While John Tory’s attempt to be more inclusive by having the public purse fund more than just one faith-based school system may be a noble one, it threatens the very core of contemporary Canadian society: a society that believes in intrinsic rights such as the right to a publicly funded education, and a democratic society that believes religion has no place in the affairs of the state.

That very notion — while difficult to reconcile when we consider that Catholic schools are tied to the public coffer — would only further deteriorate if we consider funding even more faith-based schools.

We are not a theocracy. While the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees freedom of religion and expression, faith remains a personal choice that ought to be pursued individually by the diverse members that make up our nation, not rammed through at a collective cost.

While the current system of having public and separate schools goes back to before Confederation, the funding of these schools has never been a straightforward matter. Provinces were left to decide on their own funding formulas.

It wasn’t until 1964 that then-education minister Bill Davis pushed through the idea to entirely fund the Catholic education system with public dollars. Later, as premier in 1984, he took it a step further and extended funding to Catholic secondary schools and took a lot of heat for his decision.

The issue has been rearing its head for some time — especially as Canada’s demographics change and other groups lobby for equal treatment.

In 1996 the issue made its way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Those who brought the issue before the courts argued the current funding system contravened the 1983 Charter or Rights guaranteeing equal treatment for all regardless of religion. The courts shot them down, noting the rights of Catholics had been signed, sealed and delivered under the Constitution in order to make nationhood possible.

Today the Ontario separate school system represents an estimated 600,000 students. And while Quebec eliminated the separate school system in 1998, opting instead to maintain two secular school systems based on the English and French languages, Ontario still struggles with the issue. It funds Catholic and non-religious public schools to the exclusion of all others.

In 1999 the United Nations condemned Ontario’s separate school system, calling it a form of discrimination.

Today, the realities and decisions made before Confederation that led to our two-tier school system are no longer applicable. It is a system that merits hardcore analysis, but opening the floodgates to fund other groups will only weaken an already troubled public education system.

In Muskoka, low enrolment is causing split-level classes in some grades and programs such as the alternate school year system are in danger of being disbanded because there aren’t enough students to sustain them. If more parents, suddenly faced with the prospect of being able to send their children to publicly funded private schools, pull their kids from the existing public schools, one can only assume that more schools will close and more classes will be converted into split grades. Only the schools that can attract the most students will survive, which means minority groups who cannot afford to pay high tuition fees will be even more hard done by if the only schools left standing represent the faith that dominates in a particular area.

While the history of all religions is an interesting one and one that should be taught in our classrooms in keeping with a democratic and tolerant society, faith itself should remain a personal pursuit, and not one funded by our tax dollars.

TDV