Civil Rights in Public Education, Inc.

06/04/2023

Time to end public funding of Roman Catholic schools

The main obstacle is not the Constitution, but political cowardice

06/01/2023

OPINION: If Catholic schools can’t support safety and inclusion, they shouldn’t be publicly funded.

03/27/2023

Corruption at the UN in Geneva

1) To the point: Something at the U.N. is broken. Through the U.N. human rights complaint process, my 2020 submission, CRIPE-Canada-1-2-3, was handled successfully by the U.N. Human Rights Officer Damianos Serefidis. Being under the category Freedom of Religion or ...

03/18/2023

The ON govt can
https://rdo-olr.org/the-constitutional-catholic-schools-issue-in-ontario-how-the-province-of-ontario-could-remove-its-obligations-to-fully-fund-catholic-schools-by-way-of-a-constitutional-amendment/

By Jenna Smith For many students in the province of Ontario, it is common to attend a school that is within a public or a Catholic school board, both of which are fully funded by the Government of Ontario. However, the province of Ontario is an anomaly when it comes to education funding as it is cur...

02/10/2023

United Nations tells Ireland to remove all religious discrimination in schools. 
https://atheist.ie/2023/02/un-tells-ireland-to-remove-all-religious-discrimination-in-schools I

Atheist Ireland welcomes today’s concluding observations about Ireland from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. We were in Geneva last month when the Committee questioned Ireland,

01/05/2023

Update on OPEN's Court Case

Two members of One Public Education Now (OPEN), a teacher and a parent, filed an Application to declare funding for Grades 11 and 12 in separate schools and funding for non-Catholics in separate schools in violation of the Charter of Rights s.15(1) guarantee of equal benefit and protection of the law in regard to religion.

The Attorney-General filed a Motion to Dismiss (Strike) the Application without it going to a full hearing. While Judge Myers said at the hearing of the Notice to Strike he "had been given a lot to think about", he gave his decision quickly and granted the Notice to Strike.

Our lawyers thought we had good grounds to appeal this decision to the Court of Appeal, but we were not confident we could raise the funds for the appeal. Even if we could raise the funds for the appeal, we were not confident we could raise funds for the hearing on the merits, examination of expert witnesses and cross-examination, appeals, etc. Moreover, if we lost the appeal (in legal matters, there is never a 100% guarantee of success), it could involve our plaintiffs in additional costs for partial indemnity of the legal costs of the Attorney-General of Ontario.

We therefore decided to not appeal the Motion to Dismiss. We raised over $175,000 from many individuals so we have many thanks to those who supported us. We still have outstanding legal costs to our lawyers so donations at our website, https://open.cripeweb.org/aboutOpen.html or by E-transfer to [email protected] would be appreciated.

One Public Education Now is a coalition of groups and individuals who are crowdfunding for a constitutional challenge through our courts to eliminate the public funding of the duplicate Catholic Separate school system

12/07/2022

Hamilton teacher’s bid to abolish funding for Ontario Catholic schools fails.



A judge said in a Nov. 28 written decision it’s ‘plain and obvious’ the constitutional challenge wouldn’t succeed in court.

10/27/2022

Why do we allow Ontario’s Catholic school system to violate the Charter of Rights? https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-do-we-allow-ontarios-catholic-school-system-to-violate-the-charter/

Since Confederation, taxpayer-funded Catholic school boards have been granted unique legal protections. That’s become untenable, 155 years later

10/14/2022

This publicly funded Catholic school board has a policy that states the board will, “ identify, examine, and remove any barriers that exist, preventing full participatory school community relations including obstacles associated with any systemic discrimination.” What hypocrisy!!

Student barred from running for trustee because she’s not Catholic scores a legal victory in case against school board.

09/17/2022

"Fairness is exactly why no religious schools should be publicly funded"

At many religious schools, children receive an excellent education. But the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for it

09/17/2022

"How long can a country as diverse as Canada continue to accept protected education rights for only one religion?" https://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/david-steele-independent-schools-issue-in-sask-needs-more-scrutiny?fbclid=IwAR1L-p2iRgvgbzxB1m_TzdjMgAmaMwm2wZ4X-3ZhVEVQcpI5wNvoOqbJo2M

Currently we are sliding to a conclusion that every group should have the opportunity to establish a publicly funded school system.

07/20/2022

Why does Ontario publicly fund the schools of an organization (Roman Catholic Church) with such a horrendous history of child sexual abuse?
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/42-catholic-properties-sold-to-pay-abuse-survivors-at-former-newfoundland-orphanage-1.5992800?fbclid=IwAR3FgYTynz_9KvV-PC-IT-6um35wo-YXxcZylf1Awbf_fEl69PgKjl8N4j4

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has approved the sale of 42 properties belonging to the local Roman Catholic Church to pay survivors of sexual abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage.