Canada: Lobby group fights for religious neutrality in school system

[Ani_Ibi]

Lobby group fights for religious neutrality in school system

Education Equality in Ontario, an incorporated advocacy group, is lobbying for the elimination of public and separate school boards through the establishment of a single publicly-funded system for each official language, English and French.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Mr. Baak adds that Catholic boards’ “absolute right” to discriminate against the admission of non-Catholic children (until Grade 9) is completely unacceptable and unfair, as “only Roman Catholics are guaranteed access to both school systems.”

Not true. In practice many non-Catholic children benefit from enrollment in Catholic schools in Ontario.

Education Equality in Ontario has also garnered support from many teachers throughout the province who, Mr. Baak says, are discriminated against if they are not Catholic when it comes to employment opportunities with the separate board.

Not true. In practice many non-Catholic teachers are employed by Catholic schools in Ontario.

Such apparent “religious discrimination” has also been the reason for Canada being censured twice by the United Nations Human Rights Committee

, once in 1999 and most recently in 2005. Both times, the committee found Canada to be in violation of certain equality provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Canada ratified in 1976, as a result of having a separate school system in place within Ontario.

Waldman v. Canada

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits religious discrimination. The Charter is part of the constitution of Canada. However, the Canadian constitution, because of another provision, article 93, discriminates in favour of Roman Catholics and against other religious denominations.
Article 93 gives provincial legislatures exclusive power over education. The article states that any law enacted under this power shall not “prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to denominational schools which any class of persons have by law in the province at the union.”

In Ontario, at the time that the province joined Confederation, Roman Catholic schools had rights and privileges which other denominational schools did not. In particular, Roman Catholic denominational schools received state funding and other denominational schools did not. The effect of article 93 was to prevent the legislature of Ontario from prejudicially affecting those rights and privileges, from prejudicially affecting that funding. State funding of Roman Catholic schools in Ontario is, by virtue of article 93, constitutionally entrenched.

And we all know that the UN has unimpeachable credibility, don’t we? In any case, according to Canadian law, this is not a human rights question but a constitutional question - specifically a matter under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And the UN has no jurisdiction over our constitution.

The manner in which our constitution is applied is according to the Principle of Proportionality which, in effect, states that where two Charter rights conflict then both rights must be upheld proportionally. One right may not completely cancel another right.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

This story is heating up in Toronto today. There is an emergency meeting of the Catholic school trustees in Dufferin-Peele (Toronto) this evening. If any of you have any further news links or insights, please add them here and I will pass them along.

Meanwhile, please feel free to comment. Thank you.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Looks like quite a few of you have started reading this thread. Thank you.

A shocking development occurred yesterday evening. From the CBC:

Supervisor takes over Peel school board finances

(The Supervisor is the provincial appointee.)

A provincially appointed supervisor has told Peel Catholic school board trustees he’s taking full control of the board’s financial affairs because of the trustees’ continued defiance. The Ontario government sent Norbert Hartmann in as part of a so-called “co-management team” to work with trustees to balance the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board’s $660-million annual operating budget.

When Hartmann presented his plan last week to cut the board’s remaining $7.5-million deficit and produce a budget surplus by 2008-2009, the 11 trustees unanimously rejected it. On Monday, Hartmann announced that his conciliation efforts were over and he was seizing control of the board’s books.

The trustees rejected the 7.5M cut because they said that, if they cut those expenditures, Dufferin Peele Separate (Catholic) School Board would neither be an educational institution nor would it be Catholic.

There is a serious question as to whether the province of Ontario (or any province) can take this measure. Catholic separate education is entrenched in our Constitution. I gave you the link to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms earlier, but this is not specific enough. Here is the link to the relevant article in the Constitution. Scroll down to Article 93 (it’s short). Please read this article; it is very interesting.

Those wishing to question the province’s decision may email the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs The Honourable Rona Ambrose:

Ambrose.R@parl.gc.ca

Another good person to contact is Joanne McGarry at the Catholic Civil Rights League.

joanne.mcgarry@ccrl.ca

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Deafening silence from the MSM on this story.

Here is something from the Mississauga News:

Catholic trustees stripped of their powers

Queen’s Park has stripped Peel’s defiant Catholic school trustees of all power over their finances and staff… Staff will now report directly to… Government-appointed overseer Norbert Hartmann… and trustees will be shut out of all the board’s financial and operating affairs. “This government, which was elected on fighting supervision, throwing trust to public education and fixing the funding formula, is now showing its true colours. They are nothing but Harris-era Tory lite…” [said] board chair Bruno Iannicca…

One of the largest Catholic boards in the province, Dufferin-Peel educates 89,000 students in 141 schools in Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga… Last week, trustees unanimously rejected Hartmann’s plan to eliminate the board’s remaining $7.5 million deficit and bring it into a surplus position by the end of the 2008-09 school year. The plan, which now will go ahead under Hartmann’s direction, does not include any more spending cuts this year. Instead, proposed reductions to busing, high school teachers, special education, literacy supports, caretakers and secretaries would be phased in over the next two school years.

Most of the earmarked items are the same ones the 11 trustees have repeatedly refused to trim over the last year, saying their board is a victim of a long-standing shortfall in provincial funding. Since coming to the board, Hartmann has maintained his involvement was different to that of the supervisors appointed five years ago by the previous Conservative government at the Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa public boards. Vice-chair Anna Abbruscato said she was offended by the suggestion that the board is engaged in a power struggle. “This is not a political board,” she said. “This is a board that has always done what it was told.”

The reference to the previous Conservative government was to an idealogue (Mike Harris) who was nominally conservative and who gutted the educational system. The current provincial government is Liberal and headed by a Catholic.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

And something from The Brampton Guardian:

Trustees cut out of managing money

Last fall Education Minister Kathleen Wynne gave former ministry bureaucrat Norbert Hartmann ultimate financial decision-making power at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board… Hartmann was named chair of a board management team that was supposed to include two trustee representatives serving as advisors. However, trustees refused to be a part of the “co-management team” set up to slash millions of dollars from the local Catholic school system.

Board members maintain financial problems are the result of government underfunding and a flawed grant formula that local students should not pay to correct… [Hartmann] also indicated he would go directly to the community for (name removed by moderator)ut. Instead of having two trustees on the co-management team, he will find two community members to fill the seats…

In contrast, trustees believe they were re-elected to continue making a political statement supported by parents, students and employees. Reducing services, people and programs to balance the budget are costs the system cannot afford to eliminate, Board Chair Bruno Iannicca suggested. Iannicca said Hartmann’s actions show the Liberal policy on public education is not far removed from the damaging era of former Premier Mike Harris and his Conservative government.

 

[prv]

Lobby group fights for religious neutrality in school system

Sounds like the devil is in the works once again (I live in the United States). By the will of God, the Holy Catholic Church of God will NOT and will NEVER be silenced. EVER. We will march on until He comes in glory.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Sounds like the devil is in the works once again (I live in the United States). By the will of God, the Holy Catholic Church of God will NOT and will NEVER be silenced. EVER. We will march on until He comes in glory.

Has anyone else had troubles with government interference in Catholic education? Not necessarily Canadian government? Keep in mind that in Canada Catholic education is entrenched in our Constitution.

What would rely help now is to send letters to the editors of those media outfits which covered the story.

CBC:
cbc.ca/news/feedback/index.html?Supervisor%20takes%20over%20Peel%20school%20board%20finances

The Mississauga News:
thenews@mississauga.net <thenews@mississauga.net>

The Brampton Guardian:
letters@thebramptonguardian.com <letters@thebramptonguardian.com>

Meanwhile I found a page itemizing the history of the budget talks at Dufferin Peel; the facts:

w3.dpcdsb.org/CEC/News+and+Info/Budget+Information+Page.htm

It starts at the bottom of the list.

And here is a brief history of editorial comment from the Brampton Guardian. Looks like the Catholic school board chair could use some support from Catholics beyond the boundaries of Dufferin and Peel :

What are our trustees doing?

What would happen if Peel Police officers decided to stop giving out tickets, or firefighters decided to stop reacting to emergency calls or accountants decided addition simply wasn’t part of their job description anymore? Ultimately, the decision would be inevitable. They’d be fired…

Board chair responds to editorial

The editorial, What are our trustees doing?, in the Feb. 2 edition of The Brampton Guardian, fails to capture an essential theme of the budget issue at Dufferin-Peel. What trustees are doing is listening to our constituents, who have clearly and consistently told us they support the fact that underfunding is the underlying factor in our situation…

No choices

In our editorial last Friday, we encouraged the provincial government to get tough with local Catholic school board trustees who were essentially refusing to do their jobs…

 

[Digitonomy]

I’m a little confused by your second post.

Mr. Baak adds that Catholic boards’ “absolute right” to discriminate against the admission of non-Catholic children (until Grade 9) is completely unacceptable and unfair, as “only Roman Catholics are guaranteed access to both school systems.”

Ani Ibi:

Not true. In practice many non-Catholic children benefit from enrollment in Catholic schools in Ontario.

This a good retort, but not really a refutation. Are non-Catholics guaranteed access to both systems? If not, then I think it’s reasonable and true to characterize it as unfair. Whether it is also unacceptable is a different question. The same applies to your statement about teacher hiring. The fact of exceptions does not of itself disprove discriminatory practices.
Ani Ibi:

according to Canadian law, this is not a human rights question but a constitutional question - specifically a matter under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And the UN has no jurisdiction over our constitution.

I would point out number 13 in your Bayefsky.com link:

by becoming a State party to the Optional Protocol, the State party has recognized the competence of the Committee to determine whether there has been a violation of the Covenant or not and that, pursuant to article 2 of the Covenant, the State party has undertaken to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the Covenant and to provide an effective and enforceable remedy in case a violation has been established

If Canada does not wish to subject itself to such scrutiny by the Human Right Committee, it sounds like they can withdraw from the Optional Protocol.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Digitonomy:

Are non-Catholics guaranteed access to both systems?

In theory, Catholics who wish to be enrolled in Catholic schools have priority over non-Catholics who wish to be enrolled in Catholic schools. In practice, non-Catholics do not encounter problems enrolling in Catholic schools: if one school cannot accommodate them, then another will.

As to teacher hiring, qualifications go a long way to being hired. I believe that non-Catholic teachers must respect the curricula set by the Separate School Boards.

Digitonomy:

If not, then I think it’s reasonable and true to characterize it as unfair. Whether it is also unacceptable is a different question. The same applies to your statement about teacher hiring. The fact of exceptions does not of itself disprove discriminatory practices.

Discriminatory practices are covered under Canadian Human Rights legislation. And you are correct that exceptions do not themselves prove discriminatory. Thus we are known to be a society which fosters diversity. The two tests for discrimination are:

1. differential treatment
2. based on a prohibited ground.

However, the consideration of discrimination is a red herring. Why? Because the Human Rights courts do not have jurisdiction in the case of Catholic education in Ontario. Why? Because the Canadian Constitution guarantees Catholic educational rights (Article 93), and the Constitution enjoys paramountcy which means it is the highest law in the land and cannot be superceded by any other law except in extraordinary circumstances:

**1. **The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Perhaps it can be said that the language rights section of the Charter is not fair either: that Canadian children of German or Russian (etc) heritage should be taught in their heritage languages and that access to language-specific education should not be limited only to English and French speakers.

But the Constitution is not just about rights, it is about agreements which accommodate historical reality. The historical reality around the Canadian Constitution is that the English made deals with Catholic Canadians (particularly in Quebec), Francophone Canadians (particularly in Quebec), and First Nations in order to fend off the Americans at the southern border.

Without Catholics, Francophones, and First Nations, Canada would be America.

Now mind you, the English broke many of the agreements they made but the Constitution reflects the legal status of those agreements not the practical status.

Why was there consensus that the Americans must be fended off? Well the British wanted a colony to exploit in the resource-rich Americas, but that was neither here nor there for the colonists and aboriginals whose principal worry was around the populist movements in France and America after the French Revolution and the American War of Independence.

The Catholic Church in Quebec disapproved of the whole notion of political revolution and therefore promoted respect for the secular authority of the English even though the English were as protestant as the Americans. For the Catholic Church in Canada, preference for the English over the Americans was the lesser of two evils.

So the deal was struck.

Digitonomy:

I would point out number 13 in your Bayefsky.com link: If Canada does not wish to subject itself to such scrutiny by the Human Right Committee, it sounds like they can withdraw from the Optional Protocol.

Yes.

1. This is not the only case where Canada is in non-compliance with international conventions to which we are signatories. Therefore one must wonder why we sign on in the first place.
2. The UN is a blunt, corrupt, and anachronistic instrument. But that is another discussion and another thread.

 

[Digitonomy]

"Digitonomy:

The fact of exceptions does not of itself disprove discriminatory practices.

And you are correct that exceptions do not themselves prove discriminatory.

Either you misread my post, or are engaging in witty repartee that has mostly gone over my head. Just because there are exceptions does not get you off the hook for having a discriminatory law on the books.

You appear to be trying to make the case for Canada’s compliance in the court of public opinion (such as it is on this forum), eight years after professional litigators lost the case in the tribunal to which Canada has actually subjected itself.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Update on media coverage:

The Mississauga News:
Takeover was only option: Premier
letters to the editor: Email the Editor

[Liberal Ontario] Premier Dalton McGuinty and Education Minister Kathleen Wynne both said yesterday the province had no choice but to take control of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board…

which has 141 schools… and educates 89,000 students. Hartmann… said trustees can continue to hold board and committee meetings, work with parents and consider faith-related issues… [but] would no longer be a part of financial decision-making…

There will be more reductions in the next two school years, including the elimination of busing to French immersion and other optional regional programs, including the board’s only all-girls high school that is not currently accessible by public transportation. Other cuts would mean eliminating 19 secretaries and caretakers, reducing the special education students to teachers ratio from 200:1 to 204:1 and revising the high school staffing formula to eliminate 30 teaching positions…

[Hartmann’s] financial plan… is already controversial with parents. “We are concerned that this board is being targeted to give up programs and services that other boards were able to maintain,” said Stephen Mazur, who is part of a group he called Concerned Parents & Friends of Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. One area is busing, where the board has repeatedly pointed out that it receives far fewer funds than it actually spends, and less than other boards…

“A takeover is a takeover. What’s breathtaking about this is the combination of hypocrisy and broken promises,” said Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory. In an open letter to Catholic trustees, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said: “You have refused to do the dirty work of a government that has broken its promise to students”… Larry Stevenson, head of the caretakers’ union, said… the board has lost 37 caretakers, mostly due to retirements, who have not been replaced in the last year… “You can’t keep taking out of a system and expect to get the same quality. It’s going to affect the kids at the end of the day”…

The Caledon Enterprise (nothing new):
Dufferin-Peel school trustees now stripped of all powers
letters to the editor: editorial@caledonenterprise.com

The Brampton Guardian (nothing new):
Trustees cut from money matters
letters to the editor: letters@thebramptonguardian.com

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Digitonomy:

Either you misread my post, or are engaging in witty repartee that has mostly gone over my head.

If something has, as you claim, gone over your head then I believe a friendly gesture would be for you to ask me to clarify what I actually said. I am happy to clarify what I actually said in the interest of furthering friendly discussion.

Just because there are exceptions does not get you off the hook for having a discriminatory law on the books.

Did I say there were exceptions? No, I did not.

What I actually said was that neither the international human rights courts nor the Canadian human rights courts nor the Ontario human rights courts have jurisdiction in this particular case.

jurisdiction: Refers to a court’s authority to judge over a situation usually acquired in one of three ways: over acts committed in a defined territory (eg. the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Australia is limited to acts committed or originating in Australia), over certain types of cases (the jurisdiction of a bankruptcy court is limited to bankruptcy cases), or over certain persons (a military court has jurisdiction limited to actions of enlisted personnel).

While elements of human rights law may or may not exist in this case, the relevant point is that the type of case being considered here falls under constitutional law. And constitutional law has paramountcy over all other law in Canada.

paramountcy: In Canadian constitutional law, the doctrine of paramountcy establishes that where there is a conflict between valid provincial and federal laws, the federal law will prevail and the provincial law will be inoperative to the extent that it conflicts with the federal law. This model of paramountcy is often known as “federal paramountcy”…

The modern use of the paramountcy doctrine was articulated in Multiple Access v. McCutcheon… paramountcy can only be invoked when then compliance with one [law] means the breach of the other.

In this case, compliance with human rights legislation means breach of the Canadian Constitution. The paramountcy of the Canadian Constitution operates to override human rights legislation.

Digitonomy:

You appear to be trying to make the case for Canada’s compliance in the court of public opinion (such as it is on this forum), eight years after professional litigators lost the case in the tribunal to which Canada has actually subjected itself.

How it has appeared to you is one thing. The case I have actually made – and now clarified – is one under Canadian law not one under the court of public opinion. As evidence of my claim, please note the abundance of reference links I have provided. Those links are to law not public opinion.

Basically, what I am actually saying is that the province of Ontario operated ultra vires by taking over the Dufferin-Peel separate school board.

Ultra vires: Without authority. An act which is beyond the powers or authority of the person or organization which took it.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Here is an interesting old article which I dug up:

The National Post
Trustees refuse to budge in schools cash crunch

letters to the editor

Funding woes at a Catholic school board where secretaries are doubling as nurses could translate into student health problems, trustees warned yesterday. Budget cuts at Dufferin-Peel Catholic School board have already seen more than 30 janitors axed and vice-principals work-sharing, trustee Sharon Hobin said. Washrooms are not being properly cleaned and some schools have been without soap.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

from the Toronto Star:
letters to the editor

Peel Catholic board taken over (nothing new)

`No choice’ in takeover

Hartmann… and Wynne… admitted most trustee work has financial implications.

some letters:

… The provincial government did in fact have a choice, but it chose not to listen to the educators and boards across the province when we tried to warn of the impending challenges facing education… it was evident that it didn’t want to listen… Boards haven’t come to terms with the financial constraints. They have just put them off for another year.

In fact, when the funding crunch first came to light, Dufferin Peel CDSB balanced their budget from another fund rather than filing an application of underfunding. But that could only fix one year’s budget problems.

… To reduce the deficit, the government has gone to an outside investigator (cost unknown) and a supervisor at $1,500 per day. To date, the supervisor has taken away $345,000 from education money and will reportedly be here another year, for an additional $547,500. In total the government will have spent in the neighbourhood of $1 million

. Instead of fixing the problem, the funding formula… they keep wasting more money – bloating their own staff, mismanaging our money – and then make 4- and 5-year-olds pay for their mistakes.

… The trustees, who are elected officials, were to answer to an appointed official. Having been usurped and the will of the voters ignored, they were more than justified in refusing to serve as rubber-stamping collaborators of the government. As for Hartmann’s cuts, many of them appear to run counter to the Liberal government’s promises for education reform and, despite assertions to the contrary, are already impacting services to students.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

from Random Access blog last October:

The art of co-managing blame

… Unless [Wynne] appoints Esther O’Toole, who is acclaimed to office, how can the minister guarantee that her appointees will still be in office Dec. 1, when the new term starts? There’s a little thing called a municipal election coming up Nov. 13… Ferreira… says trustees have already reduced the deficit from $16.6 to $7.5 million. Trustees feel that going beyond that point will do irreparable harm…

In a private weekend meeting with Wynne a couple of weeks ago, the chair told the minister that if her staff published the long-awaited new guidelines for school closures, Dufferin-Peel could close a couple of schools that have fewer than 100 kids left and save $1 million in a hurry… What all this is about, of course, is the I’m-Not-Going-To-Take-The-Blame game.

Trustees facing the electorate in a month refuse to leave their bloody finger prints on the knife that performs surgery on their system. [Except that after the election, the trustees still refuse to make any further cuts.] The McGuinty Liberals, facing the electorate in less than a year, don’t want their claim of being the “education government” compromised by a bunch of intransigent trustees who keep pointing out that the real villain in all this is the funding formula, which the party promised to fix.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Here is an interesting little aside on Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty from the Catholic Register:
editor@catholicregister.org

McGuinty talks faith on Salt + Light

http://www.catholicregister.org/modules/PagEd/medipics/img579 Ontario Premier
Dalton McGuinty

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made his first foray into Catholic television with a 30-minute interview to premiere Jan. 18 on Salt + Light TV… Fr. Thomas Rosica [the man behind World Youth Day in Toronto]… told The Catholic Register… “There were no restrictions put on us, except that the premier did not want the interview to be done in a hostile environment… He also wished to speak of other things than focusing on the same-sex marriage issue…”

Which he did, including a sentimental account of being raised in a family of 10 by devout Irish Catholic parents in Ottawa. McGuinty also spoke fondly of his education at St. Patrick’s Catholic High School, run by the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate Fathers. And he recalled how his wife was a student at Notre Dame, the Catholic all-girls school next door… “I know I have a different take on that than my church,” [McGuinty] said… “I must say that other types of relationships don’t threaten me and don’t threaten my children.”

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Trouble in another school board (Timmins).

Province to blame for education chaos, trustees complain

A former trustee and board chair with the Toronto public school board, [Education Minister] Wynne expressed sympathy for the frustration of trustees who now spend half the year meeting to discuss a budget based on guesswork. She also admitted the Ministry of Education is snowing boards under with meaningless paperwork…

The board’s agreement with its union stipulates that if a teacher is going to be laid off in September the teacher has to know in April… Trustees can be fined if they fail to meet Ministry of Education deadlines for filing their budgets and budget estimates, but the hard numbers trustees need to finalize a real budget arrive a little later every year… In all her time as a trustee, Landers has never known the Ministry of Education to meet its own March deadline for getting financial information to boards…

 

[chosen_people]

Not true. In practice many non-Catholic children benefit from enrollment in Catholic schools in Ontario.

---

The following document would seem to indicate that Catholic school admission policies from junior kindergarten to grade 8 prevent the attendance of non-Catholics unless his parents or guardians are Catholics or the pupil is preparing to be Catholic

YORK CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD Policy No. 602ASection: Administration Implementation: Director of Education Approved: June 22, 1999 Revised: June 2, 1999 December, 1989 March, 1987 POLICY: ADMISSION TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8) POLICY STATEMENT:

1. Admission Requirements:
   It is incumbent on the parent/guardian to provide the required documents prior to admission. These include: a) proof of age; b) oneparent/guardian mustbeeligibleto designateseparate school support and/or provide proof of separate school support; c) immunization record; d) a Roman Catholic baptismal certificate, including a Christian baptismal certificate formally accepted by the Catholic church; and

---

Page 2
Policy No. 602A Page 2 e) proof of Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status or other valid legal status.

1. The Board may admit: a) a non-Catholic pupil, whereby one or both ofthe parent(s)/guardian are Roman Catholic and eligible to be a Roman Catholic Board supporter; b) on a temporary basis for a school year (September to June), a non-Catholic pupil, being prepared for a Catholic baptism or profession of faith, and when the parent will becomea Roman Catholic board supporter; c) an *Orthodox pupil, upon presentation of a baptismal certificate inthe Orthodox church, when separate school support cannot be obtained, providing the parent/guardiancomplies with the Board’s Admission criteria; d) a Roman Catholic pupil, residing with a Roman Catholic Board supporter who is not the biological parent but a guardian as appointed by the Courts of Ontario; e) a Roman Catholic pupil, whose parent or guardian does not qualify to become a Roman Catholic supporter;f) a Roman Catholic pupil, who is a Ward of the Government of Ontario; and g) newly landed immigrant, who can not provide sufficient proof of immigrant status. The Director of Education may admit a student on compassionate or humanitarian grounds *Orthodox - see Section 1 (Admissions Manual) Other Rites - Churches Not in Communion with the See of Rome 4. Exchange Students Pupils identified as Exchange Students will participate in reciprocal, school-based programs,provided in co-operation with Canadian school authorities and the foreign exchange partners of the Canadian Education Exchange Foundation (CEEF). CEEF maintains exchange programs formerly provided for Ontario School boards by the Ministry of Education. Admission will be in accordance to Board policies and procedures.5. Native People (Government of Canada) Pupils identified as Native people will be admitted in accordancewith the Regulations of the Government of Canada, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Ontario EducationStatutes and Regulations and in accordance with Board policies and procedures. 6. Non-landed Immigrant, Refugee, Work Permit, Diplomatic Status Pupils identified as non-landed Immigrant, Refugee, Work Permit, Diplomatic Status, will be admitted in accordance to the Ontario Education Statutes and Regulations, and to Immigration Canada Laws and Procedures and in accordance with Board policies andprocedures. 7. Resident Students – Requesting Attendance outside their School Boundary.

---

 

[Ani_Ibi]

More budget woes forecast for school boards

The Catholic school board in the rich and growing suburbs squeezed in between Toronto and Hamilton is worried… That concern prompted the board to pass a motion urging the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association to continue petitioning Queen’s Park to close the funding gap on teacher salaries…

Trustees and administrators… spent 2006 telling anyone who would listen their financial woes aren’t unique, and that 2007 will see more boards filing deficit budgets or overspending on budgets they knew they never could meet…