Common Schools Act of 1871
The Act was stridently opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents, and a series of clashes between New Brunswick Catholics and the provincial government culminated in the shooting of two people following riots at Caraquet in 1875, after which the Act was substantially amended to implement a joint religious/secular schooling system.
[2] In the diocese of Saint John, for example, there were some 160 Catholic schools operating by 1871, many staffed by professed religious, with a significant minority of them offering instruction in French.
[5] During the years leading up to 1871, a key conflict within the Roman Catholic Church concerned the authority of the Pope over secular governments.
The doctrine of ultramontanism asserted that the Pope held supreme authority over all matters spiritual and secular, and it was vigorously pursued by key members of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, most notably Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876.
[6] In 1864, Pope Pius IX published the Syllabus of Errors, a document collecting several past papal reasonings and presented as a list of "condemned propositions" such as modern liberalism, the supreme power of human reason, the teaching of philosophy and natural science as fields distinct from religion, and, at some considerable length, the separation of church and state.
Proposition 45 of the Syllabus rejected the right of civil governments to exercise sole dominion over the teaching of children.
George Edwin King, then an MLA on behalf of the electorate of Saint John County and City, had been, since 1868, developing a bill to create a state-run school system to provide free education to all New Brunswick children.
[10] Control of the school system was given to the Executive Council, exercising its power through the New Brunswick Board of Education.
[11] King found himself facing strong Roman Catholic opposition to the Common Schools Act, led by Bishop John Sweeny.
The Catholics, under Sweeny, made an appeal to the Canadian federal government in Ottawa, seeking disallowance of the Act.
[5] Similarly, a proposal by Quebec Premier Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau to ask the Queen to amend the British North America Act to protect sectarian schooling failed to win majority support.
The following day, Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, and Louis-François Laflèche, of Trois-Rivières, accepted Sweeny's invitation by issuing a prepared statement opposing the Common Schools Act in the name of the Roman Catholic Church.
Facing revolt in his own ranks over the issue, Macdonald agreed to pay $5,000 towards the costs of an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then Canada's highest court) by the New Brunswick Catholics.
[5] King went on to say, "If we once abandon the strong line of defence that is along the heights of equality [...] the end will be the overthrow of our rights and independence of action.
[5] The 1874 New Brunswick election was fought solely over the issue of common schools, with King's government achieving an overwhelming victory, claiming 36 of the 41 seats.
Gloucester County, which included Young's home town of Caraquet, had mainly Acadians (descendants of French colonists) and was strongly Roman Catholic.
[5] Gloucester elected Théotime Blanchard and Kennedy Francis Burns, both Catholics who were firm opponents of the act.
During the protest, drunken demonstrators caused property damage to several premises including a store owned by Young.
[15] The "volunteers" gained entry to the house of one André Albert, at which Acadians were gathered, resulting in an exchange of gunfire.
[5] The changes, based on proposals originally drafted by Sweeney, were carried out by amendments to the Act's subordinate regulations, and they were kept secret for fear of inviting controversy.
[16] The amendments allowed for a less arduous method of certification for religious teachers in which they would still have to complete examinations but would not have to attend Normal School classes.
