Hasidic couple lose court case about their education
A Quebec Superior Court judge has refused to declare that the Quebec government failed to enforce its own laws by allowing Hasidic Jewish children to be educated at religious schools in a community north of Montreal.
The schools, operated by members of the Tosh community, an ultraorthodox Hasidic enclave in Boisbriand, instructed children in religious education, but little else.
In his decision, dated Thursday, Justice Martin Castonguay also refused to declare that the schools were operating in violation of Quebec's education laws.
It was the conclusion to a case that began in 2016 and provided a rare glimpse into a secretive Hasidic community.
The plaintiffs in the case, Yochonon Lowen and Clara Wasserstein, attended religious schools when they lived in the Tosh enclave and contended that the education they received there had failed to prepare them for life outside the community.
But while Castonguay acknowledged that the plaintiffs' rights had been infringed upon, he ultimately agreed with Quebec's prosecutor general, who argued in defence that, because of an intervention by the province's youth protection service and legislative changes, Tosh children were now being educated legally.
“The problem experienced by the plaintiffs simply no longer exists,” Castonguay wrote in his judgment.
For the plaintiffs, the problems to which Castonguay referred began when they arrived in Quebec with their families and settled in the Tosh community. Lowen came from the United Kingdom when he was 10; Wasserstein's family emigrated from New York state when she was a baby.
Soon after his arrival, Lowen began attending a boys' school in the community learning about Jewish religious law and the Talmud, but little else.
As a teenager, Wasserstein's education included only six to 10 hours of secular education each week that included French, English and basic mathematics.
The schools at which they studied held no permits from the Quebec government at the time. Wasserstein's school obtained one, but only when she was in Grade 12.
Wasserstein and Lowen married in 1996 and had four children, but were expelled from the community in 2009 after a disagreement over the corporeal punishment of children, which was widespread there, the court heard, but against Wasserstein and Lowen's ideals.
When they left, Lowen could speak only a little English, but could neither read it nor write it, and he spoke no French. His knowledge of secular topics was so limited he didn't even know what the word “science” meant.
But since they left Tosh, changes have been made. Quebec Youth Protection officials intervened in the community and new legislation has been passed making it easier to home-school children and have local school board officials monitor their progress. Though it had taken years, the judge found the defence presented evidence that children in the community are now more closely monitored and receive an adequate secular education.
Castonguay added in his decision that the Tosh community had willingly isolated itself from the rest of the province and government officials had done what they could under the circumstances to apply the law.
Furthermore, the type of declaration requested by the plaintiffs could only be issued to resolve a “real and contemporary” difficulty, Castonguay wrote, and, because he found that the problem of secular education no longer existed, he declined their request.
He did, however, sympathize with the plaintiffs.
“The court cannot question whether the true authors of the infringements of the plaintiffs' rights will one day answer for their actions,” he wrote. “In closing, the court wishes to express its deepest empathy with the plaintiffs for what they experienced before and after they left the Tosh community.”
Lowen and Wasserstein had sought no financial compensation from the court, but Lowen had testified that he hoped a court decision would help Hassidic children receive an education that would allow them to live outside the group.