Western Canada: the Gospel takes root.

PART 2

In his second installment on the history of Catholicism in Western Canada, Dr. Murray Nicolson chronicles the rival development of Protestantism and Catholicism in the West, the Riel rebellion of the 1880s, the struggle of Manitoba Catholic settlers for their own schools, and the arrival of Byzantine Catholics. The two-part series on Western Canada is part of a larger series, begun in Catholic Insight in December 1995 on Catholicism in English Canada. The next article will focus on Ontario in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Initially, evangelization of the west was contested by French-speaking Catholics and English-speaking Anglicans. The latter, as representatives of the established church, received strong support from the Hudson's Bay Company. But Catholic priests and nuns were more successful with the Indians and Metis because of an unencumbered lifestyle that permitted mobility. Their Anglican counterparts, with their families, were more reliant on possessions, which tended to fetter them in settled areas like the Red River colony.

What shifted the French-Catholic, English-Protestant balance into the latter's favour was a failure to attract Francophones from Quebec and New England to accept the offer of available land. The challenge was taken up by Protestant homesteaders, particularly from Ontario and the United States, already exposed to settlers' hardships. They were accompanied by young Presbyterian and Methodist ministers, devout farm boys who were not afraid to open up new territory. As for the English-speaking Catholic population, it, by contrast, was small, yet contained some fairly influential members able to strengthen the Catholic cause of the French clergy.

Winnipeg, the door to the prairies, was based on the Red River settlements, St. Boniface and Upper Fort Garry, with a mixture of Indian, Metis, French, English, Scots, and Swiss-German. In 1867, the new Dominion of Canada was fearful of the intentions of the United States. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, there was a possibility that American soldiers could march north to take Canada. Therefore, when Riel and his Metis followers rebelled, Canada hastened to create the new province of Manitoba, make Winnipeg its capital, and dispatch Colonel G. Wolseley to establish a military presence.

The arduous route taken west by Wolseley and his soldiers demonstrated the need for improved transportation. The Canadian government had promised a coach road, to be replaced later by a railway, linking Manitoba with British Columbia. Based upon this promise, the government of British Columbia asked to become a province of Canada in 1871, in an attempt to cut off American expansion. Winnipeg, then, gained prominence in western development.

Louis Riel

Many of the positive features in the social and political organization of the Red River derived from the work of the Catholic Church. They were transmitted to the new province of Manitoba. Instrumental in the achievement was Louis Riel, whose safety was in jeopardy after the arrival of the military. Riel subsequently took refuge in the United States, where he married, taught school, and became an American citizen. But, when in the 1880's the condition of the natives of the western plains deteriorated to the point that they were starving, Riel came north at the request of the Metis to forge an alliance among the tribes and his people. Hoping to replicate his Manitoba success, Riel sent a Bill of Rights to Ottawa. It was ignored. Together with Gabriel Dumont as his military commander, Riel led a second rebellion against the Canadian government in 1885. This rebellion caused the railway project, which had been stalled because of financial difficulties, to be pushed forward to Winnipeg. British General F. Middle ton and his troops travelled by Red River cart from there to central Saskatchewan and the battle of Batoche. The rebellion was crushed, the Indians and the Metis demoralized. While Gabriel Dumont rode south to the United States, Riel remained, giving himself up for trial to plead the cause of his people.

Riel's trial had repercussions that divided the country along linguistic and religious lines still evident today. Riel, who showed some signs of mental instability and who had relinquished the practice of his Catholic religion for a time, was sent to Regina, where he was sentenced to death for treason. The indictment against him read like a charge of witchcraft. The treason charge was questionable because Riel was an American citizen at the time. Moreover, the state of his sanity was at issue. Despite pleas to have the death sentence overturned, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald declared: "He shall hang though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour." The death sentence created a backlash against the Conservative Party in Quebec which lasted for decades.

Riel made peace with his God. Accompanied by Father Alexis Andre, the Oblate who had opposed Riel's efforts for the Metis in the past, but who became his confessor and companion in the death-watch, Riel mounted the scaffold. Ironically, the hangman had been a prisoner in Fort Garry during the first rebellion in 1870, and swore then to take revenge on Riel for his humiliation and for the death of his friend Thomas Scott. Riel died in Regina in November 1885. After three weeks' delay, the government released his body to be shipped back to St. Boniface for a funeral Mass and burial.

Winnipeg

The completion of the railway as a consequence of Riel's actions had a tremendous impact on Winnipeg. The town grew rapidly and land prices skyrocketed. One visitor observed:

"Winnipeg has 45 hotels, 300 boarding houses and I defy any man twice out of five times to strike a night's lodging. The immigrants are pouring in. I got a good room, but if I want to go up to it at ten o'clock in the evening, I have to step over the sleeping forms in the halls and on the stairs. In the wood box, under the billiard tables--everywhere--you will find them, and yet they have only arrived on three to four immigrant trains. There are seven more stuck in a snowbank near Chicago."

Included in the incoming groups were the Irish, increasing the English-speaking component of the Catholic population. While the English-French duality of Manitoba was being broken by the influx of people from various backgrounds and nationalities--German, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, Latvian--the composition of the Catholic laity diversified even further with the addition of Slavic peoples, especially Ukrainians, many of them Catholics of the Eastern rite.

Disturbing social problems were associated with the arrival of so many new Canadians, some of whom were dumped and forgotten in Winnipeg. Juvenile delinquency among the foreign-born was a major concern. In response, ethno-religious hatred was promoted by many groups and individuals, a mind-set that had produced societies like the Protestant Protective Association in the 1890s, much as the Orange Order had evolved earlier in Ontario. Even J. S. Woodsworth, the former Methodist minister who was to gain renown as a Canadian social reformer and politician, believed, for example, that all Poles were Catholics of a fanatical type, and that Mormons were enemies of Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Immigration began in the early 1890's, leaving hundreds of families in a destitute condition when the real estate boom collapsed in 1913. Winnipeg city authorities established a welfare system, with all churches cooperating in the distribution of food. Regardless of these altruistic efforts, demands for deportation of aliens were heard from church and lodge.

The war years (1914-1918) heralded further discrimination against central Europeans, especially Germans and Ukrainians from Austrian regions. No effort was made to determine ethnic origins; a general label of 'foreigner' or 'Galician' was applied and all were treated with disdain.

Three archdioceses

Meanwhile, language and rite differences among Winnipeg's Catholics culminated in the city's unique situation of accommodating three independent archdiocesan structures. The Archdiocese of St. Boniface, the oldest in western Canada, retained a pre-eminent position until 1915 and has continued to the present as a Francophone centre for the whole prairie region, sending its priests as bishop throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

Meanwhile, the Irish were becoming restless. In 1906, the parishioners of St. Mary's Church, established in 1876, were predominantly Irish. They petitioned their French archbishop, A. Langevin of St. Boniface, to improve services to English-speakers, by requesting the creation of additional English parishes, the securing of English-speaking priests and even a bishop, and the establishment of an English Catholic college. But nothing happened until 1915 when Langevin died. Rome, having recognized the growth of the English settlers, announced the creation of the new Archdiocese of Winnipeg, with A. A. Sinnot as first archbishop.

Similarly, the Ukrainian Catholics began to build churches before there were clergy to serve them. They appealed to Archbishop Langevin to obtain priests for them, primarily to end the seepage of Ukrainian Catholics into the ranks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, both following the Byzantine rite. The Vatican appointed Bishop Nykyta Budka to the newly formed Archeparchy of Winnipeg in 1912. And while Archbishop Langevin tried to settle the issues of rival Catholic groups, he was also embroiled in deeper, ethno-religious problems related to education.

Manitoba school conflict

One of the first statutes passed by the Manitoba Legislature in 1871 was an education act. It contained a pre-confederation arrangement whereby Catholic and Protestant denominational schools would each be supported by their own tax-payers. In addition, the two school systems were to share proportionately in provincial grants. This was suitable in 1871, when Manitoba's population was 11,000, about equally divided between French Catholics and English Protestants. Within 20 years, however, the population grew to 152,000, with Catholics numbering 22,800, only about 15%.

It was not until 1890 that change occurred with the passing of the Public School Act and Department of Education Act. All prior acts were repealed and all denominational school property was appropriated. The new system, primarily of Protestant orientation, would receive all educational funds. The Catholic minority considered this a breach of rights under Section 22 of the Manitoba Act which had created the province. They sought redress in the courts. The judgement acknowledged that Catholics were taxed to support schools not in accordance with the rules and principles of their church. A government appeal was forwarded to the Privy Council in Britain which ruled that the legislature had the authority to enact the Public School Act, despite the consequences.

The Manitoba Catholics then petitioned the federal government for a remedial order, requiring the province to restore their rights. Again the Privy Council ruled: there would be no aid for denominational schools and, in fact, assessment for school purposes would not be destined for Catholic institutions. In 1895, the federal government passed a remedial order directing Manitoba to restore to Catholics the rights enjoyed prior to 1890, but the provincial government refused to comply. Subsequently, a Bill was introduced to restore the rights, but was lost when Parliament in Ottawa dissolved for a general election.

Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier met with Premier T. Greenway of Manitoba in 1896. An agreement was reached allowing limited religious instruction, the employment of Catholic teachers, and the use of a language other than English, under certain conditions. However, no share of public funds would be allocated to Catholic schools. These agreements were unsatisfactory with the Catholic minority and with Archbishop Langevin and a number of the Catholic hierarchy across Canada. Laurier asked Rome to stop the bishops' attacks against his government. The apostolic delegate, Msgr. Merry del Val mediated, and the situation was resolved when the hierarchy agreed to comply with an encyclical letter from the Pope, asking for moderation.

The Manitoba Catholics wanted their own schools, convinced a better education was offered than in many of the public ones, especially where there were disadvantaged students. The emphasis on a common academic core of work, the development of a strong social bond and a sense of community, coupled with a moral mission that involved personal responsibility, prepared students to meet the challenges of a hostile majority. But Winnipeg's Anglo-Saxon Protestant community wanted the absorption of both Catholic and Orthodox foreign elements and considered education the means for the accomplishment of this.

One problem was that Anglo-Saxon teachers refused employment in foreign districts. Both French and Ukrainian Catholics requested bilingual instruction--one to retain language, the other to retain the Byzantine rite identity under the umbrella of the larger Latin rite Catholic adherence. The Protestant majority believed the French clergy agitated for special instructions and vented their anger against them when teachers were sought by both groups. The provincial government established Polish and Ukrainian but not French training schools, and the Ukrainians created their own teacher organizations.

Ukrainian schools

By 1915 the Ukrainian Catholic population, which had spread across the west, operated 400 schools, along with teacher-training colleges. Included in their staff were sisters and Eastern rite Basilian Fathers. The struggle to finance and maintain separate schools was difficult for any of the Catholic groups, but it seems government inspectors were harder on the French speakers, probably because antagonism towards them was more longstanding. Yet when labour troubles erupted in 1919, blame for instigating the Winnipeg Strike was laid upon so-called foreign agitators, until it was realized that the leaders came from the British Trade Union Movement.

The Separate (Catholic) School question continues to be one of Canada's most contentious political issues and will most likely remain so until some resolution is made regarding the country's bilingual, bicultural, or multicultural status. In compliance with the terms of the British North America Act of 1867, a system of Catholic education was guaranteed in the 1905 acts creating the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Here Catholics had settled in national colonies, especially in Saskatchewan, which became dotted with farming settlements from many nations. Funding was always a problem and a governing factor in decision-making was whether the number of Catholic students in a specific area justified a separate school. French language schools were developed only under the unbrella of the Separate Schools in these provinces.

The English-French conflict between Catholics even extended to different views on higher education. Olivier Mathieu, Archbishop of Regina, and fellow French bishops in the West, desired several classical colleges, or one large Catholic university in Western Canada, that would provide for various ethnic groups, but with a priority for the French language after the model of Quebec and the Jesuit universities in Canada and the United States. Lay people, such as John Joseph Leddy (1879-1949), a leader of the English Catholic community in Saskatoon, envisioned a college federated with the provincial university. The die was cast against a separate Catholic university when Archbishop Joseph O'Leary received permission from Rome in 1926 to open St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The model for this was St. Michael's College, a federated liberal arts College at the University of Toronto. The same year (1926) a Chair of Thomistic philosophy was established at the University of Saskatchewan i n Saskatoon, which ten years later saw the establishment of St. Thomas More there as a Catholic College federated with the provincial university.

Ku Klux Klan 

One of Catholicism's most outspoken enemies in western Canada was J. J. Maloney. He graduated from St. Jerome's College in Kitchener, ON, and attended the Grand Seminaire in Montreal, planning to study for the priesthood, but he lost his faith. Maloney devoted his energy in the 1920s to becoming a successful organizer of the Ku Klux Klan of Kanada across the west. In the Klan's estimation, the militancy of Saskatchewan's separate school supporters and the massive influx of Central European Catholies, was part of a "worldwide Romanization campaign". Maloney's descriptions of these people as "men who jabber all the tongues that destroyed the tower of Babel", "men who crowd our own people out ... by offering to work for ten cents an hour, who come to Canada with tags on them telling you their destination", depict the intense hatred shown towards die immigrants. These anti-alien sentiments were adopted by various religious and patriotic groups and gave rise to a number of nationalistic organizations from 1925 to 1930, particularly on the prairies.

In the face of discrimination, many Catholics on the prairies managed to survive and to exemplify their faith. One, Father Athol Murray, in 1927 opened a boarding school for high school boys in Saskatchewan. Notre Dame's fame increased with the success of its hockey team, "The Hounds of Notre Dame", coached by Father Murray. Another, William Kurelek, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, was horn and grew up on the prairies of Manitoba and Alberta during the 1930s. He was to become one of Canada's foremost artists, whose paintings captured the life, the culture and the religion of his people in their rural setting.

British Columbia

The Catholic population in British Columbia has always been the lowest in Canada. Considering the importance of Catholic schools in safeguarding a religious heritage, British Columbia has had a difficult struggle. Prior to Confederation, the Oblates, the Sisters of St. Anne, and the Irish Christian Brothers had established Catholic schools, hut these were exempt from funding under the clauses of the first Public School Act. Included, however, in the provision of federal funds were mission schools where Indian children were taught and boarded.

In 1881, British Columbia's three bishops petitioned the legislative assembly. They pointed out the unfairness of Catholics having to pay public school taxes in addition to maintaining their own schools. Moreover, in the bishops' opinion, the abolition of religious instruction by school law was an injustice to those who wanted it. It took more than a hundred years for a partial redress. In 1989 funding for Catholic schools was increased to 50%, if all of them (73 in the province) met basic standards, taught the approved curriculum, and hired certified teachers.