Human Rights A Day

Ontario Premier William Davis announces full funding for Catholic schools. While Canada’s constitution has long allowed for some public schools to serve Quebec’s Protestant and Ontario’s Catholic children, Ontario’s public funding for its Catholic schools extended only to grade 10. In 1968, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) made it a priority to change that. For 16 years, the OECTA helped organize teachers, administrators, parents and students to address the imbalance of public funding. They did so through letter writing, workshops, meetings with members of the provincial Parliament, and even an annual booth at the Toronto National Exhibition. Politicians were divided over extending the funding. During the 1971 provincial election campaign, Progressive Conservative Premier William Davis spoke forcefully against any such funding. But unexpectedly, Davis publicly reversed his stance on June 12, 1984 with an announcement that his government would extend public funding of Catholic schools