A radical review of the Canadian Constitution in the offing could be seized as a chance to destroy the publicly-supported Catholic school system in all of Canada.

This is what Tom Reilly, the Superintendent of Education of Dufferin-Peel RC Separate School Board, fears to some extent, as expressed in a letter dated September 19, 1991, to Donald Clune, the Chairman of the Metropolitan (Toronto) Separate School Board (MSSB).

Reilly notes that Quebec is now officially against denominational schools (it has both Protestant and Catholic schools) and is all for “language,” French or English schools.

Premier Clyde Wells of Newfoundland is also against “denominational” (read Catholic or Protestant) schools.  A Royal Commission is at work in that province studying the situation.  Catholics and Protestants there appear determined to keep their school systems.

As for the other Maritime Provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have only public schools.  But now there is also pressure in Ontario for a change.

Ontario

A majority of delegates at the Ontario Public School Boards Association Annual Meeting, held in the early summer at Thunder Bay, petitioned the Minister of Education (at that time Marion Boyd) to amend the Education Act.  They asked to allow a “confederated school board to be realized where autonomous public and separate school boards see fit to implement it by mutual consent.”  Their explanation was reducing “the cost of duplication” between the two systems (public and separate).

This was followed up by a letter dated July 3, 1991 to Marion Boyd by their president, Paula Dunning.  She urged action by the province.  She admits in her letter that she is aware of the strong negative position held by the Ontario Separate School Trustees’ Association.  But she favours a shotgun marriage.

According to Mr. Reilly, this is also the position of the Ontario Tories under the leadership of Michael Harris.

In Windsor, there was even a clumsy attempt by a “citizen” to request the Municipal Council of Essex County to include a referendum on the Fall Municipal election ballot.

“Do you want amalgamation of the School Boards in Essex County with equal representation from the two school systems?”

This was shot down by MSSB legal people, who pointed out “that issues pertaining to use of school property and facilities are not ‘municipal questions’ which a municipality must put to the electors.  The Education Act does not authorize a school board to put these issues on the ballot.”

NDP

The Ontario NDP, according to Reilly, have been very supportive of the Catholic school system.  The only problem is that they have an agenda that calls for “forcing” unemployed teachers from the Ontario public school system into the Catholic schools within five years.  Eventually it was hinted any “discrimination” would be ruled out.

Tom Reilly says that under the old Canadian constitution Catholic schools have a right to choose Catholic teachers in order to witness to the Catholic Faith as well as to impart the Catholic Faith to the student body.  He said that “we will keep on doing it and are prepared to go to court to protect the right to do it.”

However, the new Minister of Education, Tony Silippo, is a former chairman of the Toronto Public School Board.  He may not be unbiased.

Another fear is that the new constitution being discussed for Canada might not go along with the deal made over a hundred years ago to protect the existence of Catholic schools in Ontario in exchange for protecting the existence of “public” or “Protestant” schools, as they were known in Quebec.

Reilly feels that the federal government may have to pay attention to various sectors of Canada seeking to protect their cherished rights, e.g. the Francophone and Native communities.  Optimistically, Catholic schools would be seen in the same light and would be preserved.

Strategy

The strategy which he fears is to link Catholic schools with other “denominational” schools, e.g. Christian Reformed and Hebrew Schools.  They are commendable.  But some say pompously: why should we support one “denominational” school and not another?

Some danger, Tom Reilly fears, lies ahead for publicly-supported Catholic schools, not only in Ontario but in all of Canada, especially if they are no longer supported in the new constitution.  “We have to be alert,” he said.  Chairman Don Clune notes that there are even several trustees running got the MSSB school board election this fall who favour one school board.

“If there is any amalgamation to be done, why don’t the public school beards in Scarborough, York Township, Toronto, North York and Etobicoke amalgamate in order to save money?” asked Michael Doyle, a hardworking Etobicoke trustee with the Metropolitan Separate School Board.  “Is it because the Ontario public school trustees don’t really want to cut costs?”

“It is perfectly clear to me what many of the Ontario public school trustees seek is the complete destruction of the Catholic school system in Canada,” said Doyle.  “They have managed to get Christianity out of the public schools and they would just love to get Catholicism out of the Catholic schools.”

Western Canada

British Columbia has a growing government-supported independent school system, both Catholic and Protestant, in addition to the fully funded public system.  Funding for these independent schools was introduced by the Social Credit Party some 30 years ago, and now reaches 50 per cent of the cost per pupil.  Reilly thinks it unlikely that the new NDP government will change this.

Alberta has been committed to full funding of the province in 1906.  Since the 1950s it has extended support to various Protestant schools on a scale which accords to the degree of government supervision or input.  Support for this system continues today.

In Saskatchewan public schools and Catholic schools up to grade eight have been publicly funded since 1906.  In 1946 the NDP government under Tommy Douglas extended full funding to Catholic high schools.  Recently there was some talk about funding other schools as well.  The attitude of the newly elected government to that is not yet known.

In Manitoba there was no financial support for Catholic schools because of the bitter language controversy in the 1890s in which Catholic and French were identified (and denounced) as one and the same.  In the 1960s NDP Premier Ed Schreyer wanted to change this but failed to bring his party along.  His government funded French public schools only.  A small subsidy for Catholic schools was introduced by the Conservative government which succeeded Schreyer.  Today this amounts to 30 per cent of the cost per pupil.

On January 19, 1992, Reform party leader Preston Manning speaking in Hamilton, proposed that a new Canadian constitution should have no special provisions for language, race or religion.

The type of constitution he envisaged would end all forms of official bilingualism and would eliminate the current protections for the French language and school systems based on religious affiliation.