STRUGGLE
FOR GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS IN ONTARIO-CANADA
Education
in Canada is a Provincial matter. In all the provinces of
Canada, there is no differentiation between religious schools. Where all
the religious schools of one faith are funded, all the others are funded
as well. The province of Ontario is the only province that does not follow
this rule.
The
province of Ontario funds the Roman Catholic Day Schools 100%, and
does not fund the remaining religious schools. For this reason, a
coalition was formed, the Multi-Faith Coalition for Equal Funding of
Religious Schools, whose President is Metropolitan Sotirios. Members of
this coalition include Christians (Orthodox, Copts, Armenians, and
Protestants), Jews, Muslims and Sikhs. For approximately one year, this
coalition has tried to work together with the Government of Ontario,
especially the Minister of Education, Mr. Gerrard Kennedy, regarding this
issue. In the beginning, Minister Kennedy showed a good disposition,
naming this cause an “injustice”, saying that he will try to correct
this injustice. Unfortunately, the Minister did not continue the
discussions.
The
coalition was forced to make public the plan which it proposed as a
solution to the Minister, during a Press Conference it had at the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario. There were representatives of all the
faiths that are part of the coalition. Four of them and two students
spoke. Outside the Legislature, there were approximately 300 students and
parents with signs that pressed Premier McGuinty and the Government of
Ontario to offer a solution to this problem and to stop this injustice.
Metropolitan Sotirios, as the President of the Multi Faith Coalition for
Equal Funding of Religious Schools, at the Press Conference, said the
following:
750,000
children in Ontario attend religious schools. 700,000 of those children
are funded 100% by the Government of Ontario. The remaining 50,000 are not
funded at all and they and their families are treated as second-class
citizens by the Government of Ontario.
This
Press Conference, at which we make public a proposal that we submitted to
the Minister of Education, Gerrard Kennedy, one year ago, is not a
political statement, but a call for conscience awareness.
We
call on the Government of Ontario, the Government of Canada, all political
parties and all Ontarians to put themselves in our situation, respect
human rights and justice, and treat us equally, as we are not.
When
talking to Minister Kennedy about funding the non-Catholic religious
schools, he called the current situation an “inequity”. Premier
McGuinty called it an “injustice”. At Cardinal Ambrozic’s dinner
last year, the Premier said, “No person in our society should be left
behind”; and therefore, no child should be left behind in our society.
Yet,
with the injustice of funding the Roman Catholic schools, and not funding
the other religious schools, some children are left behind. I call upon
Premier McGuinty, Minister Kennedy, and the Government of Ontario to
correct this injustice and inequity by equally funding the non-Catholic
religious schools, and therefore making sure that no child is left behind.
Then,
Ira Walfish, of the Ontario Association of Jewish Day Schools, in his
address to the Mass Media, said,
The
Supreme Court of Canada has ruled there is nothing legally preventing
Ontario from extending funding to other religious schools.
Yet Ontario remains the only jurisdiction in the free world which fully
funds the schools of one faith group and provides nothing to other
faith-based schools.
This
discrimination has also been ruled illegal under international law.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in a 1999 decision
that this discrimination violates the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and concluded that ‘if the [government] chooses to
provide public funding to religious schools, it should make this funding
available without discrimination’.
Just
two weeks ago, on November 3, 2005, the Human Rights Committee issued a
further report calling on Canada to ‘adopt steps in order to eliminate
discrimination on the basis of religion in the funding of schools in
Ontario.’
Following
Mr. Walfish, M.D. Khalid, of the Islamic Society of North America
(Canada), referred to the decision of the Supreme Court in the Alder case,
when he says:
The
Jewish community's survival as an identifiable and practicing religious
community depends upon broad access for Jewish children to attend Jewish
day schools.
He
added, “Other religious minority communities are equally affected.”
When
studying the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, one can see that a
religious minority can not live without having religious schools. The
Metropolitan, Priests, Presidents of Communities and Councils, all the
people, and the Greek Mass Media should work together, to pressure the
Government of Ontario to fund the Greek Orthodox Day Schools, with the
same funding the Roman Catholic Schools receive. We remind everyone that
in Quebec, before we received Government funding, only 240 students
attended Greek Orthodox Day Schools; after receiving Government funding,
we now have 2000 students. Those who say they care about Greek Orthodox
Education, must co-operate with all their strength, so that we can stay
Greek and Orthodox in Canada. We leave this to their conscience, to show
who they are.
Speaking
to the Mass Media outside the Legislature right after the Press
Conference, Metropolitan Sotirios referred to a speech given by Winston
Churchill during the Second World War, when he said, “Never, never,
never give up.” The Metropolitan concluded by saying,
We
began this struggle and we will not stop, ‘we will never, never give
up’, until our cause is completely vindicated, that is, the equal
funding of our religious schools like the Roman Catholics. Churchill was
vindicated. And we will be vindicated, with the assistance of everyone and
the Grace of God.
