Religion and Schooling in Canada: The Long Road to Separation of Church and State

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Robert K. Crocker

Religion and Schooling in Canada

The Long Road to Separation of Church and State

Robert K. Crocker

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English

University of Ottawa Press
28 April 2023

Religion & politics; Educational strategies & policy

Series: Education

Christian organizations have always played a large role in Canadian education. By 1949, five provinces had constitutionally protected denominational schools. The federal government's responsibility for the education of Indigenous Peoples was effectively contracted out to the churches for more than a century, resulting in a history of abuse that has only recently come to light.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, several initiatives in different provinces set the stage for significant reforms to education. Some of these tested the limits of denominational protections, but could not shake the underlying constitutional structures.

Patriation of the Constitution and adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 codified fundamental changes in thinking about civil rights. The Charter allowed existing denominational rights to be challenged on many fronts. However, all such challenges were rebuffed by the courts on the grounds that the Charter cannot be used to override other parts of the Constitution.

By the 1990s, it became apparent that another route to reform was available, through the amending formula. Constitutional amendments were used to end denominational control of schools in Newfoundland and Quebec in 1997 and 1998.

The circumstances around those constitutional amendments are discussed in detail as possible precedents for similar outcomes in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. This book contends that change will certainly come to these provinces and several paths to reform are explored. This reform aims to remove the discrimination inherent in denominational institutions while preserving some form of religious involvement in certain schools.

By: Robert K. Crocker
Imprint: University of Ottawa Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780776637815
ISBN 10: 0776637819
Series: Education
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 28 April 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Philosophical and Legal Foundations Chapter 2: Historical Context Chapter 3: The 1982 Constitution and Impact of the Charter Chapter 4: Constitutional Amendment: Newfoundland and Quebec Chapter 5: Catholic Schools in Canada Chapter 6: Religion and Private Schools Chapter 7: The Churches, the Federal Government, and Indigenous Education Chapter 8: The Contemporary Debate Chapter 9: The Way Forward Endnotes Bibliography Court Cases Cited

Recipient of the CEA/Whitworth Award for contributions to educational research, Robert Crocker is Professor Emeritus at Memorial University. He was Associate Deputy Minister of Education in Newfoundland, where he was involved in negotiations leading to the constitutional amendment ending religious control of education in that province. He also served as a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and as President of the Canadian Educational Researchers' Association.

Reviews for Religion and Schooling in Canada: The Long Road to Separation of Church and State

"Crocker's book is both a patient attempt to understand how this strange compromise arose and a dogged argument that it is high time to do away with it. As a former associate deputy minister of education in Newfoundland, Crocker is quite familiar with the secularization of his own province's education system in the late 1990s. In some ways, Religion and Schooling in Canada reads like an expansion of his own notes from that time. Its rigorously, even oppressively detailed historical portions convey the happenstance creation of public support for religious schools in much of the country.--Michael Ledger-Lomas ""Literary Review of Canada"" This book is a much-needed new resource about an issue immediately important to some, and ultimately important to all of us. The range of the book, from the historic to the contemporary, is helpful, the scholarship is careful and thorough, and the writing is clear. Separate school education is about more than education. It is also about citizenship, individual rights, and maintaining 'the public' in a democracy. Religion and Schooling in Canada: The Long Road to Separation of Church and State will appeal to interested citizen-agents as well as to commentators and scholars.--David King, former Alberta minister of Education"