The Manitoba Schools Question () was a political crisis in the Canadian province of Manitoba that occurred late in the 19th century, attacking publicly-funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants. The crisis was precipitated by a series of provincial laws passed between 1890 and 1896, and another passed in 1916. Tom Mitchell,"Forging a New Ontario on the Agricultural Frontier: Public Schools in Brandon and the Origins of the Manitoba School Question, 1881‑1889", Prairie Forum, 11, 1, 1986.
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.
Because of the close linkage at that time between religion and language, the Schools Question raised the deeper question whether French would survive as a language or a culture in Western Canada. The result of the crisis was that, by 1916, English was left as the only official language in use in the province until 1985. As French was no longer an official language, its use declined greatly. 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.Lovell Clark, ed. The Manitoba School Question: majority rule or minority rights? (1968)
Background Foundation of Manitoba (1870) Manitoba became the first western province to join Confederation in 1870. The province was created through negotiations between Canada and the provisional Red River government of Louis Riel, following the Red River Resistance/Rebellion. One of the key issues in the negotiations was the question of control of education in the new province. There was considerable pressure for a system of denominational schools in the new province, for both Protestants and Roman Catholics. 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. Religious control over education thus also related to the language of education.
The Act of Parliament that created the province, the Manitoba Act, responded to these concerns by giving the province the power to pass laws relating to education, but also by giving constitutional protection to denominational school rights which existed "by Law or practice in the Province at the Union."Manitoba Act, 1870 , s. 22. 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.
Political and demographic developments (1870–1890) 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. Many Métis had left,Ens, Gerhard. 1996. Homeland to Hinterland: The Changing Worlds of the Red River Metis in the Nineteenth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. and settlers from Quebec were not as numerous as those from Ontario. As the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1886, many more English-speaking settlers had begun to arrive.
Manitoba legislation (1890–1894)
The Manitoba schools crisis was precipitated by a series of provincial laws passed between 1890 and 1896 and another passed in 1916.
The Manitoba Act of 1870 had provided that English and French be co-official languages in the newly created Province of Manitoba (which initially included only part of southern Manitoba centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers).Manitoba Act, 1870 , s. 23. However, in March 1890, the Manitoba Legislature passed the Official Language Act,An Act to Provide that the English Language shall be the Official Language of the Province of Manitoba, S.M. 1890, c. 14. making English the only official language in the province.Verrette, Michel. February 07, 2006. "Manitoba Schools Question." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada (last updated June 01, 2016). Two years later, in 1892, the neighbouring Northwest Territories (which at the time covered the Canadian Prairies west and northwest of Manitoba) also abolished French as an official language.
Although the abolition of French as an official language did not directly affect the Schools Question, it strengthened the controversy, given the ties between religious schools and the language of education.
When the Province was created, the new provincial government established a system of denominational schools funded by provincial taxes. However, in the same month as the Official Language Act, the Manitoba Legislature passed two bills amending the province’s laws on education: An Act respecting the Department of Education and An Act respecting Public Schools (or, the Public Schools Act).Public Schools Act, S.M. 1890, c. 38.
The Department of Education Act created a Department of Education and turned the two sections of the Board of Education into only one. The Public Schools Act divested funding for Catholic and Protestant denominational schools, establishing instead a system of tax-supported, non-sectarian public schools. In other words, the Act removed the denominational school districts, and in doing so, the French language remained while the Catholic religion did not. If Catholics (mostly francophone) wished to continue education in their religion, they would now have to fund their own schools, in addition to paying taxes for public schools.
Passing this legislation was the response of Premier Thomas Greenway to the popular demand to abolish Manitoba's dual-school system, as many claimed that Catholics were receiving more funds from the province than their numbers warranted and that the quality of education in Catholic schools was poor. The question was whether this legislation was consistent with s. 22(1) of the Manitoba Act.
In 1894, Greenway's government also prohibited municipalities from making expenditures to assist schools outside of the public system. As Catholic parents were limited in their ability to pay for their children’s schooling, this prohibition would ultimately result in the reduction in the number of Catholic schools. While the great majority of these schools maintained their Catholic and private status, many were forced to join the public system. For French-speaking Catholics, the issue of religious education became an issue of identity.
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. The legislation also triggered considerable national political debate.
Initial crisis (1891–96)
Litigations Manitoba's legislation resulted in two rounds of litigation, each going to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
City of Winnipeg (1891–92) The first court case, Barrett v. City of Winnipeg (1891), focused on whether the Public Schools Act conflicted with the constitutional protection for denominational schools set out in s. 22 of the 1870 Manitoba Act. Catholics in Manitoba, encouraged by the federal government of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, challenged the constitutionality of the 1890 Act in the Queen's Bench of Manitoba, arguing that the requirement to pay taxes to the new public school interfered with their rights under s. 22. The Manitoba Queen's Bench held that the new Public Schools Act was valid.Barrett v. City of Winnipeg (1891), 7 Man. L.R. 273 (Q.B.); application dismissed by a single judge in chambers (Killam J.), at p. 282; appeal to the Queen's Bench en banc dismissed and statute upheld, at p. 308.
The challengers then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in Barrett v. Winnipeg (1891), which allowed the appeal and held that the 1890 Public Schools Act "transgresses the limits of the power given" by s. 22 of the Manitoba Act.Barrett v. Winnipeg (1891), 19 S.C.R. 374. Based on the Supreme Court decision, another action was brought in the Manitoba Queen's Bench, which followed the Supreme Court decision and quashed a school tax assessment under the 1890 Act.Logan v. City of Winnipeg (1891), 8 Man. L.R. 3 (Q.B.).
The City of Winnipeg then appealed both cases to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain which overruled the Supreme Court and held that the 1890 Act was consistent with the Manitoba Act.City of Winnipeg v. Barrett; City of Winnipeg v. Logan, A.C. 445 (P.C.).
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 held that this provision did not itself create a system of denominational schools. Rather, it gave constitutional protection to whatever rights existed with respect to denominational schools in Manitoba in 1870. 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. It did not guarantee any public funding for denominational schools, since there was no financial tax support for denominational schools in 1870. Taxpayer funding for denominational schools was only established after the foundation of the Province and was not guaranteed by s. 22(1) of the Manitoba Act, 1870. The Legislature therefore could end taxpayer funding for denominational schools and instead establishing a system of taxpayer funded non-sectarian schools, without being in breach of s. 22(1).
Brophy v. Manitoba (1894)
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. Section 93(3) of the Constitution Act, 1867 provides that there is an appeal to the Governor General in Council "from any Act or Decision of any Provincial Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education." Section 93(4) provides that if a province does not comply with a decision of the Governor-in-Council in an appeal under s. 93(3), then Parliament has the power to enact "remedial Laws for the due Execution of the Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of the Governor General in Council under this Section."Constitution Act, 1867, s. 93(3),(4).
Section 22 of the Manitoba Act had similar provisions authorising an appeal to the Governor General in Council and remedial legislation by Parliament.Manitoba Act, s. 22(2), (3).
Following the 1892 Privy Council decision in City of Winnipeg v. Barrett, pressure arose for the federal government to take action under these provisions. However, it was not clear if the changes to the Manitoba school system set out by the 1890 Public Schools Act were sufficient to authorise the federal government to hear an appeal and to enact remedial legislation, in light of the Privy Council's conclusion that the system of taxpayer funded denominational schools which were established in the early 1870s was not constitutionally protected.