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Notes from a province-wide address
by Premier Brian Tobin
July 31, 1997


Ladies & Gentlemen:

I've asked for this opportunity to speak to the whole province tonight because I believe the time has come to end the confusion and chaos that has gripped our education system over the last five years.

For five years the government, school boards, the NLTA, the churches, parents and students, have all been engaged in what seems to be a never ending debate about how to reconcile the need for reform of our education system with the rights of the denominations in our education system.

During the last five years, we've seen every attempt to reconcile these two ideas...education reform and denominational rights end in more confusion and more conflict.

I believe it's time to recognize that we cannot maintain our commitment to achieve the education reform necessary to shape our future, if we continue to tie that reform to a denominational system of education that shaped our past.

My predecessor as Premier, Clyde Wells, attempted a compromise solution to this problem. Mr. Wells, proposed a constitutional amendment to Term 17 which altered, but did not eliminate, denominational rights. Mr. Wells believed that if all parties acted in good faith a compromise approach might work. It was an honourable attempt...but it hasn't worked.

The churches have exercised their remaining constitutional rights in a manner which has frustrated reform.

In fact we have in place today in this province, as a result of a court injunction which was sought and received by the churches, a system of education where the decisions of all of our school boards are subject to approval or disapproval by two men.

These two gentlemen, acting in a manner consistent with Mr. Justice Leo Barry=s decision, on behalf of their respective churches are exercising their remaining constitutional rights available to them.

The question tonight is not why are these rights being exercised--after all rights which exist will always be exercised--but the real question is: why are these rights available to them at all? Why are these rights still necessary? What do these rights have to do with the best interests of all of our children?

Do we need, in 1997, just three years away from the year 2000, a new millenium, a system of denominational education which pre-dates Confederation with Canada itself.

Whose rights are really important here? Whose interests must we serve?

I believe it's our children who must be given a full opportunity in 1997 to live together and to learn together.

In fact, that simple but yet so desirable objective, learning together, cannot be fulfilled if the denominational rights which exist today continue into the future.

Do we want a system of education that continues to separate our children on the basis of their religion?

Do we want teachers hired or fired anymore on the basis of religion? Do we want school board elections that elect school board members on the basis of religion?

I believe it's time to allow all of our children, of every denomination, to sit in the same classroom, in the same schools, to ride the same bus, to play on the same sports teams, to live and to learn, together in the same community.

I believe it's time to hire our teachers because they're competent, caring and committed to our children...not because of their religion.

I believe it's time to elect our school board members because they will exercise their best judgement on behalf of all of us, not just on behalf of some of us.

This is what I've been hearing from many of you in recent weeks. This is what I believe.

The government caucus is made up of 36 individuals, men and women, of every denomination, urban and rural, from every part of our province.

We are Anglicans and Catholics...we are United, Pentecostal and Salvation Army...we encompass some of the many diverse religious beliefs of our province.

And we, too, have struggled with the education crisis. We've tried to find a consensus between all of the parties in conflict. And we haven't been able to succeed, because as long as we have a system which fundamentally divides our people, real consensus isn't possible.

We've listened to the voices of our constituents.

Our constituents are telling us now to stop trying to navigate between the denominations. Our constituents are telling us to stop seeking compromise after compromise in the name of a false consensus.

Our constituents are telling us that we must not mistake the voices of those who would keep us separated for the real voices of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Our constituents are telling us it's time to put an end to a denominational system that has pulled us apart...you are telling us it's time to start pulling together, by living and learning together.

The government is prepared to take decisive and swift action to bring about a new education system for our province. I can assure you we have the will to act...we have the desire to act...but we require the authority to act.

And that authority...that permission to seek fundamental constitutional change comes not from the legislature, or the courts or from political parties. The authority to act...can only come from you, the people.

Tonight, I am announcing a referendum for September 2nd. Government is seeking a mandate, from the people, to end the separation of our children, to end the denominational school system, to eliminate Term 17 as it is currently drafted, and to create a new single school system where all of our children, regardless of their religious affiliation attend the same schools.

I believe the people of our province want such a system and I believe you also want, as part of that system, provision for religious education and observances. This is what we are proposing in a simple, straight forward question to be answered on referendum night, September 2nd.

The question would read:

Do you support a single school system where all children, regardless of their religious affiliation, attend the same schools where opportunities for religious education and observances are provided?

I believe when you reflect for a moment you'll see this question is very clear.

Government is proposing the creation of a school system where there are no unidenominational schools, no interdenominational schools, no integrated schools... no Catholic, no Pentecostal schools ...just one school system for everybody, where everyone goes to the same class, are taught by the same teachers, where everyone rides the same bus, ...a school system where all of our children learn together. That's clear.

You will note we also talk about opportunities for religious education and observances. Let's be clear about what that means. It means an opportunity for religious education for all of our students...not on a denominational basis, but on the basis of approved curriculum common to all of our students.

Observances simply means that provision is made for Christmas concerts, plays, for a nativity scene or a Christmas tree in the class or the school lobby.

We're proposing a single school system with provision for religious education for our students.

What will be the constitutional rights of the churches in such a new school system? There will be no constitutional rights for the churches in the new school system. What we're proposing, quite simply, is that parents, not the churches, have the ultimate right and responsibility to direct their children's education.

Parents and the general public, will elect the members of the legislature that will have constitutional responsibility for education. Parents will elect the school boards that would make local decisions, on their education system. Unelected and unaccountable church representatives would have no special rights and no special role in the new school system.

Let there be no doubt about what government is proposing. It means nothing less than the removal of the churches from the governing of schools. It would mean the existing Term 17, which sets out denominational rights in the constitution, would be completely replaced.

A new term making the legislature responsible for administration of schools and giving students the opportunity for religious education and observances will be passed.

Mr. Justice Leo Barry in his recent decision, granting the Roman Catholic and Pentecostal Churches an injunction to stop school reform, said the following, and I quote, "We've accepted a less than optimal standard of education by opting to preserve at least some of the denominational system of education. This statement is made not as a criticism but as a matter of fact"(end of quote)

Mr. Justice Leo Barry's words remind us that the denominational system of education carries with it limitatiions. I believe these limitations are no longer acceptable.

However, even as I come to that conclusion, my purpose tonight is not to dismiss the real contribution that our churches have made to our education system in the past.

There are many of us tonight, and I am one of those, who have benefited from the denominational system. My purpose tonight is not to discount the contribution of those who taught or administered the denominational system. My purpose is to say firmly that we have grown beyond such a system.

It's time to focus on our children... to focus on their right to the best education we can afford to give them. Our children are always ready to stretch out their hands in the spirit of friendship... in the spirit of generosity. How many times have we come to know our neighbours far better because our children brought us together.

Tonight, I'm asking the community, the full neighbourhood that is Newfoundland and Labrador, to come together... to reach out to each other... to embrace a new system of education for all of our children.

You know, we don't reserve seats in this place - in the House of Assembly on the basis of religion. We don't reserve seats in the Cabinet room upstairs on the basis of religion.

We don't reserve seats in the courts on the basis of religion. And we don't reserve seats in the workplace on the basis of religion.

Must we go on reserving seats in our schools on the basis of religion.

The choice is yours. You know where I stand.

I ask you to reflect over the next few weeks... and on September 2nd - wherever you stand... please participate in this historically important referendum.


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