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Demand for Funds for Non-Catholic Schools Heats Up

A P Kamath

A battle for school funding being fought in a small Canadian city could have far reaching impact on schools run by immigrant communities across Ontario.

The fight for funds was launched this week by an Islamic society in Cambridge. The leaders of the fight expect Hindu and Jewish groups to join them.

Hafsah Diwaker, vice-principal for the Islamic Centre for Cambridge, feels it is "discrimination" that Catholic school boards in Ontario receive funding while other religious groups do not. The existing policy goes against multicultural and multiethnic Canada, she feels.

"If one denomination gets funding by the government, why not the other ones?" she asked recently in a chat with reporters. "We all live in the same country and exercise the same rights."

The situation to fund both religious and non-religious private schools is engaging the attention of the Ontario government.

The Toronto Star reported, by citing a confidential cabinet document, that the government is quietly studying plans to fund private schools. The new policy will cost the state several million dollars each year.

But when Education Minister Janet Ecker said following the publication of the report that Ontario is committed only to the existing public system and funding Catholic schools as required by the constitution, minority groups and leaders began hitting back.

Diwaker said about a hundred students from over a dozen countries including those in South Asia attend the Islamic Centre and apart from getting religious instructions, are also taught subjects such as math, English and geography.

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