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 SCHOOLS

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SCHOOLS

of studies, discipline, and regular attendance of pupils, is better than that of aU other institutions of the same class in the province. Many years have already elapsed since in the cities, villages, and other parts of the country, long opened up to colonization, the old squiire-timber school-houses were replaced b}' splen- did buildings of brick or stone. The architecture of these schools is simple and beautiful; the systems of ventilation, hghting, and heating are excellent; the installation of suitable school furniture and accessories is almost complete. This progress is very evident, even in centres of colonization. The school trustees make it a point of honour to put up school buildings which are beautiful and spacious, and which leave noth- ing to be desired in ventilation, lighting, and heating. The Catholic schools of Ontario are called separate schools. They do separate, in fact, for school pur- poses, the Catholic minority from the Protestant ma- jority. They make it possible for Cathohcs to with- draw their "children from the public or common schools, which are by law Protestant. Nevertheless, there are some pubhc schools which are reall)^ Catho- lic; these exist in localities exclusively or almost exclu- sively Catholic. Such schools are found especially in the Counties of Russell, Prescott, Algoma, Nipissing, Kent, and Essex. Separate schools were granted in 1841, when the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were united. Wishing to secure for their co-religion- ists in Lower Canada exemption from the obHgation of .sending their children to the CathoUc schools (com- mon schools in that province), and of paying taxes for the support of said schools, the Protestants of On- tario and Quebec proposed to establish a system of dissident or separate schools. What they claimed for the Protestants of Lower Canada they had to bind them.selves in strict justice to grant to the Cathohcs of Upper Canada.

The principle of separate schools, Catholic in On- tario and Protestant in Quebec, received the royal sanction on 18 September, 1841. This fundamental law had been discussed by a committee of the Legisla- tive A.ssembly in which Lower Canada was represented by fifteen members and Upper Canada by eight. This law authorized dissidents from the common schools, on giving notice to the clerk of the district council, to pay their school taxes for the support of separate schools, and to receive a share of the government grants for education in proportion to their number. The same law authorized the election by the people of trustees for the administration of separate schools. The gov- ernor was authorized to nominate in each city a board of examiners cf>mposed of an equal number of Catho- lics and Protestants. The Catholics of Ontario ob- tained the privilege of establishing a separate board for the examination of candidates wishing to teach in their schooLs; a clause in this fundamental law ex- empted the Brothers of the Christian Schools from submitting to examination by this board. From 1841 to 1863, at almo.st every .session of the Legisla- ture, the Ontario Protestants proposed amendments tfj the act establishing separate schools. These amend- ments tended, for the most part, to render the exist- ence of separate schools in Ontario so precarious that they would die out of themselves. The desired privi- legeH for the Prote.stants of J>ower Canada had been obtained; it was WfW known that these privileges would always be resi)ected by the Catholie majority of Quebec; now, they thought, it would be safe 1o de- liver the attacks of unenlightened fanaticism against the separate schooLs of Upper Canada Cost what it might, the cry was raised for a single school system for the whole of Upper Canada — a common, public, or national school system. While constantly professing motives of the purest justice and common interest, the Protestant Province of Upper Canada has continuailj sullied its reputation for fairness by setting an ex- ample of fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and intol-

erance towards CathoUc schools, whilst Lower Can- ada, a Catholic province, has been a model of perfect justice and toleration.

On 27 February, 1863, a Catholic deputy, R. W. Scott, presented for the fourth time a new law to gov- ern the separate schools. This law was adopted, thanks to the generous aid given by the French Ca- nadian deputies, mostly from Lower Canada. The Upper Canadian majority voted against the bill, but all the members from Quebec and twenty-one members from Upper Canada, among them several Protes- tants, were in its favour and carried the measure.

If Ontario now possesses a system of Catholic separate schools, it is largely due to the French Canadians of Lower Canada, whose wishes in the matter were enforced by their representatives, Catholic and Protestant. This law, enacted in 1863, was maintained at the time of the confederation of the provinces in 1867; it still governs to-day the Catholic separate schools of Ontario. Yet it is far from giving to the Catholics of that province liberties equal to those enjoyed by the Protestant minority of Quebec. It recognizes the Catholic separate schools for primary education only. Secondary or superior education in Ontario is Protestant. The Catholics have their academies, convents, colleges, and universities, but these are independent schools, supported by the voluntary contributions of Catholics who have also to contribute, on the same footing as Protestants, to the support of the government high schools, collegiate institutes, and universities. It refuses to separate schools the right to a share of the taxes paid by public-utility companies, such as rail- way, tramway and telephone companies, banks, etc. It withholds from the trustees of separate schools the right of expropriation in order to secure more fitting localities for their schools. It refuses to the Protestant father of a Catholic family the right to pay his taxes towards the support of Catholic schools. It allows Catholics the option of paying their taxes to support the public schools. As the rate of taxation for separate schools is generally higher than that for public schools, owing to the large number of children in families of the Catholic minority, and to the absten- tion of large business concerns from contributing the least support to the separate schools, it follows that many Catholics, more or less sincere, avoid the higher rate and pay their taxes towards the support of the public, or Protestant, schools. The separate schools are administered, as by a court of final juris- diction, by the Education Department at Toronto, in which Catholics are not represented.

The law governing the separate schools neverthe- less gives to Catholics the following riglits: (1) to pay their taxes for primary schools in which religious instruction is given, and of which the teachers, in- spectors and textbooks are Catholic; (2) to adminis- ter these schools by a board of trustees elected by the Catholic proprietors and residents of the different school sections; (3) to fix the rate of school-tax- ation; (4) to have these school-taxes collected by the tax-collector of the city or township; (5) to negotiate loans for the election of school build- ings; (6) to (iugage teachers. Th(^ board of trus- tees has likewis(! the right to impose the teaching in French or (Jerman of reading, six'lling and litera- ture, as ])rovi(le(l for by the regulations of the Educa- tion l)ci)artiiiciit, ])age <), article IT,, year 1907. The French Canadians, availing themselves of this right, have the French language taught in 2.')0 schools, frequented almost entirely by their children. The Government has named three I''ren(h ('anadian in- spectors for thc^se schools, called bilingual. The teachers of these schools are trained in two public buingual train ing-.schools, one at Sturg(!on Falls and the other at Ottawa, founded and supiiorted by the Government, and directed by Catholic principals.