(Image: iStock)
Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
Let us start today with a story. (Point first writing to be continued in another blog post…)
Once upon a time, during the colonization of what we now call Canada, nearly all settler schools were taught with a religious element. These schools were usually Protestant, and the Catholic immigrants as a minority lobbied for the right to receive a Catholic education out of concern that their religion would suffer if not protected. In 1867, this right was enshrined in the British North America Act, which would become Canada’s constitution.[1] As time went on, schools became increasingly non-secular and multi-cultural, but this enshrined right to Catholic education remained.
The intersect between law and dominant societal norms is an interesting place to navigate and requires a lens that is not tinted in the same shade of norm as a dominant society. Roman Catholicism now makes up the largest portion of religious people in Canada at nearly 40% of the population.[2] The next largest group is non-religious people who make up nearly 25% of Canada’s population.[3] The remaining population in Canada practice among other forms of Christianity, Islamic, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism or other types of religion.[4]
But wait….
*record scratch**freeze frame*
(blogs not having sound effects is probably how TikTok happened)
This is from the 2011 census, which as we have discussed on this blog several times, did not include Indigenous data. We know that around 60% of Canada is not Catholic, and we know that Catholic education was enshrined in the Canadian constitution to protect Catholicism as a minority religion. This enshrined right appears to have been effective since Catholics are now the largest denominational group in Canada. A lot has happened since 1867 though, for instance, we have started to legally recognize women, Indigenous people, disabled, LGBTQ2S+ people as actual people with human rights equivalent to the typical Protestant white male from 1867 for whom the constitution was intended. Those pesky societal norms are still catching up to these changes, but perhaps we can look to Catholicism as the success story of what can happen when minority rights are protected?
Let us now arrive at the point. TRC Call to Action #64 calls on all levels of government that provide public funds to denominational schools to require such schools to provide an education on comparative religious studies, and specifically content covering Indigenous spiritual beliefs and practices developed in collaboration with Elders.[5]
Today, nine provinces have maintained an education model that continues to fund Catholic education separately from non-denominational education. Newfoundland and Labrador switched entirely to non-denominational public schooling after a 1997 referendum on the matter, and Quebec halted funding to denominational schools that same year.[6] The matter of using public funding for religious and private schools has been hotly debated for many years, but have any provinces required the religious schools they fund to teach comparative religion courses that include Indigenous teachings?
Not really.
Canada, the source of the originating enshrinement guaranteeing religious education, says they are not the lead on this Call to Action.[7] BC has stated that religious schools are required to follow the BC curriculum, but has not mandated a specific Indigenous comparative religion course.[8] In Ontario, where the funding of only Catholic education resulted in a lawsuit and condemnation by the United Nations, not much has been said about addressing comparative religious study.[9] Alberta, home of ReconciliAction YEG, recently leaked some embarrassing panel recommendations as discussed in yesterday’s blog post, that would effectively remove any education about residential schools and Indigenous learning from the Alberta curriculum for certain grades. This would suggest that Alberta is not concerned about responding to Call #64. We will spare you a list of every province, and provide our assessment – we assign the provinces and Canada a grade of F.
Let us know what you think about public funding for denominational schools, and whether they should be required to teach comparative religious studies.
Until Next Time,
Team ReconciliAction
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[1] British North America Act, 1867, Department of Justice Government of Canada, 3 November 1999, 30-31 Vict, c 3 (UK) [British North America Act, 1867,], s 93.
[2] Statistics Canada, Immigration and ethnocultural diversity in Canada: National Household Survey, 2011, by Tina Choui, Catalogue no. 99-010-X2011001 (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2013) at 21.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (Ottawa: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015) at 331.
[6] Michael Coren, “Why Are We Still Paying for Catholic Schools?”, (6 January 2020), online: The Walrus <https://thewalrus.ca/why-are-we-still-paying-for-catholic-schools/>.
[7] Government of Canada, “Education for reconciliation”, (23 April 2018), online: <https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524504501233/1557513602139>.
[8] British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education Report on Actions Taken To Support Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.
[9] CBC Radio, “It’s time to end public funding of Catholic schools”, (16 June 2017), online: CBC Radio <https://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/stop-funding-catholic-schools-restore-trust-in-the-neb-and-let-me-change-my-name-1.4162978/it-s-time-to-end-public-funding-of-catholic-schools-1.4163049>.
