Question of the schools of Manitoba

The question of the schools of Manitoba was a political crisis with the Manitoba, and everywhere with the Canada, towards the end of the 19th century concerning the separated schools, and the more fundamental question namely if the French could survive as a language and a culture in the Western Canadian.

Manitoba was the fifth province to join the confederation in 1870, after negotiations between Canada and the provisional government of the Red Rivière of Louis Riel. The act of the Parliament which created the province, the Loi on Manitoba , created also a system of denominational schools similar to that used in the province of Quebec.

Before the Loi on Manitoba is not voted to create the province, of the colonists of English Canada (mainly the Ontario) started to arrive, of larger numbers even as before the Rébellion of the river Rouge (which was, partly, a reaction to these colonists). The Loi on Manitoba gave rights equal to the Protestant schools of language English are and to the catholic schools of language French E, but in 1880 this did not reflect any more the linguistic composition of the province. Several Métis had left, and the colonists of Quebec were not as numerous as those of Ontario. When the railroad the Canadian Pacific was supplemented in the Années 1870 and 1880, even more anglophone colonists started to arrive.

One of the wildest opponents at the anglophone and French-speaking separate schools was Dalton McCarthy, which formed the Equal Rights Association in 1889. For McCarthy, " Equal Rights" (equal rights) wanted to say a representation righter in the province, and not of the privileges for the decreasing French-speaking population. McCarthy was supported by Joseph Martin, the public prosecutor of Manitoba.

In 1890, Manitoba voted the Loi on the schools of Manitoba , abolishing French like official language of the province, and withdrawing the financing for the Catholic schools. This was in contradiction with the Loi on Manitoba of 1870. The catholics of Manitoba, encouraged by the Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, called some at the Supreme court of the province, but the Loi on the schools was constant. They carried the business in call to the Supreme court of Canada, which sliced in favor of the Loi on Manitoba of origin. However, the legal Committee of the Council deprived with the the United Kingdom cancelled the decision, supporting the Loi on the schools . During this time, in 1892, the Territoires of the North-West also abolished French like official language.

According to the Act of British North America, which created Canada in 1867, the federal government could still intervene in spite of a private Council Decision. The " question of the écoles" , as it was called, the preserving government divided since 1890, and even more after death of Macdonald in 1891 when there was no strong leader to succeed to him. In 1896, the government created a new school commission for the catholics; this was very unpopular near the Protestant deputies tory, and the Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell was obliged to resign in April of this year.

The election of 1896 was centered on the question of the schools. It divided especially the conservatives in Quebec and in Ontario; Quebec was furious that French was made eliminate in the Western Canadian, just like the French-speaking mongrel population had been expelled of its grounds, while Ontario saw a strong opposition in support of the catholics by powerful the Ordre of Orange. The liberal under Wilfrid Laurier (a catholic French-speaking person) drew advantage from division within the Conservative party, and Bay-tree became Prime Minister in 1896.

Bay-tree developed a compromise with Thomas Greenway, the Prime Minister of Manitoba. They agreed to say that catholic education would be allowed in the public schools, and French would be used as language of teaching, but only on a case-by-case basis of the schools, according to the number of the French-speaking students. They also restored the catholic school commission, but without financing of the government. Several catholics were always opposed to this compromise, and called even upon the Pape Leon XIII. The pope sent an observer, which concludes, like Laurier, which the compromise was just possible, taking into account the small number of catholics remaining in the province.

As French was not any more one official language, its use declined quickly. In 1916, the guarantee of French education was removed compromise, leaving English like the only language of use in the province.

The question of the schools, with the execution of Louis Riel in 1885, was one of the events which led to the rise of the nationalism Canadian-French in Quebec at the end of the XIXe century.

External bonds

Question of the schools of Manitoba to the College Marianopolis
Text of the compromise Bay-tree-Greenway

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