JMJ
July 19,2011
In 1929 the Anderson government came in to power . Bill 1 stated that crucifix had to be removed from classrooms, that no nun could wear a religious habit in the classroom and other anti- catholic provisions. The prosperity of the twenties with brand new Eaton houses dotting the prairies was replaced by the drought, wind storms, grasshopper clouds, soil erosion, rickets, dust, and hunger of the thirties. The Anderson government was never re-elected and the Conservatives were in the political wilderness for fifty years. The Masonic, KKK influence that shaped the bill went into the CCF later called NDP. The KKK provincial leader was the Campaign Manager for Tommy Douglas. It is not a good idea to remove crucifix from schools, hospitals and other institutions.
There is a completely erroneous view that Catholicism can be expressed only by the will of secular governments. This view believes if Catholic schools exist they must use the same text books , curriculum and programmes as the norm the standard which is the secular school. There is nothing in our history, laws or traditions that state Catholic schools and Catholic hospitals may or may not exist except with a grudging will that allows making them a quixotic exception, pacifying a nostalgic past or notion of a die hard minority.
Since the winter of 1759-1760 when Marguerite d’Youville’s Grey Nuns nursed the English soldiers and the English soldiers shared their rations with the starving French Canadians, Canada has existed by the efforts of two or more diverse cultures, language and Christian expressions. Catholic schools were never intended to take a back seat to Protestant ( not secular) schools. One was not to control the other. It was assumed that one curriculum, one set of text books could satisfy two different religions with different histories and cultures. In law and by legal precedent the criteria was not French and English but Catholic and Protestant which may or may not have a language split.
Bishop Charlebois, the great apostle to the North fought for French language rights because French at that time was the vehicle to preserve the Catholic Faith. He held massive rallies to encourage the Faithful not to comply with the Anderson Bill 1. Specifically he insisted that they should not remove any crucifix! He was successful and probably did more than his share of defeating the government. When Manitoba was expanded and Catholics became a minority the Catholic schools were threatened. He wrote his father Hyacinthe who was a staunch conservative like many of the devout French Canadians, and said “ Do not fear I will vote Conservative but if John A. Macdonald does not repeal the Manitoba Education Act I will hang a crucifiv at the end of his big nose.” It is not known if our first Prime Minister was so decorated but the Manitoba Act attacking Catholic schools was repealed.
In 1982 when the Charter of Rights was included with the BNA 1867 and Her Majesty signed the bill, she signed a bill that stated nothing in the Charter would infringe on the rights of Catholic and minority schools. No “ the Charter does not trump the Bible” as a homosexual activist, crown prosecutor declared. It doesn’t even trump The British North America Act 1867, section 93. To state that a government in Toronto or Regina can impose a curriculum that is anathema to Catholic teaching is to state that those governments can over ride the Constitution, Legal Precedent and Catholic Revealed Truth. This is overstretching provincial jurisdiction by a very long stretch. Government cannot change Truth. It can argue about the best way to have laws that reflect Truth. If people don’t believe that there is such a thing as revealed Truth well that’s another reason why we have to have good Catholic Catholic schools. The alternative is chaos , then totalitarianism. Your sword is the Crucifix. Gay
