Catholic jurists attack Proulx Report.

Montreal--The Association of Catholic Jurists of Quebec has denounced the recommendations of the Proulx Report on religious education (for Proulx, see Catholic Insight, July/August '99, pp. 28-29). The report is based on a type of state control worthy of a totalitarian regime, they say. The Charter of Rights guarantees the rights of individuals, but a balance should be struck between individual rights and collective rights, the Association says, especially the rights of parents to choose schools for their children which reflect their own philosophy of education.

Proulx's proposals would lump all religions together, leading to confusion in the minds of students, and later on to religious scepticism. It is not the job of functionaries in the Ministry of Education, the jurists declared, to decide on the orientation of schools. By unilaterally amending Article 93 of the Canadian Constitution, the Quebec government destroyed the constitutional rights of Catholic, Protestant, and other educational Commissions to administer their own schools. The Association requests a five-year stay of the educational reforms while giving heed to the democratic rights of all groups involved (L'informateur Catholique, June 27, 1999).