On the 13 of December 2002, six days before the sch
eduled date for the appeal hearing pertaining to the so-called new facts submitted by the school boards to the Federal Court of Appeal, government attorneys made an offer to settle regarding the Quebec school board cases which were, at that time, pending before the TCC. However, the department reserved its position on the Ontario cases because,
before deciding to approach the Ontario school board cases in the same way that it had approached those from Quebec, it wished to first examin
...[+++]e the Ontario Education Act.