Cambridge nuns told they couldn’t vote for school board because they had taken a vow of poverty

[1holycatholic]

Cambridge nuns told they couldn’t vote for school board because they had taken a vow of poverty
CAMBRIDGE — Several Catholic nuns were barred from voting for the Catholic school board in last fall’s municipal election after a poll worker said they were disqualified because they had taken a vow of poverty.

Sister Michael Daniel Dumais of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate, who wears a veil covering her hair and a rosary down the side of her ankle-length blue habit, lined up with half a dozen others to cast her vote on election day.

Dumais, 39, is registered as a Catholic school supporter. But the ballot she was handed didn’t have the Catholic school board candidates on it.
…

 

[Dale_M]

Surely this is a case of a rogue election worker. I can’t believe that Ontario or Canada requires a citizen to pay taxes in order to be eligible to vote.

 

[runningdude]

Surely this is a case of a rogue election worker. I can’t believe that Ontario or Canada requires a citizen to pay taxes in order to be eligible to vote.

This article is about Cambridge, Ontario, correct? I’m so confused , lol. Are Catholic schools in Canada run by the state (on either the provincial or federal level)?

Here in the United States, Catholic schools are privately run by each parish or diocese, so the issue of tax payment would just not come up in a Catholic “school board” vote!

 

[manualman]

So voting priviledges are now going to be legally classified as a posession to prevent those who have taken a vow of poverty from voting??

I think some jail time is in order for the election worker here if he cooked up this bogus means of denying voting rights himself.

 

[Dale_M]

This article is about Cambridge, Ontario, correct? I’m so confused , lol. Are Catholic schools in Canada run by the state (on either the provincial or federal level)?!

Catholic schools are funded in some parts of Canada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_school

I don’t fully understand it, so I’ll let a Canadian explain it further.

 

[grasscutter]

Catholic schools are funded in some parts of Canada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_school

I don’t fully understand it, so I’ll let a Canadian explain it further.

I can’t fully explain the system either.

But when I was a kid, in Winnipeg, I went to a French Catholic school taught by nuns. We didn’t wear uniforms and my parents didn’t pay tuition.

 

[jamanne]

I’m an Ontarian .The public school system here is between the Separate (usually Catholic) system and the secular (usually everybody else).Each citizen applies their taxes to whichever they support. ANY one can attend whichever they choose.Many non Catholics send their children to Catholic system because they still prefer a faith based system or its more convenient geographically especially in rural areas .Studies done over the last few years have proven over and over again the Catholic system is more beneficial financially and scholastically,and produces more university and college entrants.Also more parents get involved as aides and mentors at all levels.The survey citing 71% against the Separate system is phooey,no one asked me or anyone I know ,nor was there referendum which is the way we handle important issues in this country .No politician will take up the cudgel after what happened to John Tory (google him)Politicians avoid it like the plague ,so it might not be politically correct but it works and parents like having an alternative if thei child is not doing welli n one system they can try the other,keeps everyone on their toes

 

[runningdude]

I’m an Ontarian .The public school system here is between the Separate (usually Catholic) system and the secular (usually everybody else).Each citizen applies their taxes to whichever they support. ANY one can attend whichever they choose.Many non Catholics send their children to Catholic system because they still prefer a faith based system or its more convenient geographically especially in rural areas .Studies done over the last few years have proven over and over again the Catholic system is more beneficial financially and scholastically,and produces more university and college entrants.Also more parents get involved as aides and mentors at all levels.The survey citing 71% against the Separate system is phooey,no one asked me or anyone I know ,nor was there referendum which is the way we handle important issues in this country .No politician will take up the cudgel after what happened to John Tory (google him)Politicians avoid it like the plague ,so it might not be politically correct but it works and parents like having an alternative if thei child is not doing welli n one system they can try the other,keeps everyone on their toes

Well said, Thanks! I got so confused reading the Wikipedia article. The concept is so foreign to me, and I didn’t realize such schools existed only a few hours north of me.

There is a “Hebrew”-based public school down in New York, but not I don’t think there is a comparable set of parallel school systems anywhere in the United States.

 

[curlycool89]

This article is about Cambridge, Ontario, correct? I’m so confused , lol. Are Catholic schools in Canada run by the state (on either the provincial or federal level)?

Here in the United States, Catholic schools are privately run by each parish or diocese, so the issue of tax payment would just not come up in a Catholic “school board” vote!

Catholic schools are publicly funded in several provinces.

How it usually works is that during a municipal elections (or before?), you choose where to allocate the education portion of your property taxes to (the public system or the separate (Catholic) system). I don’t know if they actually allocate your taxes or just allocate according to the number of people who choose to support the Catholic systems (so if 40% of people allocate to the Catholic system then 40% of the money set aside for education goes to the Catholic system), so maybe they thought that no property taxes = no allocation or something (I don’t actually know how it works).

But yes, no private tuition is payed (for education, extra-curicular is another story for all schools).

 

[jamanne]

Further to the previous posts.the issue of having to actually pay taxes in order to vote is a myth.When the census is taken every five years ,the question is asked of EVERYONE which school system they support ,the taxes are then divided up according to numbers.think of all the seniors,(who are among the highest voters)disabled and low income citizens who don’t pay taxes , that would lead to a very low voting turnout, if implemented

 

[canadianguy1143]

If nuns can’t vote in a election, then what about students (College or University) who don’t have to pay federal taxes as they may not have worked during a particular year?

 

[curlycool89]

Further to the previous posts.the issue of having to actually pay taxes in order to vote is a myth.When the census is taken every five years ,the question is asked of EVERYONE which school system they support ,the taxes are then divided up according to numbers

…No, that’s definitely false. I filled out the last census (2006) for my family, and there was no question about which school system you want to support (considering that there’s only 1 census for the whole country and several provinces don’t have Separate school systems, that would just lead to confusion). So it’s definitely not done through the census.

The more I think about it, the more this seems like a mix-up (or rogue election worker).

If nuns can’t vote in a election, then what about students (College or University) who don’t have to pay federal taxes as they may not have worked during a particular year?

As a student, you do file taxes every year though. Even if you don’t work, you should file in order to carry over tuition credits (what a steal that is. I working and made a fair bit of money a few summers ago and still didn’t pay any taxes because of a huge sum of tuition credits).

 

[jamanne]

Sorry about that misstatement you are right I had senior moment it was the election officer at my door who asked for the info .I am not a rogue anything just trying to contribute .the sarcasm certainly has a way of killing a discussion

 

[curlycool89]

Sorry about that misstatement you are right I had senior moment it was the election officer at my door who asked for the info .I am not a rogue anything just trying to contribute .the sarcasm certainly has a way of killing a discussion

No, sorry! That comment wasn’t aimed at you. I was agreeing with Dale that likely this is a case of the workers on the night of the election not knowing the rules (or ignoring them).

 

[runningdude]

I would think that the nuns would still file a tax return (or be eligible to do so). Their stated income would simply be zero/100% tax donation to a tax-deductible charity. In the US, there are special instructions for religious clergy who’ve made a vow of poverty when it comes to filing taxes, so I’d guess it’s similar in Canada.