Non-Minority Faith
Adherents in
Minority Faith
Schools in
Saskatchewan
A Presentation to Saskatchewan
Public School Boards Section
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
June 4th, 2010
The Canadian Anomaly
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Is it Complicated?
Provincial Provision for
Separate, Denominational, and
Dissentient Schools
Public and
Separate Systems
Denominational
Systems
No Legal
Provision
Ontario
Quebec
British
Columbia
(Now Language based)
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Newfoundland
(Now Consolidated
School Districts)
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward
Island
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Who Cares?
1840-41 – Act of Union
Provision for minority religious education permitted the
union of Upper and Lower Canada following the
Rebellions of 1837
1867 – Constitution (B.N.A. Act)
Creation of Canada was made possible because of the
agreement that Provinces would control Education – §
93, (with conditions protecting minority region (Roman
Catholic or Protestant)
1890-97 – Manitoba School Question
forced a Federal election resulting in the defeat of the
Conservative government and the election of Laurier’s
Liberals
1905 – Northwest Schools Crisis
Sifton resigned from federal cabinet nearly bringing down
the Laurier Government
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Historical Context - Canada
• Treaty of Paris (1763) gave
the conquered French the
right to practice the Catholic
religion.
• Act of Union (1840) allowed
those of a minority faith to
establish a dissentient
school.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Historical Context - Canada
• Scott Act (1863) gave separate
schools the right to share in
public grants.
• Funding for separate schools
was tied to “the number of
children of that faith who
attend such separate school.”
• The constructs developed in this
act were embodied in the
Constitution Act 1867.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Minority Faith Education
in Saskatchewan
• North-West Territories Act
(1875) contained the right to
establish minority faith
separate schools.
• The first school ordinances
(1884) set out a dual
confessional model.
• This gradually changed to make
the system less dualistic.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
– Major changes happened after
the Manitoba School Question in
1890.
Historical Context - Canada
• Constitution Act (1867)
made education a provincial
responsibility.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
– Section 93 entrenched
separate school rights in
Ontario and Quebec.
– Those rights held “at the
union” were constitutionally
protected.
– If these rights were infringed
upon, appeals could be made
to the federal government.
Constitution Act 1867, §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:
(3)
Where in any Province a System of Separate or Dissentient
Schools exists by Law at the Union or is thereafter established by the
Legislature of the Province, an Appeal shall lie to the Governor
General in Council from any Act or Decision of any Provincial
Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman
Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education:
(4)
In case any such Provincial Law as from Time to Time seems to
the Governor General in Council requisite for the due Execution of the
Provisions of this Section is not made, or in case any Decision of the
Governor General in Council on any Appeal under this Section is not
duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that Behalf, then
and in every such Case, and as far only as the Circumstances of each
Case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial Laws for the
due Execution of the Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of
the Governor General in Council under this Section.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Saskatchewan Act, 1905
17. Section 93 of the British North
America Act, 1867, shall apply to the
said province, with the substitution
for paragraph (1) of the said Section
93, of the following paragraph:
1. Nothing in any such law shall
prejudicially affect any right or
privilege with respect to separate
schools which any class of
persons have at the date of the
passing of this Act, under the
terms of chapters 29 and 30 of the
Ordinances of the Northwest
Territories, passed in the year
1901, or with respect to religious
instruction in any public or
separate school as provided for in
the said ordinances.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Ordinances of the North-West Territories, 1901
Chapter 29, An Ordinance Respecting Schools
41. The minority of ratepayers in any district
whether Protestant or Roman Catholic may
establish a separate school therein and in
such case the ratepayers establishing such
Protestant or Roman Catholic separate
school shall be liable only to assessments
of such rates as they impose upon
themselves in respect thereof.
42. The petition for the erection of a separate
school district shall be signed by three
resident ratepayers of the religious faith
indicated . . . .
44. The persons qualified to vote for or against
the erection of a separate school district
shall be the ratepayers in the district of the
same religious faith, Protestant or Roman
Catholic, as the petitioners.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Attitudes towards religion
and education at the turn of
the 20th Century
The philosophy of Catholic education was not compatible
with the philosophy of Protestant education during the .
. . late 19th - early 20th centuries. For a Catholic,
religion was the central concern of life . . . the centre
around which the right of life properly should revolve.
This of course meant religion as interpreted by the
Roman Catholic Church . . . . The Church must therefore
control the education of a Catholic child, so that all
aspects of education could be taught within the context
of this religion centred perspective. Protestants
believed, generally speaking, that religion could be
separated from the educational curriculum . . . . The
notion that religious truth was subject to individual or
denominational interpretation was implicit in the
Protestant system, which made that system anathema to
Catholics and the notion that the Catholic Church had a
monopoly on the interpretation of truth was equally
anathema to Protestants.
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
Dr. David Hall, as cited in Kevin P. Feehan. (2005). Long before Alberta was even a province... . Legally Speaking. Edmonton: Alberta
Catholic Schools Association. Retreived May 20, 2010 from
http://www.acsta.ab.ca/publications/dimension/spring2005/legally_13.htm
The next 100 Years
Preliminary research
suggests that it was only
after Vatican II’s publication
of Gravissimum Educationis in
1965 that the Catholic
Separate Schools truly
opened their doors to nonCatholic students
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
What happened: My
Perspective
At about the same time (1964), full funding was
granted to Catholic separate schools to the end of
high school
Coincident with this change, the Education Act was
amended to permit parents in cities with both systems
to declare their intention to send their child to
either a “public” or “separate” high school
(Education Act, 1995, § 145)
Board’s were permitted to enter into a fee for
service agreement, or mutually agree that there
would be no charge for service provision
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
I think Public Boards just “let it go” and over time,
this became extended, by default, to the elementary
schools as well
Saskatchewan
Then and Now
1905 (1901)
• Two solitudes representing
almost the entire population
• Minority faith education
protected as a condition of
nation building
W Rod Dolmage
© 2010
2010
• A multicultural society in
which religious difference
plays a less significant role
• Minority faith education
honoured and, in practice,
extended, apparently by
default
• Virtually no non-minority
faith students in minority
faith schools
• Mon-minority faith students
are a significant minority in
some urban separate systems
• Separate schools provided
religious education to the
children of the religious
minority
• Separate schools provide
religious education to
children of different faiths
as part of the Church’s
evangelical mission
• Minority faith schools
established to honour the
religious education rights of
the religious minority
• Minority faith schools
established for reasons
unrelated to religion