Filed under: Politics | Tags: Catholic, Christian schools, dalton mcguinty, education, election, faith-based, fundamentalist, funding formula, Global, hindu, Howard Hampton, Human Rights, islam, Islamic, jewish, john tory, Liberal, liberals, NDP, Ontarians, Ontario, Ontario Liberals, PC, racism, schools, terrorist
The faith based funding issue should have been about simple human rights. The U.N has already indicated that the practice of funding only Catholic schools in Ontario is unjust. John Tory hoped to address this issue by fixing the problem and allowing fairness. Fund all or fund none, and he opted to fund all. Unfortunately, reality occurred and we found out that Ontarians are actually a lot more racist, ignorant and bigoted then they like to believe. Not all Ontarians are like this, but based on call-in shows and the general mood of people, many are. In reality the question should have been “would you like Islamic schools to get public funding”. Many Ontarians have extreme stereotypes about Islam, to some no fault of their own. The images they see, and are bombarded with, tend to be on the extreme. On the radio comments, in regards to faith-based education, revolved around fundamentalist Islam elements and “terrorists”. I have even heard a voter say that they do not what terrorist schools to get funding. Now a lot of this is based on fear, since 9/11, but in essence we still extremely fearful and ignorant in Ontario. Now the question is, does that fear show how successful the media has been in planting the wrong image about Islam in the minds of Canadians? Because it’s absolutely amazing how clueless people are about various religions in Ontario. Rather than be properly educated about any group of people, we like to remain in our sheltered domain; ignorant to the facts around us.
Filed under: Politics | Tags: 2007, Catholic, discrimination, education, election, Hampton, Howard, Liberal, McGuinty, NDP, October, Ontario, PC, schools
With the entire buzz about faith-based education, it seems that we have not dealt with the underlying problem facing education. The funding formula is truly something that must be looked at. Although I may agree that the status quo cannot continue, in reference to funding only Catholic schools, my worry is that the PC Party of Ontario has not taken time to look at the funding formula? What will happen, as parents take their children out of public schools and place them in faith-based schools? Will the funding formula continue to apply to ALL schools? I suspect that there would be a lot of Catholic High Schools closing also, since a lot of parents, who are not necessarily Catholic, send their children there. Now I wonder if a new school is available, will parents prefer it and cause a mass exodus of children to other faith-based schools. The NDP seems to be the only party with a platform devoted to public education, leaving the debate over faith-based schools alone. The PC’s and the Liberals have interesting ideas and plans. Albeit, I do not understand what Dalton McGuinty was thinking by attacking faith-based education, while doing a press release from a Catholic school.
It seemed kind of ironic and odd to me. How does that play to the viewer on TV? Now that the cookie is out of the jar this issue will not go away. Maybe this was their master plan all along? Maybe they are all working together on this? Get us talking about it and when we are angry enough we may just vote in an NDP government. I think we did that before? Maybe with a majority they will just remove funding from all Catholic schools or merge them into one public educational system. Hey, its not NDP policy, but who really knows anyway. All bets are off when you got a majority government and I don’t think anyone thought they would have won the election last time. Pipe dream or nightmare?
By: Torontomatic
Filed under: Issues, Politics | Tags: education, election, faith-based, issue, Liberal, NDP, PC, religious, schools
Maybe we in Ontario have forgotten, but the UN says that funding of Catholic schools only, is discriminatory. Not that I would hold up the U.N as a pillar of excellence, but thats for another topic. We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand! Personally I feel there should be only one school system, which would fix this issue; however that is beside the point. The fact is John Tory should be applauded for making this an issue we ALL need to face. He is placing his political future on it and I gather that even if the Liberals win, they will not touch the issue. However, it would be interesting to see what would happen in a minority government situation. Would they deal with the issue? No one likes change, but the “status quo” is not good enough for us in Ontario. Constitutional or not we must either have ONE school system, where Catholic schools are NOT funded or a system that brings ALL faith schools under the “scrutiny” of a PUBLIC system, like Catholic schools.
Unfortunately, I am not sure if we have truly gone through the trials and tribulations of funding faith-based schools. For example, will the funding formula still exist in the public system? If so, will it apply to faith-based schools? Will we see public schools close? If we fund some religions, what happens if others (I will leave that to your imagination) ask for funding? Has anyone thought of the long-term issues? I have already told you my opinion. I think there should be one system. But no political party is going to “remove” funding from Catholics. Although it would be the right thing to do, it would be political suicide. I think John Tory knows this and has opted for the only other option, since no other party (if they would be honest), wants to tackle the issue.
What is unfortunate is the ignorance, that shows its ugly face, in the attitudes and misconceptions about faith-based schools. Ignorance is not something we should tolerate. I sense really it is fear of the unknown. We have gotten so used to funding only Catholic schools, that it has become a part of an Ontarians’ life. We must not forget that we cannot continue with the status quo. I do not mind removing funding, from Catholic schools, but is that really going to happen? What I would have preferred is that this issue was brought to the legislature or as a referendum option, with a straight clear question. No middle of the road questions!
Will we fund all faith-based schools (mainstream) or only have one public school system with no faith-based school being funded.
This is NOT an easy issue. Lets remove fear of the unknown. I have heard worries about terrorist schools to the ignorant remarks about the “ghettoizing” of the school system. Its strange that most of these remarks are pointed at ethnic communities, when Catholics for years have been receiving money. I know if not that simplistic, however just because we do something it does not make it right. At one time we felt it was fine to discriminate against people of colour, gender or sexual preference. Whats more interesting is that there is no a word from Protestant schools that would benefit from funding. The main proponents have been Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Islamic schools (albeit other Christian schools are included). I think I will delve into this issue more in a later post. The entire issue is truly complicated and complex. As they say “old habits die hard” and if we claim to be a diverse society that includes ALL, then lets “grow up” and start to tackle the difficult issues that make us who we are, which is Canadian.
By: Torontomatic
