Catholics to Calandra: “Hands off our schools”
TORONTO – Who knows? Its is a function of citizens finally fed up with the consequences of their silence. Courts and quasi-autonomous Boards of Appeal authorized to review and implement decisions are making decisions which reverse previously “approved” secular ideologies.
The recent justification for “bike lanes” by J. Schabas was thrown out “like so much rubbish” by an Ontario Superior Court is one such example. Bike lanes have an economic, environmental and traffic consequence not carefully weighed and the affected public objected and appealed. Schools, family structures, societal values and cultural pillars whose presence are embedded in the Constitution surely demand at least as much respect – even by governments.
There is a total of 72 publicly funded School Boards operating under the authority of Section 93 of the Canadian Constitution – the Charter of Rights and the Human Rights Code included. Twenty-nine (29) of those are Catholic. More specifically, the Constitution requires the Attorney General of the province to preface any legislation with the alert that nothing in [any] proposed legislation can be used to erode the [denominational] rights of Catholics.
The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA), as per its founding principles in 1930, represents them and their elected trustees, even as some of them have distinguished themselves by their non-conventional definitions of Catholicism. At any rate, the qualifications for voting purposes are proof of religious affiliation for tax for property taxation and citizenship (including age) for a right to seek office and solicit votes from equally compliant ratepayers. Moral adherence to the authority of the magisterium…(?)
The issue at hand is Minister Calandra’s proposal for Regulation Under the Education Act to Require Confirmation of School Board Resolutions and Motions in English-Language District School Boards. In a word, OCSTA cannot support the proposal. Because its advice was neither sought nor [the proposal] debated, the Ministry cannot purport to respect the principles accepted in the 1930 founding document accepted by the Government of Ontario.
The absence of reference to those principles causes OCSTA deep concerns.
Here briefly are the five principles (the raison d’etre of OCSTA) specifically identified in the OCSTA Submission to the Provincial Regulatory Registry.
(1) respect for constitutional and denominational rights of Catholic Schools boards and the necessary responsibilities of individual trustees,
(2) promotion of academic excellence in the context of student faith formation and well being,
(3) recognition of Catholic Boards as the employer of staff within system,
(4) maintaining OCSTA as the bargaining legal agent in those systems, and
(5) advancing the interests of student, parents and Catholic ratepayers.
In their own words, OCSTA views the Proposal above as “fall[ing] far short of realizing each of these fundamental principles. In so doing, it prejudicially effects denominational rights…”
There is more. In our next edition we will look at the minutiae of their claims.
Corriere tried to engage OCST and the Premier’s office but has not received a return call as at time of going to print.