…one school system in Ontario?
One can only hope. It will likely fail, but will expose the farcical inequities in our education system to those Ontarians who are, at present, blissfully unaware.
But you can bet that I and the many others who want to see the end of faith-based education funding in Ontario will be watching this case with interest.
The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled that Sect. 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which guarantees Catholic school funding in Ontario, is immune from Charter challenges. (The Charter specifically exempts from review all rights guaranteed in the constitution.)
But Landau (the Plaintiff) contends that the obvious inequality that results must, by law, be narrowly defined.
To that end, she contends that Catholic school funding should be based today on the 1867 model, one that strictly limited government support.
In her application, filed in the Superior Court of Justice, Landau asks for an order that eliminates all government aid for Catholic schools from Grades 9 to 12.
She also seeks an order that limits the funding of Grades 1 to 8 to “only that aid available in 1867, that is, only property taxes from Catholics who declare themselves to be separate school supporters and who live within three miles of a separate school, and property taxes from wholly Catholic-owned businesses.”
She argues the current funding system unjustly forces her, through the tax system, to support Catholic schools.
“It means I’m being forced to fund a system that has sectarian views of which I do not approve,” she said. “I’m therefore being discriminated against because a Catholic is not being forced to fund a system of which they do not approve.”
You go, girl! And if you happen to come across this blog, let me know if I can help.
Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario
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Tags: catholic schools, lawsuit, one school system, ontario government, Ontario politics, Reva Landau
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2012 at 1:44 pm and is filed under education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
10 things about Trashy...
Your move, Stevo...
Times have changed. At last, here is an intelligent woman bravely articulating what many Ontarians feel and have been muttering amongst themselves. She has my support. Religions should be treated equally, and we should also bolster the separation between “church and state” (religion and government, or at least, religion and the law).
This is fantastic news! I hope the media really pick this up, and raise the awareness of how unjust this situation is, and has been for years! It is SUCH A WASTE OF TAXPAYERS’ MONEY to be running two separate school systems,especially when times are tight.
Here’s an example in today’s Citizen (Matthew Pearson’s article) of unnecessary duplication of services/facilities: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Defeated+Liberal+candidate+asks+education+minister+tackle+overcrowding/6004867/story.html
Just one example of how the funds saved by consolidating the separate and public systems could be put to better use! I’ve been beating on this drum for years, however… and do not seem to be gaining any ground.
Waste of money and facilities especially considering the overcrowding of most of our public schools. Plus, it is discriminatory.. and has been labelled by the UN as such!