Manitoba Schools Question

[1] The crisis eventually spread to the national level, becoming one of the key issues in the federal election of 1896 and resulted in the defeat of the Conservative government, which had been in power for most of the previous thirty years.

Moreover, the Schools Question, along with the execution of Louis Riel in 1885, was one of the incidents that led to strengthening of French Canadian nationalism in Quebec.

Although framed as a religious issue, there was also a question of language-politics involved, since at that time, most Protestants in Manitoba were anglophones and most Roman Catholics were francophones.

"[3] The exact meaning of this provision, and the scope of the constitutional protection it provided, subsequently became a matter of considerable political and legal debate.

[citation needed] Soon after the Manitoba Act was passed to create the province, settlers from English Canada, mainly Ontario, began to arrive in greater numbers than they had come prior to the Red River Rebellion.

The Manitoba Act had given equal rights to Protestant and Roman Catholic schools, but by the 1880s, this no longer reflected the linguistic makeup of the province.

In other words, the Act removed the denominational school districts, and in doing so, the French language remained while the Catholic religion did not.

While the great majority of these schools maintained their Catholic and private status, many were forced to join the public system.

[7] Two rounds of litigation were the result, in each case going to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the highest court in the British Empire.

[13] The exact point in dispute was the meaning of the phrase "...by Law or practice in the Province at the Union," used in s. 22(1) of the Manitoba Act.

The Judicial Committee reviewed the historical record and concluded that in 1870, all schools in Manitoba were funded by the religious groups which ran them, and not by any system of public taxation.

As a result, the Judicial Committee concluded that s. 22(1) simply guaranteed the right of religious groups to establish and run their own schools, at their own expense.

Although education is normally a matter of exclusive provincial jurisdiction under the Constitution of Canada, there is a special power for the federal government in relation to separate schools.

"[14] Section 22 of the Manitoba Act had similar provisions authorising an appeal to the Governor General in Council and remedial legislation by Parliament.

[15] Following the 1892 Privy Council decision in City of Winnipeg v. Barrett, pressure arose for the federal government to take action under these provisions.

The Privy Council held that when the Province had created a system of taxpayer funded denominational schools in the early 1870s, it had given a "right or privilege" to the Protestants and Roman Catholics in relation to education.

In January 1896, the federal government of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell introduced remedial legislation under s. 22(3) of the Manitoba Act, 1870 in the House of Commons.

The Liberal Party under Wilfrid Laurier, himself a French Catholic, took on a vigorous campaign to prevent the bill from being passed before the government called another election (expected to be in June 1896).

I would approach this man Greenway with the sunny way of patriotism, asking him to be just and to be fair, asking him to be generous to the minority, in order that we may have peace among all the creeds and races which it has pleased God to bring upon this corner of our common country.

This agreement did not reverse the 1890 legislation; instead, it allowed for religious instruction (i.e., Catholic education) in Manitoba's public schools, under certain conditions, for 30 minutes at the end of each day.

First, in the late 19th century, Canada experienced a large, unforeseen wave of immigration, and as result, Manitoba saw an increase in the number of nationalities represented and languages spoken.

Established that very year (1916) was the Association d’éducation des Canadiens français du Manitoba (AÉCFM; lit.

The AÉCFM encouraged francophone instructors to continue teaching French and to keep using it as a language of instruction without the knowledge of the authorities, even if this required lying to school inspectors.

In 1967, Premier Dufferin Roblin's government authorized the use of French, for up to half of the school day, as the language of instruction for other subjects.