Appendix C: Dreams Delayed Calls to Action - Accountability and Transparency

Appendix C: Dreams Delayed Calls to Action
Accountability and Transparency

Action 1 – Education Duty-Holders Must Acknowledge and Commit/Pledge to Action on Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination in Education – Immediate (1–2 years)

All levels of the education system, including school boards, schools, unions, and Faculties of Education must make a clear, formal, and public acknowledgement of the structural and systemic nature of anti-Black discrimination and its impact on Black students and Black education staff’s right to an education and work environment free from discrimination and harassment. Further, duty-holders must recognize that systemic anti-Black racism is at the root of the tacit acceptance of the ongoing discriminatory practices pervasive throughout Ontario’s publicly funded education system.

Duty-holders must also work with Black communities to establish and implement measurable plans and initiatives (e.g., human rights and anti-discrimination frameworks, human rights indicators and evaluations, targeted supports with impact evaluations) to address and report on anti-Black racism and discrimination.^[12]

Action 2 – Education Duty Holders Must Develop a Communication Strategy to Acknowledge Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination in Education – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on all levels of the education system, including school boards, trustees, schools, unions, and Faculties of Education to clearly communicate their acknowledgement of anti-Black racism and discrimination in education.

In collaboration with students, parents/guardians, and the community, school boards must adopt multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure the acknowledgement and associated action plan reach the whole student population and their families.

Action 3 – The Ministry of Education Must Create a Provincial Framework to Address Human Rights and Anti-Black Discrimination – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to create a provincial policy and impact framework to address discrimination and harassment in Ontario’s education system. This should include specific measures to combat anti-Black discrimination and harassment including addressing gaps in responsiveness and accountability through mechanisms to verify performance impact and improvement.

The Framework must include:

1. A Multi-Year Plan (MYP) for sustainable expansion of resources and programs created to address anti-Black racism and discrimination.
2. Goals and outcomes pertaining to the hiring, promotion, and retention of Black educators and education workers, and employment systems review process.
3. An independent and comprehensive evaluation of the framework to determine effectiveness and potential improvements.
4. A commitment from leadership at all levels of administration, including trustees, to drive systemic change and accountability.
5. Training and support for leaders to effectively implement accountability measures specific to addressing racial discrimination with particular focus on anti-Black racism.
6. Accountability measures for data governance.
7. Accountability and enforcement measures for intervening in instances of racial harassment and discrimination.
8. Clear guidelines for reporting and addressing human rights violations with transparent lines of authority for roles, responsibilities, and functions.
9. Transparent and accessible complaints process for students, educators, education workers, parents, and community members.

Action 4 – The Ministry of Education Must Develop a Communication Strategy for the Accountability Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to develop a communication strategy for the provincial framework to address human rights and anti-Black discrimination and harassment referenced in Action 3.

The communication strategy must:

1. Incorporate multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure rights-holders can access the information.
2. Include a multi-year plan with clearly defined outcomes.
3. Include a timeframe for compliance reporting.
4. Be community-informed and trauma-informed.
5. Be publicly available.

Action 5 – The Ministry of Education Must Review the Policy and Protocol of PPMs – Immediate (1–2 years)

While the Minister of Education has the authority under the Education Act (s. 8(1)(29.1)) to require school boards to develop and implement equity and inclusive education policies, the Ministry must ensure these policies are strengthened to explicitly align with human rights and anti-discrimination principles.

Updated policies should provide clear, mandatory guidance for school boards and ensure alignment with the provincial framework on human rights and anti-discrimination (see Action 3).

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Embed human rights principles into relevant policy and program memorandums to ensure compliance with the Code.
2. Conduct a review of PPM 119 and Developing and Implementing Equity and Inclusive Education Policies in Ontario Schools (June 24, 2009) to align it with human rights and anti-discrimination principles and the Anti-Racism Act (2017) and the Anti-Racism Data Standards (2018).
3. Establish a separate PPM to address anti-Black discrimination with detailed guidelines and actions to combat anti-Black racism at all levels of the education system.
4. Establish clear mechanisms for oversight and enforcement of the policy, with clearly delineated roles, functions, and responsibilities.
5. Establish standards for human rights knowledge and anti-racism to be included in teacher qualifications.

Action 6 – The Ministry of Education Must Communicate Policy and Procedure Updates – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to communicate to school boards, unions, and rights-holders about their policy reviews updates and to consult with school boards to establish the most effective manner of communication.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Provide rights-holders an overview of process;
2. Provide a completion timeframe;
3. Provide a publicly published update and incorporate multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure rights-holders have access to information.

Action 7 – The Ministry of Education Must Establish a Threshold for Independent Intervention for Code violations – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to establish a clear threshold for when it will engage an independent reviewer to address serious or ongoing allegations of anti-Black racism within a school board. This threshold should be defined to ensure that any organization consistently violating the Ontario Human Rights Code faces appropriate remedial measures to address and rectify systemic issues. The threshold criteria must be developed in consultation with external experts who have a demonstrated competence in human rights and in addressing anti-Black racism. School boards must be able to demonstrate that they comply with all legal obligations.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Develop a clear and measurable threshold to address serious or repeated instances of racism and discrimination within a school board, with the authority to engage an independent reviewer. The threshold should consider the frequency and severity of the racism and discrimination, and its impact on students, families, school, and community. The threshold should be developed in consultation with external experts who have a demonstrated competence in human rights and in addressing anti-Black racism.
2. Provide preventive support, including policy development and regular audits to school boards to ensure educators, principals, and senior leadership uphold and advance human rights principles.
3. Ensure any investigator involved in reviewing and addressing human rights issues, including from trustees and student trustees, has extensive knowledge and experience in human rights.

Action 8 – School Boards Must Communicate Roles and Responsibilities Related to Human Rights – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on school boards to establish greater clarity of roles, responsibilities, qualifications, standards, and legal obligations of duty-holders (including but not limited to those with human rights portfolios) under the Ontario Human Rights Code and to clearly communicate these to the community.

Action 9 – Faculties of Education Must Establish an Accountability Framework for Increased Diversity of Teacher Candidates with Particular Attention to Increasing the Number of Black Educators – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on Faculties of Education to create and implement an internal human rights accountability framework to address anti-Black discrimination and harassment in education.

Faculties of Education must:

1. Increase the diversity in teacher candidates through targeted recruitment.
2. Secure a commitment to the framework from leadership at all levels within faculties.
3. Provide training and support for leaders to effectively engage with and implement the accountability measures.
4. Establish a comprehensive evaluation process with specific timelines to determine compliance and effectiveness of the framework.
5. Establish assessments to measure the impact of courses on aspiring educators and their practice.

Action 10 – Unions Must Establish an Accountability Framework for Addressing the Discrimination and Harassment Experienced by Black Educators and Addressing Anti-Black Racism when Committed by Members – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on unions to establish and implement an internal human rights accountability framework to address anti-Black discrimination and harassment in education.

Unions must: 

1. Create an accountability framework that includes clear guidelines on and timelines for reporting and addressing human rights violations, including anti-Black discrimination and harassment, with transparent roles, responsibilities, and functions.
2. Develop and implement accountability procedures for local union branches to investigate complaints of discrimination and harassment, including from Black educators and education workers.
3. Hold members accountable for human rights violations, including anti-Black racism and harassment, and leadership for addressing complaints of discrimination or harassment from Black educators and education workers.
4. Identify and implement transparent processes for reporting, investigating and following up on instances of anti-Black discrimination, harassment, and poisoned work environment. Unions have legal obligations under labour law to investigate complaints or potential grievances for merit. Where systemic patterns of anti-Black racism are identified within local unions, national branches have an obligation under the Code to establish processes to investigate and address these issues, including conducting reviews to ensure fair representation of Black members. Where possible, these investigations should be conducted by an independent investigator.
5. Ensure all processes (e.g., grievance, arbitration) include a human rights lens.
6. Integrate and implement human rights language, including discrimination and harassment into constitutions, by-laws, and collective agreements.
7. Develop transparent and accessible complaints mechanisms for educators and education workers, including how they hold employers accountable and establishing a clear process for addressing discrimination between members.
8. Establish a comprehensive evaluation process with specific timeframes to determine compliance and effectiveness of the framework.
9. Secure commitment to the framework from leadership at all levels within the union to drive systemic change.
10. Provide training and support for leaders to effectively implement accountability measures.
11. Establish a centrally administered complaints system to investigate external complaints against members.

Action 11 – Unions Must Establish a Communication Strategy for an Accountability Framework and Monitoring Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on unions to establish a clear communication strategy to inform members of the accountability framework.

A communication strategy must be: 

1. Developed in partnership with Black members.
2. Circulated to all local levels.
3. Made accessible online and regularly updated.

Action 12 – The Ontario College of Teachers Must Enhance Capacity on Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) to work with education partners to improve public awareness and access to its publicly available information about disciplinary processes, increase its capacity to investigate incidents of anti-Black discrimination, and improve standards of practice regarding racism, discrimination and culturally responsive pedagogy.

OCT must: 

1. Review standards of practice regarding racism, discrimination and culturally responsive pedagogy.
2. Create a mechanism to track complaints filed at the school board level that may also amount to professional misconduct.
3. Explore ways to collaborate with other duty-holders to increase public awareness of publicly available information.
4. Hire staff who have demonstrated knowledge and experience in investigating anti-Black racism, discrimination, and harassment.
5. Work with Faculties of Education and school boards to increase educator engagement in anti-Black racism Additional Qualifications.

Action 13 – School Boards Must Establish a Human Rights Office in Each School Board – Intermediate (3–5 years)

The OHRC calls on each school board to establish a central office to implement human rights policies and investigate human rights complaints from students and staff under the Code, such as discrimination, harassment, and poisoned environments, including anti-Black racism, and to develop human rights capacity within the board.

The Human Rights office must be established in collaboration with the community and supported by the Ministry of Education and the school board.

The Human Rights Office must: 

1. House Human Rights and Equity Advisors.
2. Respond promptly to incidents of discrimination.
3. Be empowered to create accountability measures for board directors and school principals for human rights incidents.
4. Assist students, parents, and communities facing discrimination and harassment to access information, navigate school systems and effectively advocate for students.

The Ministry of Education must:

5. Empower and resource school boards to establish human rights offices, which will engage and collaborate with community groups and stakeholders, collect and report data as per the Provincial Framework (Action 3), and investigate complaints.

Action 14 – School Boards Must Develop Culturally Competent Communication Plans for Student and Family Engagement – Intermediate (3–5 years)

The OHRC calls on all school boards to partner with School and Family Advocates (SFA) or System Navigators to develop culturally competent communication plans to inform and engage parents and students at critical points in the educational transitions to improve their understanding of education pathways and opportunities.

School boards must:

1. Collaborate with students, parents, and communities to establish multi-modal and multilingual approaches to targeted and effective communication, including:
    
   1. Create a communication plan for parents/guardians and families about the transition from Grade 8 to Grade 9, and other significant decisions taking place in grades 1 to 6.
   2. Create a communication plan for parents and families about the transition to post-secondary school.
2. Collaborate with parents/guardians of Black students and Student and Family Advocates to develop culturally relevant education and support services. These services should provide meaningful support to parents/guardians within/from diverse communities.