本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Legal roots of the separate school system (ZT)
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The separate school system for Ontario Catholics may have been enshrined in the British North America Act when Canada was created in 1867, but its legal roots go much deeper.
PLAINS OF ABRAHAM
In the terms of surrender after General James Wolfe defeated the Marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, Catholic rights were protected, including the rights of the Bishop of Quebec to exercise his functions of office, which then included the supervision of education, "whenever he shall think proper."
TREATY OF PARIS
The Treaty of Paris in 1763, in which France ceded all its North American colonies except St. Pierre and Miquelon to Britain, granted "the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada." The guarantee of Catholic rights was repeated both in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that abolished French law in Canada and in the Quebec Act of 1774 that established English government in its place. In 1791, the Quebec Act was repealed and the colony of Quebec split into Upper and Lower Canada, only to be reunited in 1841 by the Union Act of 1840.
DENOMINATIONAL PROTECTION
In the half-century before Confederation, both Upper and Lower Canada wrestled with the political tensions caused by other faiths trying to protect their rights against the dominance of Church of England in Upper Canada and the Catholic Church in Lower Canada. They responded to the pressure by legally protecting denominational schools, rather than establishing a common non-denominational system for all students.
CONFEDERATION
At the Quebec Conference of 1864, which led to Confederation, delegates called for provincial authority over education, "saving the rights and privileges which the Protestant or Catholic minority in both Canadas may possess as to their denominational schools at the time when the Union goes into operation." The constitutional protection for denominational schools, which includes Ontario's Catholic system, was included in Section 93 of the British North America Act. Since then, only two major legal changes have been made. In 1899, the province began to fund Catholic education to Grade 10 and extended the funding to Grade 13 in 1984.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net