes on in TDSB schools. In these circumstances the Minister’s action with the purpose to violate the freedom of expression is especially unjustified in a democracy. The Minister should not try to use any discretion or power he has to curtail or limit discussion of his government’s actions or make it harder to reach willing listeners.

In the October 7, 2025 City TV news item, the reporter added that there was some suggestion that live streaming could give rise to some privacy concerns. TDSB SEAC Chair David Lepofsky, who has sat on that Committee for over a decade, advises that TDSB staff and SEAC members take great care to protect privacy. For example, the two parents presenting at that meeting carefully followed the Committee’s policy that there should be no mention of any names of students, teachers or specific schools in their presentation.

This problem will continue to grow. Tonight, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board’s SEAC is apparently scheduled to meet. Moreover, media reports have suggested that the Ford Government is considering the option of abolishing all elected school board trustees across Ontario. What it happening at TDSB and other boards now under direct provincial control foreshadows what may be in store for all schools across Ontario, a deeply worrisome prospect.

How You Can Help

Write Education Minister Paul Calandra at edu@ontario.ca Tell him to withdraw his direction that prohibits live streaming of meetings of a Special Education Advisory Committee and other board committees at the school boards that the Ontario Government has taken over.
Tell Premier Ford the same thing. Email him at premier@ontario.ca

MORE DETAILS

City News October 7, 2025

Originally posted at https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/10/07/ontario-ford-government-blocking-livestreams-school-board-committee-meetings/

Province blocking livestreams of school board committee meetings

Ford government blocks public livestreams of school board committee meetings

The Ford government says it will be restricting public livestreams of school board committee meetings, sparking concern among the opposition.

By Tina Yazdani

The Ford government is restricting public access to school board committee meetings.

CityNews has learned that the province’s education minister has directed school boards under provincial jurisdiction, including the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), to block livestreams of their monthly meetings. 3rd party ad content

The chair of the TDSB’s special education advisory committee (SPEAC), David Lepofsky, says the government has given no reason for arbitrarily banning live streaming, and this change will be particularly difficult for vulnerable families who can’t attend meetings in person.

“This can only make things harder for beleaguered parents of students with disabilities/special education needs to press for improvements in an education system that already treats them like second-class citizens,” Lepofsky said.

Education Minister Paul Calandra

Education Minister Paul Calandra is seen in this undated photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS.

Lepofsky noted Monday night’s SEAC meeting was the first in half a decade to not be recorded. “This is a real barrier to openness, to transparency, to accountability,” he said.

Parents say the decision took them by surprise, and they fear the government is attempting to block access to information and suppress their voices.

“All school boards are underfunded for special education,” said Michelle Aarts, a parent and TDSB trustee for Beaches-East York. “It makes it that much harder for people to advocate if you take away information, it makes it harder for them to pull those numbers together and show how bad the situation is.”

“Someone with a child with special education needs isn’t necessarily going to be able to leave the house,” she added.

“I made this decision to maintain meetings that are productive, professional, and focused on improving student success and achievement, rather than serving as a forum for political commentary. At the same time, I ordered all meetings to remain open to the public with hybrid participation options with public posting of agendas, minutes, and decisions,” Education Minister Paul Calandra said in a statement sent to CityNews on Tuesday afternoon.

In an earlier statement, a spokesperson for Calandra said that “all committee meetings remain open to the public. Committee members and delegates can still participate remotely when necessary, and all are welcome to attend in person.”

The spokesperson’s statement went on to say that minutes, agendas and decisions from all committees are posted publicly “to ensure transparency and accessibility for families and the broader community.”

The change also comes as the TDSB’s new government supervisor faces backlash for increasing some class sizes for special needs students.

“Teachers are telling us the classrooms are feeling unsafe,” said Alexa Gilmour, NDP MPP for Parkdale-High Park. “When you have non-verbal students with high medical needs, you cannot cut corners.”

Opposition critics at Queen’s Park believe that this is another way the Ford government is silencing parent voices, after first removing trustee powers at five Ontario school boards.

“It’s shocking,” said Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles. “It’s consistent with exactly what we’ve been concerned about – that once the minister and his supervisors are in there controlling things, parent voices and transparency will be eliminated.”

Text of the October 7, 2025 Letter from TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee Chair David Lepofsky to Education Minister Paul Calandra

David Lepofsky, Chair, TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee

mdl.seac@gmail.com

October 7, 2025

To: The hon. Paul Calandra, Minister of Education minister.edu@ontario.ca

Dear Minister:

Re: Please Withdraw Your Government’s Direction to TDSB and Other School Boards Under Provincial Supervision to Stop Live Streaming Meetings of Their Special Education Advisory Committee and Other Committees

I write as the Chair of the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) of the Toronto District School Board. Last week, TDSB advised me that your Ministry directed all school boards under provincial supervision, including TDSB, to stop live streaming the public meetings of their Special Education Advisory Committee and other public committees. On behalf of the TDSB SEAC, I urge you to rescind that direction.

These meetings have commendably been live streamed to the public for at least 5 years. There is no good reason for you to ban live streaming of these meetings. Your government did not consult with our Special Education Advisory Committee before taking this arbitrary action.

Your government said it took over TDSB and ousted its trustees over budget issues. Live streaming of our meetings does not cost anything.

Your government has given the public no reason for banning live streaming of our meetings. According to the media, all your office has said is that SEAC meetings remain open for the public to attend in person. That is no reason to ban live streaming. To the contrary, that is a compelling reason to let these boards continue to live stream these meetings.

With respect, your decision is a slap in the face to the 40,000 or more students with disabilities/special education needs at TDSB, for whom we advocate at SEAC meetings, and to their parents. It is also a slap in the face of the hard-working TDSB special education staff who prepare for, attend and support SEAC meetings.

Many dedicated parents of students with disabilities/special education needs deal every day with all the pressures, stress and uncertainties of advocating for their children. It is hardly surprising that for the vast majority of them, they cannot put food on the table, get their children off to bed, and at the same time attend a monthly Special Education Advisory Committee meeting between 7 and 9 pm. Only through live streaming and archiving the video, as has been done at TDSB for at least five years, can they follow and learn from our efforts.

We have heard from many parents of students with disabilities/special education needs that they feel isolated and alone as they struggle to advocate for their child’s needs. They have shared with us that by watching a live stream of our meetings, they learn to their relief that they are in fact not alone and that others are tackling the same issues and trying to make things better. Your cutting off that live stream hurts those parents.

For TDSB staff, the live stream of these meetings provides them with a much-needed platform to help inform a broader audience of parents about their efforts on behalf of students with disabilities/special education needs. For all to be able to watch our meetings also provides a constructive positive platform for tough issues surrounding the education of students with disabilities/special education needs to be publicly aired and debated. Where our members disagree with TDSB staff on an issue, the live streaming of our meetings helps the voting and tax-paying public see a vibrant and constructive debate over these issues, with a chance for all perspectives to be heard.

Live streaming also helps promote the public accountability of the public officials who occupy senior management positions at the school board. Your government has vouched for the importance of such public accountability. Your decision here undermines it.

Live streaming and archiving of our meetings on YouTube have also provided a constructive way for parents and advocates to track what is going on in other school boards in connection with students with disabilities/special education needs. This helps avoid re-inventing the wheel. This is especially true when it comes to meeting the needs of the thousands and thousands of vulnerable students with disabilities/special education needs in our schools who have chronically been underserved and who face far too many disability barriers in the school system.

Finally, live streaming of our meetings helps the media play its important role in our democracy of holding accountable public officials, including senior school board officials.

Before the Ontario Government took over the TDSB, parents of students with disabilities/special education needs had several public forums where they could bring forward their concerns. They could make delegations to the entire school board at a meeting of all trustees. They could make delegations at meetings of various sub-committees of trustees. All these were live streamed. They could attend community forums held by individual trustees.

All of those forums are now gone. What is left for parents of students with disabilities/special education needs are the monthly meetings of the Special Education Advisory Committee. Banning continued live streaming of our meetings further weakens their voices and thereby hurts students with disabilities/special education needs.

At the October 6, 2025, meeting of the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board, a motion was passed as follows:

“SEAC urges the Ministry of Education to withdraw its objection to live streaming SEAC meetings.”

Please explain why you have banned the commendable practice of live streaming these SEAC meetings and the meetings of other committees at school boards which have been taken over by the Ontario Government, especially when live streaming costs nothing. Please rescind this decision and allow live streaming of our meetings to continue.

Yours Sincerely,

David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont,

cc: Rohit Gupta TDSB Provincial Supervisor, rohit.gupta@harringtonplaceadvisors.com rohit.gupta@tdsb.on.ca

Denise Cole, Deputy Minister of Education, Denise.Cole@ontario.ca

Clayton La Touche, Director of Education TDSB Clayton.LaTouche@TDSB.on.ca

Louise Sirisko, Associate Director TDSB Louise.Sirisko@tdsb.on.ca

Nandy Palmer, Executive Superintendent, TDSB Nandy.Palmer@tdsb.on.ca