cellphones

Wednesday March 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 13, 2019

Ontario to ban cellphones from classrooms starting next school year

Ontario students will no longer be able to use their cellphones in the classroom next September, as Premier Doug Ford makes good on a populist campaign promise.

August 24, 2018

CTV News Toronto has confirmed that the Ministry of Education will change the code of conduct for students and teachers, implementing a ban on smartphone use during class time but allowing local school boards to decide how to enforce the new rules.

“Ontario’s students need to be able to focus on their learning – not their cellphones,” Education Minister Lisa Thompson said in a statement.

“By banning cellphone use that distracts from learning, we are helping students to focus on acquiring the foundational skills they need like reading, writing and math.”

The new student code of conduct is expected to have strict guidelines for cellphone use, including preventing students from placing their phones face-down on desks, even with the ringer set to silent.

September 3, 2013

Students would be allowed to bring their phones into the classroom, the government said, but usage would be reserved for educational and emergency situations.

“Obviously for emergency purposes, for medical purposes and for specific courses that require technological platforms – they’d be permissible,” Progressive Conservative MPP Stephen Lecce told CTV News Toronto.

The government said teachers and parents overwhelmingly supported banning cellphone use during telephone town halls and surveys conducted last fall, in which 97 per cent of the 35,000 respondents advocated for the move.

Among the feedback sent to the ministry of education, educators complained that phones were not only a distraction but that students were also using them to cheat and share unflattering photographs of teachers on social media.

September 17, 2010

Ministry of education officials, speaking on background, said students wouldn’t be expected to lock up their phones and while enforcement will be difficult, it will be left up to school boards.

“Parents deserve to know it, students deserve to know it for their own protection, and to be fair, educators want how they’re going to have that enforceability,” Lecce said.

While Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner agrees that cellphones can be a distraction, he is critical of what he describes as the government’s “top-down regulation” approach.

“The Ford government is just duplicating powers that educators already have to control cellphone use in their classrooms. Instead of empowering schools to create reasonable cell phone use policies, Ford is promising a province-wide ban that is impossible to enforce,” Schreiner said in a statement. (Source: CTV News)  

 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, February 27, 2014

Distracted driving fines increase to $280 on March 18

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says drivers talking on the phone or texting now cause more deaths on Ontario roads than drunk drivers.

Fines for distracted driving are set to nearly double next month, but you can’t blame the government for this one.

The decision to increase the fine for driving while using a hand-held device — such as a cellphone or MP3 player — to $280 from $155 starting March 18 comes courtesy of Annemarie Bonkalo, chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice.

Bonkalo was not asked to rule on the issue, nor did she provide detailed reasons for her decision, but with the simple stroke of a pen, she has made distracted driving an even more unattractive option.

The Feb. 18 judicial order appears to have come out of nowhere. It is perfectly within Bonkalo’s statutory authority, say her office and the province, but it comes at a time when the minority Liberals are already promising to introduce a package of distracted driver changes, including possibly demerit points.

Bonkalo’s order represents the first time the fine has been changed since legislation was enacted in 2009.

The Transportation ministry confirmed it did not ask Bonkalo for the increase but its minister, Glen Murray, nonetheless told reporters Tuesday he was pleased with her decision, saying it fits in with the government’s overall efforts to crack down on distracted driving.

Progressive Conservative transportation critic Jeff Yurek sees things differently. He said the judge may have been frustrated with the government dragging its feet on the issue, noting it has failed to push through a private member’s bill from one of its own MPPs that would dramatically increase distracted driving fines and add demerit points.

“I think it speaks to a lack of initiative this government is showing,” Yurek said.

He said it was certainly a concern that a judge can increase a fine without it first being debated among elected officials in the legislature, but Bonkalo “was probably frustrated that this government has not acted on this issue that is killing Ontarians.” (Source: Toronto Star)