Friday, January 21, 2005

Canadian Jewish School Funding - now you see it, now you don't

In another instalment of the long saga of public funding for Jewish schools in Canada, the Charest government in Quebec has done a hasty about-turn . Actually, Quebec Jewish schools do already receive some direct funding from the provincial government. Premier Charest announced recently that by allowing Jewish schools in Montreal to 'affiliate' with public school boards that funding could be increased without needing new legislation(I think I have that right).
He just neglected to tell anyone (eg his Cabinet) about this idea, announced it straight after a major fund-raising dinner held under Jewish auspices for his party, and has had to simply cancel the deal ....... Embarrassing.
This comes after a differently-structured tax break for parents whose children attend 'faith-based schools' in neighbouring Ontario was cancelled (retroactively!) after a change of government.
Is Canada SO antisemitic???? Well, I think that the two Provinces are actually different cases. In Ontario, there is a huge political bias against private schools altogether, and the cancellation of the tax-credit (although it mainly affected Jewish schools) also affected many other, smaller denominational schools. (Let me make it clear that I believe that Ontario IS discriminatory in its policy -- but see below...)
In Quebec, a) there was an issue of process -- the deal had an unfortunate impression of secrecy and dealing behind closed doors; b) Quebec has a fierce secular sensitivity, as a result of the overthrow of Catholic domination of public life some decades ago (the 'Quiet Revolution') and c) the Jewish community, for better or worse, and despite the growing Francophone Sephardi community is still identified with the Anglophone minority in a fiercely Francophone province.

However, there may be a common sub-text to both, and to some noises heard elsewhere recently about the wisdom or otherwise of government support for religious schools. And that is the increasing Government awareness in Canada, and certainly in Europe, (see the link for the UK and the widely-reported French debate) that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander -- ie - increased support for religious schools of any denomination will bring demands for funding of Moslem schools. And, for the time being, no Government wants that, even though they won't say so out loud.

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