The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-15
THE MANITOBA CASE.
The School Question Decided In
Favor Of the Catholics.

/. In 1890 the province of Manitoba cut loose
from the system of education prevailing In
Ontario and Quebec. which provides for sep
arate schools for Protestant and Roman
Catholic children, and placed itself fairly In
line with the common school system of our
American States. The Hon. Joseph Martin.
then Attorney-general of the province. and
now a member of the Dominion Parliament.
secured the passage of the act providing
that no grant of public money should be
made to denominatonal schools. The Ro-
an Catholics were caught mapping, and the
them to organize an opposition. Pre-
passage they had maintained Catholic
atsd, and had received for their support the
monies provided by the province and the
municipalities for public schools. On the
other hand, the schools maintained in Prot
estant communities inculcated the Protest
ant religion In a general way without any
special sectarian bias.
arose over the Manitoba school act Will
illustrate the peculiar relation Of the prov
.nce to the Dominion government In the
Canadian system, anu of both the provincial
and Dominion governments to the Imperial
olics under the leadership of their eminent
and venerble prelate, Archbishop Tache,
made vigorous light on the question OF the
British North America act provides that the
legislature OF a province shall exclusively
nothing in any such law shall prejudicially
affect any right or privilege with respect to
ersons haora h law IN Mn nrov;yce ai the
time of the union" It also gives the right
of appeal to the Governor-general in Council
from any act or decision OF any provincial
authority affecting any right or privilege of
the Protestant CT Roman Catholic minority
cation. The Catholics of Manitoba did not
feel entirely safe under the provisions of
this act. and when Manitoba was. admitted
to the confederation they secured clause
IN the act of admission which repeated the
educational privileges of the British North
America act and inserted the words lin
practice" so to make the safeguards of
that act. they supposed, apply wherever
separate schools had beef established by law
or in practice at the time of the union
The provincial government complied for
many years with the spirit of this arrange
ment and maintained two sets OF schools
The Board of Education was divided into
two sections, each with a superintendent.
No Catholic was taxed for PROTESTANT
school, and no Protestant for Catholic
school. Practically Protestant schools were
not religious schools, except that the Bible
was read once a day and the school opened
with prayer; but the Catholic schools were
purely Catholic and the children were
taught to reverence the saints. the Virgin
until the Martin bill became a law, in $780,
Under its provisions either the Protestant
the Roman Catholic Bible may be read In
the public schools and any form Of prayer
offered, but no other religious teaching may
be given Any school not complying with
the law can receive no grant OF money
from the province or from a municipality.
The Catholics applied to the courts to have
the new law declared ultra wires Of both
the Manitoba constitution and the British
North American act. The first court decid-
ed the act to be valid; an appeal was taken
ant judges and one Roman Catholic, and
the decision was in favor Of the new stat
ute. the Protestant judges sustaining it
and the Catholic judge dissenting. Then the
question went to the Supreme Court at OF
tawa, composed of three Protestant and
three Catholic judges. That court was
unanimous against the law, and the Man
itoba government then carried the queS-
ticn to the judicial committee Of the Privy
in Ta,n6 In fhaf trfh al
Is no record made of any minority opinions.
Six judges sat in the case, and they re-
there was 10 right or privilege, either by
law or practice, constituting any claim
which entitled the Catholics to public sup
port for their UNCONVENTIONAL schools: that
those schools had been established by the
Catholics at their own motion and not by
any right or privilege which the Catholics
enjoyed The Manitoba Catholics were not
content with this decision from the trf-
bInal of last resort; they fell back on the
the Dominion government, and they APP
peaied to the encouragement in Council.
The British North American act provides
that in case the rights of the Protestant
or Roman Catholic minority injuriously
affected by provincial legislation the Gov
ernor-general in Council shall first appeal to
the Provincial Parliament to remedy such
wrong, and if that body fails to act on the
appeal then an appeal shall be made to the
Dominion Parliament. The Governor-gen-
eral in Council referred the case 10 the
Supreme Court at Ottawa for an opinion
as 70 Whdt powers, IL dIy, tney possessed,
and special act was passed to confer
questioned authority on the Supreme Court
to give such an opinion. The Supreme
Court then held that the federal government
had no power, and that the decision Of the
Privy Council finally settled all questions
involved in the controversy. The Catholic
judges concurred in this decision with the
Protestant judges. The Manitoba Catholics
did not rest here; they appealed TO the
Privy Council from the decision of the
Supreme Court, and the question now pend
Ing before that august imperial tribunal
is whether there is any power of remedial
legislation in the federal government to
compel the Legislature Of Manitoba to
tax the people for the support of the Ro-
Catholic schools