What? Someone doesn’t want funding for all religious schools in Ontario, and even wants the Catholic system removed from public funding???
The Ontario government should stop funding Catholic schools, according to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Progressive* Conservative Leader John Tory has caused an uproar in the province with his plan to extend government funding to all faith-based schools that meet criteria.
It has become the most controversial issue in the election campaign.
In a paper being released today, the civil liberties association says that to resolve the unfairness of publicly funding only Catholic schools, Ontario should seek a constitutional amendment to stop funding the schools, attended by more than 600,000 students.
In 1985, Ontario extended full funding to Catholic schools. Quebec and Newfoundland, on the other hand, initiated constitutional amendments to disband publicly funded Catholic schools entirely.
Extending public funding to more faith-based schools — as Tory plans to do if elected Oct. 10 — will lead to a proliferation of such schools and ultimately leave Ontario a “much less tolerant place,” the paper states.
“We’re hoping to ensure that everyone holds the line now — and hereafter — on the funding of religious schools,” Alan Borovoy, the association’s chief counsel, said in an interview.
- It should be noted that John Tory is JUST a Conservative, not a Progressive Conservative; the party dropped the Progressive pretence–er, prefix–a couple of years ago when it merged with the hard-right Reform party. Even more amusingly, the local Conservative candidate is advertising herself as “Your John Tory Candidate”–shades of “Your Mike Harris Candidate” back in the 1990s. They seem to be falling for the cult of personality in a way not seen since Stalin.
Tory’s key issue will certainly backfire on him at the polls, because most Ontarians want to keep the public education system public, not private-with-public funding. And a number agree that the public funding of the Catholic separate school system must also stop. Religion belongs in the home and in the place of worship, not schools.
And if you doubt me, read this.
