Re: ‘Catholic board outlines unique position to minister,’ Feb. 23 Gazette:
The board of Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools seems confused about the roots of their current situation. It is clear that GSACRD started life as a Catholic public school district because the majority of the people in the community at that time were Catholic. No one is ignorant of that fact, and no one disputes that. What GSACRD fails to acknowledge is that the inclusion of the word “Catholic” in their name simply identifies the faith of many of the electors. The inclusion of the word “Catholic” does not mean that GSACRD is in any way different from every other public school jurisdiction in Alberta.
When the government amended the naming conventions, it did not oblige a public school jurisdiction to drop “Protestant” or “Roman Catholic” from its name if the local community wanted to maintain an historic connection, or felt the words conveyed a sense of who they were. But in allowing the word Catholic to remain in the name, the government was not conferring any special privilege on the public school jurisdiction. GSACRD is owned by a civil electorate of voters living in St. Albert. Many, but not all of them are Roman Catholic. GSACRD is not owned by the Roman Catholic Church: it is not a parochial school system.
The trustees of GSACRD have no legal, fiduciary or moral responsibility to the Roman Catholic Church: they are responsible to their local electors, including people of all faiths except Protestant — and to the Government of Alberta. If these people voted for anyone except a GSACRD trustee the poll clerks were in error. There is no provision in the School Act that allows anyone other than a member of the minority faith (in St. Albert, a Protestant) to vote in a separate school board election. GSACRD is now arguing that because they chose to keep the word Catholic in their name they have somehow created a third type of education system; one that is constitutionally protected.
Catholic public school districts don’t exist in law: there is no reference to Catholic Public Schools in the School Act, or in the Constitution. There has been no judicial decision that lends credence to the idea of a Catholic public school district. A recent letter from GSACRD as much as confirms this. In support of the idea of a Catholic Public School District, they take one sentence from a Supreme Court of Canada judgment, except that the sentence is not from the decision itself. The sentence is from the factual background. As factual background, the sentence is more important for what it omits than for what it states. “Presently, both Protestant and Roman Catholic separate schools co-exist within Alberta along side public schools. Public schools are generally not religiously affiliated, but specific population patterns have given rise to at least one Roman Catholic public school in Alberta.” Note that the court does not identify the Constitution or the law as having “given rise to at least one Roman Catholic public school.”
The Court identifies “specific population patterns.” The court does not add anything to suggest that a Roman Catholic public school, having come into existence because of specific population patterns, enjoys constitutional or legal protection from the ordinary responsibilities of a public school jurisdiction. The court does not exclude the possibility that shifting population patterns might erode the Roman Catholic nature of such a public school. The court does not suggest that a Roman Catholic public school is any different from every other public school, except that some significant number of its electors are Roman Catholic.
The Constitution, the law, and the highest court in our country give absolutely no support to GSACRD’s argument.
David King, former minister of education, Sherwood Park
