For Immediate Release
Toronto… (June 6, 2001) B’nai Brith Canada calls on the Ontario government to reject the linking of a means test with the tax credit for children in denominational schools. “B’nai Brith Canada supports the courageous step taken by the province to rectify the historic injustice with regard to funding of denominational schools”, states President of B’nai Brith Canada, Rochelle Wilner. “The provision of tax credits is one means by which the government has chosen to proceed along the road to full and equal funding.”
“We are pleased that long-term advocacy efforts on the part of the various cultural and religious communities has reached this point”, continued Toni Silberman, Chair of the League for Human Rights - Ontario Region. “But it would be disheartening if the government now chose to compound the inequality of funding public and Roman Catholic schools only, by imposing a means test on those who, by reason of religious imperative, have no choice but to send their children to a denominational school.”
B’nai Brith has long championed the legal and moral right of parents to choose the form of education for their children which best suits their familial ethos. This right is guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on Civil and Political Rights, a document to which Canada is a signatory and to which the Province of Ontario consented to be bound.
“Government funding of the Roman Catholic Separate School system under the then British North America Act was born of the need to protect the religious minority at that time. There was no consideration of income or means - it was just the right thing to do. Similarly, it behooves the government of our day to afford religious minorities that same protection and benefit, without conditions”, said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President.
B’nai Brith Canada will present its position to the Government during the public hearings which will be held next week.
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B'nai Brith has been active since 1875 as the country's senior advocacy and volunteer agency.
For further comment, please contact:
Toni Silberman, Chair of the League for Human Rights - Ontario Region
(416) 505-1584 (cell)
(416) 781-7290
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