With the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms fresh in our minds, a motion was defeated in Ontario Legislature on April 26 that, if passed, would have flown in the face of what the Charter stands for.

Disguised under a veil of “commitment to students”, the Liberal MPP's motion proposed the provincial government never extend any support to parents who send their children to independent schools. Effectively, the motion discriminated against families of faiths other than Catholic who choose to send their children to faith based schools.

I can still remember when the decision was made by Bill Davis's PC Government to extend full funding to Catholic schools. After all, I was a high school student at Notre Dame Catholic School in Welland at the time. I was in one of the last classes to have to pay tuition, but I still remember the decision that was made and how that impacted us as Roman Catholics.

I can also remember appreciating the words of the Liberals in the Assembly during that time (they actually implemented the work begun by Davis to fund Catholic schools) – Ian Scott, Sean Conway and Bob Nixon, among others. They, and others in the Assembly, stood up and said it was right to extend funding to Catholic schools, not because of a constitutional necessity, but because it was simply the right thing to do.

On July 04, 1985, then Education Minister Sean Conway rose in the Legislative Assembly to discuss the Government’s Plan to extend full funding to Catholic Schools. In expressing his view that funding for Catholic schools was the right thing to do, Minister Conway recalled the words of Sir Wilfrid Laurier:

“So long as I have a seat in this House, so long as I occupy the position I do now, whenever it shall become my duty to take a stand on any question whatever, that stand I will take, not from the point of view of Roman Catholicism, not from the point of view of Protestantism, but from the point of view which can appeal to the consciences of all people irrespective of their particular faith…by all people who love justice, freedom and toleration.”

While Conway used Laurier’s words to advocate the extension of support to Catholic schools, I believe Laurier’s words apply today to the extension of support to parents who send their children to other faith based schools.

I remain a strong supporter of the Catholic school system. But I also believe the time has come to extend support to other parents who value their heritage and religious beliefs, and who wish to pass on those values to their children by having them attend an independent school.

I was disappointed and saddened that in 2007, after UN resolutions, after charter challenges, after almost every single province has moved to address the issue of fairness to people of all faiths in education, a motion was brought forward by a Liberal MPP that would exclude a student based on his or her religion.

The Heritage Christian School in Jordan and the Covenant Christian School in Smithville recently made trips to Queen’s Park. These students come from real hard-working, middle-class families who make sacrifices and pay their full taxes to the public system, but get no recognition from the Province of Ontario for their choice to send their child to a Christian school.

To characterize these schools as bastions of the wealthy and the privileged because their kids attend a “private school” is an egregious mischaracterization perpetrated for political purposes by the McGuinty Liberals.

It’s time we offered some assistance for parents who choose to send their children to these schools. Other provinces do. We’ve been called to do so by the United Nations. It’s time for Ontario to correct this injustice.