Leonard Baak, "An illusory obligation", Globe & Mail, August 22, 2007.
 
Reprinted with the permission of the author.
 
An illusory obligation
 
Ottawa -- Re Faith-Based Hullabaloo (letters, Aug. 21): Given that so many Ontario politicians help Catholic-vested interests promulgate the myth that Ontario must fund Catholic schools forevermore, it is little wonder that many people think it to be so. The truth about Ontario's constitutional "obligation" to fund Catholic schools would surprise them. That "obligation" is largely illusory.
 
The Constitution Act, 1982, provides an amendment mechanism through which provinces can rescind denominational school rights through a simple bilateral agreement with Ottawa alone. Quebec and Newfoundland each secured such an amendment in the 1990s, before moving to a single public school system for each official language. In Newfoundland's case, the amendment was proclaimed by the Governor-General barely four months after being requested. Manitoba eliminated denominational schools in 1890, despite a constitutional "obligation" to provide them virtually identical to Ontario's.
 
Ontario faces no significant obstacles in moving to a single public school system, save for the collective cowardice of Ontario politicians or their contempt for the fundamental equality rights of the governed.
 
LEONARD BAAK
president, Education Equality in Ontario
 

---