(non) Yay - fundie universities in Canada too

[Terrasola]

If the Province of Ontario can grow a pair and finally tackle the issue of separate schools /education double standards, it really creams my corn that New Brunswick can't step up to the plate and do the same with Crandall when they have the big stick of their Human Rights Act to use as a tool. They could launch an investigation due to media reports; it's been done before.

However, here's what's really behind the Ontario issue IMHO. It's not that Premier Dalton McGuinty loves teh gayz and wants us all to join hands and sing kumbaya (although I don't know for sure that he doesn't). He is a product of the Catholic school system, as are his own kids. Ontario's citizens don't like the idea of separate schools when only the Catholic separate schools are funded and the province can't afford to fund the Flying Spaghetti Monster school boards that might result if the playing field were more even in a funded multi-faith board world. The province is in a big time financial bind and is implementing some severe measures to get back on track. De-funding the Catholic boards would help stem the flow of red from the province's balance sheets. It's always about the money ... or getting (re)elected (which is, of course, all about the money).

[Tuesy]

Oh, maybe. I only really know about Ontario (it's where I grew up), but between that and reading mention of it in other provinces in the past I assumed it was Canada-wide.

Nope. Not Canada-wide. I grew up in MB, and there is only the public school system there (aside from some private or Christian schools). I was surprised when I moved to ON and saw so many girls in tiny, tiny plaid skirts on their way to Catholic school. Yikes.

As an aside, I wouldn't expect anything particularly fundie in Manitoba. It's pretty chill there, and has had an NDP provincial government for quite awhile (although does tend to remain primarily Conservative in Federal elections. Ugh.)

I have heard the Laureen Harper rumours for a few years now. So there is fact behind the rumours? Good for her if she is happy with her new partner, but too bad she can't divorce Stephen and have the Conservatives try and do damage-control for the "scandal" it would cause. Although the fact that hardly anyone I know has even heard of the Robocalls issue makes me think that no one will even notice. When will Canadians wake up and see the direction Harper is trying to take our country?

[IamCanadian]

add me to the list of people worried about this very thing,

edited to add: we have friends/relatives who are part of the political scene in Ottawa or part of the lesbian community in Ottawa and these are true facts.

I was referring to John Baird, but he has never outed himself publicly. As for the PM's wife, I've heard those rumours too, but who knows?

By the way, have any of you seen the nude Stephen Harper painting? http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012 ... 76471.html

[acheronbeach]

I'm surprised that the idea of getting rid of the Catholic school system in Ontario would be viewed positively. John Tory got huge backlash for suggesting it in 2007.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Separate schools were part of the original Constitution (the BNA Act of 1867), but several of the provinces have since made the changes necessary to opt out of the system.

In some provinces, the system had become crazy. Quebec had 4 systems - English Protestant, English Catholic, French Protestant and French Catholic. I know that my parents went to English Protestant schools in Quebec that were 99% Jewish, but they still sang hymns to Jesus and learned the New Testament. The Constitutional amendment to allow Quebec to opt out of the separate school system was passed in 1997 and went into effect in 2000.

[2xx1xy1JD]

From a quick read of the article, it looks like a blanket policy would not be supported by the courts.

Catholic elementary and secondary schools, because of article 93 of the Constitution, had rights that existed prior to the human rights legislation, so those laws don't apply to them and they get away with hiring policies that openly discriminate in hiring for ALL staff positions.

No other institution has that right. Religious schools and institutions need to show that the discriminatory requirement is in fact a bona fide occupational requirement. For example, if a position is clearly religious, then hiring only someone who is a practicing member of that religion is allowed. OTOH, discrimination against other staff may not be permitted.

[IamCanadian]

Fully or partially funded separate school systems exist in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Newfoundland and Labrador ended their separate school system in 1997; it was in existence when I went to school in Atlantic Canada. BC partially funds faith-based and independent schools; the other afore-mentioned provinces fully fund the separate schools. Alberta and Saskatchewan have both Catholic and Protestant separate school boards, although SK's are primarily Catholic. Ontario's funded separate school system is Catholic.

It is widely believed that the recent ON legislation passed this past week requiring all Ontario secondary schools to permit gay straight alliance clubs (and to permit the use of this name for the clubs, which Catholic boards prohibit), is designed to end funding to the Catholic school system.

Hello...I'm from Newfoundland!

I graduated from high school just as they were phasing it out. Where did you go to school in Atlantic Canada?

[Eclipse]

The only province that Constitutionally must have publicly funded Catholic schools is Ontario and Quebec on the other hand to have publicly funded Protestant schools. That is a relic of concerns at the time the British North American Act was being negotiated between the French and English in the United Province of Canada prior to Confederation. Catholics in other provinces that joined Confederation after asked for funding for their schools as well and they had the backing of French Catholics in Quebec who at the time saw themselves as the defenders of the Catholic faith in Canada. Its an interesting piece of Canadian history that we spent a quite a bit of time on it in one of my undergrad history courses (the History of Quebec and French Canada). I could go on in greater detail but most people probably don't find it that interesting. Other provinces except for Quebec and Ontario had an easier time abolishing their faith based systems due to the lack of Constitutional requirement.

Quebec asked the federal government for a Constitutional Amendment to exempt them from Article 93 of the British North American Act in 1997 after a unanimous vote in the National Assembly of Quebec. The federal government passed the Constitutional Amendment that year.

Now according to a recent poll 48 percent want to get rid of Catholic schools. McGuinty, a Catholic himself, has said he can't do it without a Constitutional amendment. See http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/poli ... poll-finds

i was raised in a practicing Catholic household and went to Sunday School and Mass every Sunday but I went to public school because my parents did not and do not support the Catholic school system. And neither do it.

The post secondary system is more complicated though.

I'm surprised that the idea of getting rid of the Catholic school system in Ontario would be viewed positively. John Tory got huge backlash for suggesting it in 2007.

John Tory proposed extending funding to schools of other faith to make it fair, including Protestant schools, Jewish schools and Muslim schools. Most of the backlash came because people didn't want to fund Muslim schools because they were worried about what the schools would be teaching regarding women's rights and hatred of the West. Mostly he lost due to suspicion of Muslims.