A Tale of Canada's Two Constitutions: On the tension between Roman Catholic Education funding privileges enshrined in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1867, and equality rights of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , 1982.

How does an old social cause like religion in public education get revived and reinvented ? How do small and politically insignificant interest groups mount a viable campaign that flows against the main political tide ? This article addresses these questions by examining two multifaith religious coalitions in Ontario, Canada, that are lobbying the provincial government to fund separate religious schools. Drawing on theories of framing strategies and using material from interviews and public documents, it examines how the coalitions have adjusted their claims to suit Ontario's evolving political culture. The coalitions are gaining political ground by avoiding traditional arguments for religious schooling that stressed the moral impact of faith and religious duty and by couching their claims in the idioms of multiculturalism and choice. This strategy involves reframing religion as a form of culture that needs protection, stressing minority rights, and supporting school choice

From Moral Duty to Cultural Rights: A Case Study of Political Framing in Education

This study explores the judicial articulation between religious liberty and education in Canadian Mennonite communities during the 20th century. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate how specific judicial data are linked to general social contexts and to show that some changes in global social contexts and some local elements have an influence on religious liberty in education for a specific religious community. During the 20th century, we can find three trials involving Mennonite education (R. v. Hildebrand ; R. v. Wiebe ; Bal v. Ontario). These judicial data concerning the Mennonites are understood and interpreted in the Canadian social and historical context of the 20th century. Using these rulings as primary literature, the following question is studied: which socio-legal issues linked to religious freedom and education are relevant to these trials? As a result, the study shows that the articulation between religious liberty and education varies for Mennonites according to four considerations: 1) Mennonite faith; 2) relations with other religious groups in which Mennonites had been engaged; 3) factors related to education in itself, interwoven into a plural society and conceived as a public aspect of the identity construction of individuals; and 4) some specific aspects related to the Canadian constitution. Therefore, it is shown that these four socio-judicial considerations, which were associated with the trials involving Mennonites in education, are all concerned, one way or another, with the articulation of religious liberty and education.
 
Keywords: religious freedom, education, Mennonite, Canada, trial

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Liberté de religion et éducation : les procès des mennonites canadiens au 20e siècle

This article examines the common roots of Canada and South Africa in order to explore issues regarding the role and place of religion in public schooling in both countries. Not only do Canada and South Africa share a common religious heritage that explains the historical prominence of Christianity in their school systems, but they also share the recent introduction of constitutionally entrenched human rights documents granting freedom of religion and the right to non-discrimination. The authors discuss how the introduction of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada has had an impact on policy and practice regarding religious exercises and curriculum in schools, and speculate about how new democratic constitutional values and the example of Canadian case law may help shape South Africa's approach to the place of religion in its schools.

Religion in public schools : comparative images of Canada and South Africa : research paper

Playing for keeps: The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the public sphere, 1983-2006

Several Charter cases have addressed the tension between the linguistic and religious privileges built into the Constitution Act, 1867 and the egalitarianism and multiculturalism contained in sections 15 and 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Three of these cases, Zylberberg et al. v. Sudbury Board of Education, Canadian Civil Liberties Association v. Ontario (Minister of Education), and Adler v. Ontario, involve challenges to educational regulations or policies resting on traditional assumptions about the religious nature and purpose of schooling. We show how these cases, along with two more recent examples, help clarify the meaning of multiculturalism in the post-Charter context and in particular, whether a consistent, principled approach and a particular theory of ethnic relations are embraced by the courts in resolving such matters. Plusieurs cas se fondant sur la Charte canadienne des droits et libertes soulignent la tension entre les privileges linguistiques et religieux enchâsses dans la Loi constitution- nelle de 1967 et l’egalitarisme et le multiculturalisme contenus dans les articles 15 et 27 de la Charte canadienne. Dans trois de ces cas, Zylberger et al. v. Sudbury Board of Education, Canadian Civil Liberties Association v. Ontario (Minister of Education) et Adler v. Ontario, les reglements ou politiques en matiere d’education reposant sur des postulats traditionnels au sujet de la nature et du but religieux de l’enseignement sont contestes. Les auteurs demontrent comment ces trois cas, ainsi que deux exemples plus recents, aident a clarifier la signification du multiculturalisme apres l’adoption de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertes; ils se demandent en outre si les tribunaux font appel a une approche coherente, reposant sur des principes, et a une theorie particuliere des relations ethniques pour regler ces cas.

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Education, Religion, and the Courts in Ontario

Educators' legal authority over their pupils has traditionally relied upon the common law doctrine of in loco parentis. Modern jurisprudence, however, has recognized, and in some cases preferred, an alternative theory of legal authority based upon a statutory duty to maintain proper order and discipline. Thus has arisen a duality in the legal characterization of educators' legal personality. They are at once surrogate parents and state agents. In law, the distinction between the two roles is often significant, especially in the exercise of discipline over pupils. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Young Offenders Acthave served to bring the distinction to the fore as courts probe the extent of educators' legal obligations as state agents in executing their duty. This paper examines critically three recent cases involving the powers and obligations of principals investigating criminal conduct in their schools. L'autorite legale des educateurs sur leurs eleves est generalement associee a la doctrine du in loco parentis du common law. Toutefois, la jurisprudence moderne reconnait, et dans certains cas, privilegie une autre theorie de l'autorite legale, fondee celle-la sur le devoir statutaire de maintenir l'ordre et la discipline. Il en resulte une dualite dans la description de la personnalite legale des educateurs. Ils sont a la fois des substituts parentaux et des agents de l'Etat. En droit, la distinction entre les deux roles est souvent importante, surtout lorsqu'il s'agit de maintenir la discipline a l'ecole. La Charte canadienne des droits et libertes et la Loi sur lesjeunes contrevenants ont servi a mettre cette distinction de l'avant, les cours cherchant a determiner les obligations legales des educateurs en tant qu'agents de l'Etat dans l'exercice de leurs fonctions. Dans cet article, l'auteur fait la critique de trois cas recents impliquant les pouvoirs et les obligations des directeurs d'ecole dans les enquetes qu'ils menent au sujet de comportements criminels dans leurs etablissements.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1495351.pdf

Greg M. Dickinson

Papers

Education, Religion, and the Courts in Ontario

Principals and Criminal Investigations of Students: Recent Developments