Protecting ALL Ontario Students

We are calling on the Ontario Government to improve the indoor air quality of our schools – because all students and education workers deserve equal access to a safe and stable learning environment. Since the government has so far failed in its general duty to protect children in classrooms, we are raising funds to launch a legal challenge, in the event it is needed, to hold them accountable for that failure, and to create change: A scientific, evidence-based approach to public health decision-making.

Students and education workers attending in-person spend several hours a day indoors, for almost 200 days per year. This makes the air quality of the buildings they are in incredibly important. Over the past few years of the pandemic, we have learned that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is spread by aerosol particles that build up in the air in poorly ventilated spaces. Other illnesses can be spread in the same way, which means that students and staff remain vulnerable in the event of an outbreak of another airborne disease.

In addition to decreasing the risk of spreading infectious diseases, improving indoor air quality benefits our overall health in other ways. High concentrations of carbon dioxide in indoor air are associated with poor learning outcomes and productivity. Pollen, dust, and other particulates can cause allergies, lung irritation, and breathing problems, while long-term exposure to them is linked to asthma and lung diseases. Breathing in airborne diseases, high concentrations of carbon dioxide, pollen, dust, and other irritants doesn’t make sense. It makes sense to breathe clean air – air that keeps us happy, healthy, and safe.

Funds raised will be used for:

Retaining a top-tier legal firm with experience mounting legal challenges against governments and any incidental fees required for them to be successful.

Paying expert witnesses to provide reports, testimony, and when required, to attend any court appearances.

Administrative fees, such as:

Ontario’s provincial government has failed its general duty to provide a safe, stable, and healthy working environment for children and youth, their caregivers, the education system and all Ontario communities. They failed us by choosing to ignore the science that shows the detrimental effects of poor indoor air quality, removing protections from airborne illnesses like COVID-19, and going against its own policies with regard to Occupational Health and Safety recommendations.

Just as caregivers have a duty to protect their children, government-funded schools and school boards are responsible for the children/youth under their care.

Similarly, the government and agencies creating, funding, and enforcing policies around education and public health have a responsibility to enact policies that provide a safe working environment for both staff and students – regardless of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, age, or physical/mental disability.

Please join us in our mission to protect Ontario students and education workers from poor indoor air quality.

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Ontario School Safety