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Contact your Federal MP
If you need to know how to contact your MP, go to: http://www.elections.ca/home.asp and enter your postal code in the middle column.
An easy way to send a message to your MP and any others you wish is to go to www.fairness.ca
- be sure to insert your own message instead of the standard message
given there. Tell your MP that fairness is a two way street, and
Ontario should not get anything extra until it complies with its
obligation under international law to eliminate official religious
discrimination in faith-based school funding.
BACKGROUND - WHY ONTARIO'S DISCRIMINATION IS A FEDERAL ISSUE
The UN Human Rights Committee made a final ruling in 1999 (the Waldman
case) that Ontario's full funding of one religion's schools to the
total exclusion of all others is discrimination and violates the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR or
"Covenant"). Unlike the hundreds of recommendations issued every year
by UN bodies, this ruling is binding under international law. Only 11
such rulings have ever been issued against Canada, and almost all have
been complied with as a matter of course. Further detail is provided
below. Complete text of ICCPR is at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm.
The ICCPR is one of the world's most fundamental human rights treaties,
developed by the community of nations as a response to the horrors of
the WWII, much of which was actually legal under the domestic law of
the perpetrators. The ICCPR was designed to address this problem by
providing an international law, that operates above national law, that
both prohibits discrimination and (under Article 2) requires the state
to pass domestic law (federal or provincial) to prohibit discrimination
and to give victims of discrimination an effective legal remedy under
domestic law. With respect to religious discrimination in faith-based
school funding, Ontario has done neither.
The Covenant and its Optional Protocol, (allowing citizen complaints
about rights violations) were ratified by Canada on May 19, 1976 only
after the Federal government went through a ten-year process of
obtaining the formal written approval of Ontario (and the other
provinces). Provincial approval was needed since the provisions of the
Covenant explicitly "extend to all parts of federal States without any
limitations or exceptions." (Article 50)
Ironically, the only reason why anyone can say that the treaty is not
binding under domestic law is because Ontario/Canada have also failed
to comply with their obligation under Article 2 of the Covenant to
provide a domestic remedy for all violations of the Covenant. The
Ontario Human Rights Code was intended to be such a mechanism, but it
does not apply to faith-based school funding due to a limitation in s.
19 of the Code, so does not prohibit this kind of discrimination which
is nevertheless illegal under international law.
Since the UN Human Rights Committee made its 1999 ruling in the Waldman
case, Ontario has been in violation of international human rights law.
In the words of the Committee: "by becoming a State party to the
Optional Protocol, the State party has recognized the competence of the
Committee to determine whether there has been a violation of the
Covenant or not and … pursuant to article 2 of the Covenant, the State
party has undertaken to ensure to all individuals within its territory…
the rights recognized in the Covenant and to provide an effective and
enforceable remedy in case a violation has been established." Full text
of UN decision in Waldman case can be accessed at: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/b3bfc541589cc30f802568690052e5d6?OpenDocument
Explicit religious discrimination in education funding was found to
violate the treaty. Canada and Ontario now have an obligation under
international law to provide a remedy that eliminates the
discrimination. If Ontario fails to comply, Canada has an obligation to
provide a remedy unilaterally (e.g. by direct funding or by a tax
credit) until Ontario complies.
- Since
Confederation in 1867, the Canadian Constitution has guaranteed public
funding for Roman Catholic faith-based elementary education in Ontario.
- In 1984, the Government of Ontario extended funding, beyond the Constitutional requirements, to Catholic secondary schools.
- Ontario
currently provides full funding for 93% of its faith-based schools, but
this funding goes exclusively to Catholic schools. The other seven
percent, the faith-based schools of non-Catholic religious minorities,
receive no funding.
- In Adler v. Ontario
(1996) the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that there is nothing in the
Canadian Constitution preventing the extension of public funding to
non-Catholic faith-based schools. The Court also ruled that though the
current funding arrangement is discriminatory, it does not violate the
equality provisions of the Charter (a newer part of the Constitution),
since the discrimination is authorized by the other, older section in
the Constitution.
- Canada, with the formal written
approval of all provinces (including Ontario in 1969), ratified the
International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1976
together with its "Optional Protocol", which allows citizen complaints
about rights violations to be adjudicated by the United Nations Human
Rights Committee (UNHRC). Key provisions of the ICCPR include:
- Article 26: prohibiting discrimination based on religion, etc.
- Article
50 provides that the provisions of ICCPR "shall extend to all parts of
federal States without any limitations or exceptions."
- Article
2 requires the State Party (Canada in this case) to ensure that anyone
whose rights under the ICCPR are violated has "an effective remedy,
notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting
in an official capacity"
- As a
result of Canada's formal ratification, the ICCPR and its Optional
Protocol are legally binding instruments under international law.
- The
United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) ruled in November 1999
that Canada was in violation of Article 26 of the (ICCPR) for failing
to treat all religions in Ontario in an equally in the public funding
of faith-based schools.
- Since November 1999 the
Government of Canada has done nothing to eliminate this violation of
the ICCPR. Canada has only referred the victims of religious
discrimination to the Ontario government, and has failed to honour its
obligation under international law to ensure an effective remedy for
this established violation.
- In May 2001 the
former Progressive Conservative Government of Ontario introduced a
phased-in tax credit (the "Equity in Education Tax Credit") which
partially addressed the problem of religious discrimination in
faith-based school funding.
- In October 2003 the
new Liberal Government of Ontario repealed (retroactively to January
2003) the Equity in Education Tax Credit, bringing Ontario back to the
previous state of full religious discrimination in violation of the
ICCPR as established by the UNHRC.
- In November
2005, the UNHRC once again ruled that Canada is in violation of the
ICCPR in this matter, and must take immediate steps to comply.
- All
three parties represented in the Ontario Legislature support Catholic
separate school funding as guaranteed by the Constitution of Canada, so
the only fair and viable solution to the discrimination is to extend
funding to the small religious minorities that are currently excluded,
though compliance could also be achieved by removing funding from
Catholic schools (and either funding no faith-based schools or
providing equal partial funding).
- Ontario is the only Western democracy that fully funds faith-based schools of one religion to the total exclusion of all other religions.
- All other provinces of Canada, except the Atlantic provinces, fund faith-based schools and have thriving public school systems.
- Extending
fair funding to non-Catholic faith-based schools would provide an
opportunity to regulate such schools in the public interest, which
would be a significant benefit to all Ontarians.
- The
Multi-Faith Coalition for Equal Funding of Faith-Based Schools in
December 2004 submitted to Ontario's Minister of Education a detailed
proposal for the funding of non-Catholic faith-based schools in a
manner that is fair and accountable, and protects and enhances the
public interest. For a full copy of the proposal, see: Proposal to Extend Funding to Religious Schools.
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