By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The most contentious issue in the upcoming Ontario provincial election is the Progressive Conservative promise that if the party forms the next government they will provide funding for all faith-based schools in the province. Presently, only Roman Catholic schools are fully funded by the taxpayers. This proposal and the fact that John Tory will undoubtedly keep this promise if elected is about all that separates the Liberals from the Tories.
McGuinty sees nothing wrong with fully funding Catholic schools while denying that money to other religious denominations. After all he went to Catholic schools as did his children and his wife taught in the Catholic system. This fact is hardly worth commenting upon; it is vintage Dalton "do what I say not what I do". McGuinty is the guy after all who bemoans global warming but takes a plane between Toronto and Hamilton because he's an important guy; no time for gridlock on the QEW. Regular rules don't apply to Dalton.
In response to the Conservatives' policy, McGuinty said that the upcoming election is more than just an election; it is about what kind of Ontario people want. (No, Dalton, it's just another election; we either get you or John Tory; in the end there will be no appreciable difference). McGuinty then went on to say, "If you want the kind of Ontario where we invite children of different faiths to leave the publicly funded system and become sequestered and segregated in their own private schools, then you should vote for Mr. Tory." In other words, those who want their own schools (except Catholics of course) are really nothing more than segregationists.
Some groups, such as the Canadian Jewish Congress expressed outrage at McGuinty's segregationist comments and demanded an apology. Luckily they did it in a rather polite way so there's practically no chance that Dalton will revoke their party membership cards.
Let's assume for the moment, that McGuinty is right about faith based school funding leading to sequestering and segregation. Although Dalton will lie about anything and everything if he feels it will benefit him at the time, he is not always wrong. Having children going to school with only those of their own faith is in a way, a form of segregation. But if this is segregation, so is the whole concept of multiculturalism which is not only practiced in Ontario and Canada but is made to be the cornerstone of our society. There is no difference between spending money to encourage school children to go to a faith based school and encouraging multicultural groups to limit activities "to their own kind". Why join a diverse group or club when you can stay within your ethnic or religious community and have the government throw money at you? And how many people are more adept at throwing lots of money at ethnic or religious groups that Dalton McGuinty Jr. is? As Toronto's last real mayor would say, "Noooooobody!!!"
Former Liberal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Michael Colle was forced to resign after the province's auditor general revealed that over $32 million was handed out, without controls and often without even requests, to various ethnic and religious groups by his ministry during the 2006-07 fiscal year. Examples of the money dished out to encourage people to stick with their own kind are: United Jewish Appeal Federation, $15 million; Islamic Institute of Toronto, $500,000; Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization, $200,000; and, Sikh Heritage Centre, $100,000. Now if this $32 million is not for the purpose of fostering, in the premier's words, "sequestration and segregation", it's difficult to see what other purpose it serves. Our multicultural policies discourage people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds to mix with the rest of society and no one is a greater proponent of this than Dalton McGuinty is.
But segregation is bad and so McGuinty cannot see himself as the type of segregationist that he paints John Tory as. After all, he's Dalton McGuinty.
McGuinty's comments about Tory's faith based education plan are just one more example of how normal rules and standards simply don't apply in McGuintyland.
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