The established parties in Ontario are the Progressive Conservatives (PCs), the Liberal Party (Liberals) and the New Democratic party (NDP) and they all support the idea of taxpayers funding the Separate (Catholic) Schools.  Members of the  PC party (although not the party itself) are mostly against funding but primarily because they are against funding Catholics.  The Liberals have traditionally had strong Catholic and more recently Muslim support.   That leaves the leftist/socialist NDP.  They are also the most secular party although they would not want to be called atheist.

Many people feel that the NDP is the only party willing to go out on a limb to support policies that the majority would not support - that coupled with their more secular outlook makes them more likely to adopt a policy to NOT support public funding for Catholic schools.  An organization called CRIPE (Civil Rights in Public Education) has initiated a petition to the NDP asking them to make that change.

The issue is seen to be primarily one of Justice and Human rights although many are also concerned about the inefficiencies and costs of having multiple systems.

To quote CRIPE:

"..(Providing) public funds for the total support of a separate school system dedicated to the indoctrination of the religious beliefs of one faith group, to the exclusion of all others, is a violation of our guarantee of equality of treatment under both our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As such, the separate school issue is, first and foremost, a human rights and justice issue.

CRIPE feels that this can be done despite the fact that many people think that the Canadian Constitution says it cannot be done.  Support for this view comes from:

• Quebec and Newfoundland have implemented such policies although they effectively made it Catholic/secular if you can imagine such a thing.
• Manitoba has passed Legislation to this effect

The petition does not prohibit religious schools nor prohibit religious instruction - it just asks that no public funds be used for this purpose.

To sign the petition, you do not have to be a supporter of the NDP - so I have signed and I recommend everyone sign.   Go to this page.

For more on this subject on Cobourg Atheist, go here:  Funding Religious Schools

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