Separate School - Controversy

Controversy

The question of separate schools has been most controversial in Ontario and Manitoba. In the former, the issue of separate schools aggravated tensions between anglophones and francophones, both Protestant and Catholic. The ending of public support for separate schools in the latter province in the 1890s prompted a national crisis known as the Manitoba Schools Question, and led to Pope Leo XIII's papal encyclical Affari Vos.

Separate school rights have often been criticized as contrary to the spirit of official multiculturalism, primarily, but not exclusively, because only adherents of the Protestant or Roman Catholic faith have these constitutional rights and only in some provinces and territories. In addition, where separate school systems exist, employees or prospective employees who are of the minority faith have more employment opportunities. (All other things being equal, a member of the minority faith can be employed by either the public board or by the separate board, while anyone else can be excluded from employment by the separate system.) On November 5, 1999 the United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned Canada and Ontario for having violated the equality provisions (Article 26) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee restated its concerns on November 2, 2005, when it published its Concluding Observations regarding Canada's fifth periodic report under the Covenant. The Committee observed that Canada had failed to "adopt steps in order to eliminate discrimination on the basis of religion in the funding of schools in Ontario."