General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours

[tomh009]

Of course, we should merge the Catholic boards into their corresponding public boards. There is no conceivable justification for having a special publicly supported system for one particular religious group. The argument that it is in the constitution is bogus for two reasons: (1) the constitution can be amended and (2) we seem to have eliminated publicly funded schools for protestant families with no trouble (they are now the public boards, except in Penetanguishene) and I’m pretty sure they were constitutionally entitled to schools also.

So, it is in the constitution, in the original 1867 BNA Act portion, and, in particular, it applies to Ontario:

93 In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following Provisions:

1.
Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union;
2.
All the Powers, Privileges, and Duties at the Union by Law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the Separate Schools and School Trustees of the Queen’s Roman Catholic Subjects shall be and the same are hereby extended to the Dissentient Schools of the Queen’s Protestant and Roman Catholic Subjects in Quebec;

Yes, the constitution can be amended, in principle. The last two attempts both failed, though, and the current odds of a successful amendment are very long given that we have several rather intransigent provinces.