B.C. schools issue still not settled.

Vancouver--On September 20, the B.C. Court of Appeal issued a mixed decision in its reasons for judgement in last year's Supreme Court of B.C. ruling respecting the two Catholic schools in trust of Vancouver College Limited (VCL), namely, Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate.

The decision stated that VCL shares are held subject to a charitable trust for the specific purposes of the school and not for the general purposes of the Christian Brothers who administer them. However, it also ruled that the Christian Brothers order, now in liquidation, was a trustee, not the four individual Brothers named in registration.

The trust was set up in the 1920s solely for the establishment and operation of the schools on behalf of the parents and the Catholic community of Vancouver.

As previously reported (C.I., Jan/Feb 2001, pp. 25-26) the schools are claimed as part of the assets of the Christian Brothers' Congregation by liquidators acting on behalf of former residents of Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland. Their lawyers assert that shares in the B.C. schools were held for the benefit of the order and must be added to the assets to be liquidated.

Lawyers for the schools and the Archdiocese of Vancouver maintain that, while the Congregation administered the schools, it was never their owner. Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver, while disappointed with the negative side of the ruling, has said that it is not the end of the road for the schools. The Archdiocese, in company with trustees and parent representatives, intends to seek an order in the Court of Appeals to safeguard their assets and ultimately to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada (BC Catholic, Sept. 24/01).