Catholic schools alert.

The following presentation was made to the Academic Affairs Committee of the York Region Catholic School Board, a fairly large board of some 45,000 students just northeast of Toronto, on May 6, 1997. We print it here as part of our own efforts to awaken Catholics throughout Canada to the danger of losing their schools.

Good evening. My name is Catherine Slovak. I am from Newmarket and with me is Mr. Lou Conte from Maple. We are here tonight representing a group called Parents' Watch. This is a network of approximately 250 Catholics from York Region who are concerned that their young people receive the best possible formation in the Catholic faith. We formed three years ago and have been following any events which impact on the spiritual lives of our children--whether these events come from the world of politics, from the Church, or from the school system.

Why we are here

Tonight we are here to sound the alert regarding the threat to Catholic education, and we would like you to do the same. This year, 1997, marks 130 years of Catholic public education in Ontario and at this point I think many of us would agree that Catholic education is at a critical juncture.

Why the situation is critical

Why critical? There are several reasons. First of all, the signs have already come in from two provinces--Newfoundland and Quebec. As many of you know, all Catholic school boards in Newfoundland have been abolished, as the right to denominational schools has been lost by an amendment to the Constitution following a referendum. Despite the fact that the Senate attempted to make another amendment which would have allowed for Catholic schools where numbers warranted, this amendment was quashed when the Prime Minister ordered his fellow Liberals to vote against it on his return from the Far East trade mission last December 5th.

The precedent has been established.

In Quebec, as of 1998, school boards will likely be based along linguistic, rather than denominational lines. Even though Montreal and Quebec presently enjoy Constitutional guarantees for Catholic education, the provincial government is prepared to give up those rights. If Parliament amends the Constitution, then Quebec, for a long time a great stronghold of the Catholic faith, will have no guarantees for Catholic public education. According to several groups such as the Canadian Catholic Civil Rights League, this spells big trouble for Catholic education in other provinces.

The second reason the situation is critical is due to what we are experiencing in Ontario with downsizing and restructuring. Granted, Premier Mike Harris has recently given his assurances that Ontario's Catholic system will not be abolished. But how much faith are we to put in a government whose Education Minister pledges to respect Catholics' constitutional rights for a separate education system on a Friday and then the following Wednesday says that he would consider a constitutional amendment such as is happening in Quebec to replace religious schools boards with linguistic ones?

As a result of the push for equal funding in 1985 and with the passage of Bill 104, we are now in a position where the province entirely holds the purse strings and is calling the shots. Marilies Rettig, President of OECTA, says that "blindly, we would appear to have walked into the trap and welcomed what we should otherwise have regarded as totally unacceptable." Ed McMahon, chair of the Toronto Metro Separate Board, adds: "I think every time you give up something you worry about what you gave away." And Lynn Johnston, Toronto public board union president, says, "He who has the gold makes the rules."

What happens in the eventuality that our staff is more non-Catholic than Catholic, when the majority of our students are non-Catholic, when the programmes we are forced to take in return for funding are not acceptable to us as Catholics, when our support staff is out-sourced so that secretaries and librarians don't really understand the Catholic identity of our system? All of these situations are distinct possibilities.

Promotion of the faith

There is a third reason that the situation is critical for Catholic education and this is the most important one of all: there is a general and widespread apathy towards and watering down of the faith, to the point that one would wonder if effective resistance is even possible. We are all accountable--parents, classroom teachers, principals, trustees and administrators.

Where is the will on the part of parents, trustees, bishops, teachers and school board officials to fight for strong Catholic education in complete unity with the Magisterium? Let me remind you of three points in this Board's Strategic Plan:

1. We will ensure that students are instructed in the Catholic faith as taught by the Magisterium of the Church.

2. We will align our curriculum with our mission and objectives.

3. We will not allow anything to jeopardize our Catholic identity.

These commitments must be real. They must spring from a deep personal commitment on the part of all collaborators in Catholic education.

The role of Catholic families

Up until now, the potentially most powerful resource in the fight for Catholic education has not even been tapped, and that is the thousands of Catholic families in the province. Many are not informed about the current critical status of Catholic education. Many do not know why they send their children to Catholic schools. Many do not know what is the distinct mandate of the Catholic school system. Many do not know anything about their constitutional rights as Catholics. Many do not practise the faith.

The following are some questions Catholic families might ask themselves: In the absence of Catholic education, who will ever say a prayer at school? Who will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Christ? In a politically correct non-denominational school, will we have Green Day instead of St. Patrick's Day, Bunny Day instead of Easter, and Season's Greetings at Christmas? In the absence of Catholic education, who will dare to speak of absolute values? Who will prepare children for the sacraments? Who will promote chastity, the traditional family, the beauty and indissolubility of marriage? Who will promote the sanctity of human life? Who will tell young people that God is always calling them back to Him through his Divine Mercy?

Surely parents will attest to the fact that there are serious social problems in our society--drugs, violence, gangs, teen pregnancy, the high incidence of abortion and so on. Surely in a society that has almost "bottomed out" morally, Catholic families should be very receptive to what Catholic education is all about. And needless to say, we cannot waffle on these issues ourselves. It is the time for each one to rethink his or her own personal commitment to the faith. This personal commitment will be the real strength of the system.

Proposal

So why are we here this evening? To ask the Board to issue an urgent message to Catholic families in York Region, first of all

* to sound the alert about current threats to Catholic education;

* secondly, to inform them as to their constitutional rights;

* thirdly, to inform them as to what has happened in other provinces;

* and fourthly and most importantly, to promote the unique and distinct mandate of Catholic education. This message could take the form of a written statement or a video which could be widely distributed to families.

We are not asking for a self-congratulatory promotion of the system. What we are asking for is a sincere re-dedication to the ideals of Catholic education.

We would also like to request that this Board take the lead and challenge other Catholic boards across the province to make similar statements, thus building the foundations for a wide grassroots movement among Catholic families in Ontario.

It was three years ago that I made a presentation to the Academic Affairs Committee on behalf of concerned Catholic parents. At that time we said that the system would not survive unless it is distinct, and seen to be distinct, from the public school system. This is even truer in 1997.

Time is of the essence and the issue is no less than the survival of Catholic public education in Ontario. We ask that action be taken before it is too late, in order that Catholic families may speak out in large numbers. Thank you very much.

Catherine Slovak lives in Newmarket, ON.

Notes on schools elsewhere

Newfoundland

St. John's--Amendments to Term 17 of the Terms of Union between Newfoundland and Canada officially took effect in April of this year, eliminating constitutional guarantees to denominational schools. No sooner were these changes in place than the Catholic Church and the Pentecostal Assemblies launched a suit against the government of Newfoundland for failing to fulfill their assurances that, where numbers warranted, denominational school boards might still be established. One glaring example of this failure took place in Stephenville, Newfoundland, a city of 12,000 people, more than 60% Catholic.

To determine whether numbers warranted denominational schools in Stephenville, the school board (a non-elected body of 18 members, only 7 of whom are Catholic) distributed nearly 2000 registration forms to households with children, so that parents could express their preference for either "unidenominational" or "interdenominational" schools--a choice between a faith-based school, and an ordinary public school in which periods of religious instruction would be permitted.

But democracy took it on the chin when the school board announced that any forms not returned would be counted as votes for an interdenominational system! The actual registration tally was 807 to 579 in favour of unidenominational schools. But when 550 unreturned forms were added to the interdenominational total, the people of Stephenville lost their religious schools by a vote of 807 to 1129.

Can this be happening in Canada? Not only are the rights and interests of religious citizens being betrayed in the larger arena of provincial politics, but democracy has been subverted at the grassroots community level. A group called Concerned Parents for Catholic Education is fighting this injustice, with the support of Stephenville's priests and Catholic trustees, and Bishop Lahey of the Diocese of St. George. It will be an uphill battle against a provincial government determined to "modernize" education through secular uniformity.

New Brunswick 

Suspicion of government motives and government decisions on schools is growing. In February 1996, Liberal Premier Frank McKenna abruptly (within 8 days) abolished all school boards in the province and placed the entire provincial school system under centralized control in Fredericton.

Today, local advisory Parents' Councils are proving to be helpless and powerless. A recent law amendments committee faced many angry parents and objections to changes enacted or contemplated. At the end of April, 1997, several communities were rioting against the forced closing of schools by Education Minister James Lockyer.

Many people now regret the abolition of the school boards.