…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.”

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Six hundred million smackeroos is what the McGuinty government in Queen’s Park is pledging toward phase one of Bytown’s transit re-do. Good on them!

Um, but wait – let’s see… municipal elections are in 2010… hmmm…

What are the chances of the federal contribution being scuttled if a new non-Harper/Baird/Poilievre-friendly Mayor is elected???

Which is what most of us are hoping for.

Sigh.

I won’t see LRT in Bytown until after I retire in 2022…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario