Common Schools Act of 1871
Encyclopedia
The Common Schools Act of 1871 was legislation of the Canadian
Province of New Brunswick
, passed by the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
, which replaced the Parish Schools Act of 1858. The legislation aimed to abolish church-run schooling in New Brunswick and replace it with a system of government-run "common schools". The act was stridently opposed by the Roman Catholic Church
and its adherents, and a series of clashes between New Brunswick Catholics and the provincial government culminated in the shooting of two people following riots at Caraquet
in 1875, after which the act was substantially amended to implement a joint religious/secular schooling system.
, for example, there were some 160 Catholic schools operating by 1871, many staffed by professed religious, with a significant minority of them offering instruction in French. There were no standardised texts and teachers had complete freedom in their choice of curriculum. Of those priests and professed religious acting as teachers, the majority had no formal teaching credentials. Attendance at schools was enforced by teachers and parents, with no government intervention.
By 1871, the New Brunswick parliament had begun to have substantial doubts about this system of education. They were skeptical about the quality of education begin delivered, and they were also concerned about attendance rates, with school attendance in the area of Gloucester falling as low as 55%.
, Egerton Ryerson
had fought for secularization as a means of keeping power out of the hands of any one church, and from 1844 as Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada
he had instituted significant reforms leading to the creation of a strong state-run education system. In Novia Scotia, Premier Charles Tupper
had successfully introduced public schooling through his Free School Act of 1864. Closer to home, Lemuel Allan Wilmot
, a former New Brunswick Attorney-General and in 1871 its Lieutenant Governor, had been an outspoken advocate for the creation of a unified taxation-funded public school system in New Brunswick for many years.
concerned the authority of the Pope
over secular governments. The doctrine of ultramontanism
asserted that the Pope held supreme authority over all matters spiritual and secular, and it was vigorously pursued by key members of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, most notably Ignace Bourget
, Bishop of Montreal
from 1840 to 1876.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX
published the Syllabus of Errors
, a document collecting several past papal reasonings and presented as a list of "condemned propositions". Among the ideas specifically condemned in the Syllabus of Errors were modern liberalism
, the supreme power of human reason, the teaching of philosophy and natural science as fields distinct from religion, and, at some considerable length, the separation of church and state
. The syllabus specifically reaffirmed the right of priests to interfere in and direct the course of temporal affairs, and the supremacy of religious law over civil law. Proposition 45 of the Syllabus rejected the right of civil governments to exercise sole dominion over the teaching of children.
At the same time, reform-minded governments gaining power throughout Canada were becoming frustrated by church conservativism, and keen to lessen their dependence on church infrastructure and mitigate the power wielded by the Vatican
in Canadian political affairs.
in 1870, a key issue was reform of the New Brunswick school system. George E. King
, then an MLA on behalf of the electorate of Saint John County and City, had been since 1868 developing a bill to create a state-run school system which would provide free education to all New Brunswick children. King's bill was tabled in 1870 but failed to receive support and eventually King withdrew it.
However, in June 1870, New Brunswick's Premier Andrew Wetmore
retired from politics to accept a position on the Supreme Court, and King was able to seek and receive appointments as the new Premier and Attorney-General. He revived his Common Schools Bill and campaigned on it at the 1870 election. He was successfully returned to office and took leadership of the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
.
However the new government proved unstable, and in February 1871 King lost the confidence of parliament and was forced to resign. George Luther Hatheway took up the mantle of Premier, with King as his Attorney-General. While Hatheway and King were opposed on many political issues, they were united in their support of public schooling, and on April 12, 1871 King reintroduced his Common Schools Bill to parliament on behalf of Hatheway's government.
The act came into effect on January 1, 1872. The act contained various provisions which had the effect of shutting down religious schooling in New Brunswick. While teachers were permitted to open and close school with Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer
, they were prohibited from the teaching of catechism
courses, prohibited from wearing religious garb, and schools were forbidden from displaying religious symbols. Control of the school system was given to the Executive Council, exercising its power through the New Brunswick Board of Education. The Board of Education held powers under the act to dictate curriculum and textbook content, require teachers to meet certain standards of qualification, and set the work conditions and employment terms of educators.
George Luther Hatheway died in June 1872 and following his death George E. King
regained the position of Premier of New Brunswick. King found himself facing strong Roman Catholic opposition to the Common Schools Act, led by Bishop John Sweeny
.
The Catholics, under Sweeny, made an appeal to the Canadian federal government in Ottawa, seeking disallowance of the act. They claimed that Catholic schools had existed under the Parish Schools Act of 1858 and Catholics thus had constitutional rights to sectarian schools under the British North America Act
. The appeal did not find any support in the federal cabinet and was unsuccessful. The Catholics then attempted to fight the bill in the federal House of Commons in the spring of 1872. Roman Catholic member for New Brunswick John Costigan
presented a motion calling on the government to disallow the New Brunswick Common Schools Act, with the support of fellow New Brunswicker Timothy Warren Anglin, but the motion was defeated on the floor of the House. Similarly, a proposal by Quebec Premier Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau
which would have asked the Queen to amend the British North America Act
to protect sectarian schooling failed to win majority support.
In the final result, the only action taken by the federal government was to seek a constitutional opinion from crown lawyers in London, and call on the New Brunswick government to reconsider its position. George King responded to this call some five months later with a 12-page memorandum, in which he argued that Catholic public schools had never been legally recognised in New Brunswick, and thus had not lost any rights or privileges as a result of the legislative change to the schooling system.
Objectors to the Common Schools Act launched a challenge to the act in the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. In 1873, the court dismissed the objectors' suit and found in favour of the government, although in the course of the case it levelled several criticisms at the act's assessment clauses, which King's government addressed by passing supplementary retroactive assessment legislation.
Following the failure of the court challenge, New Brunswick Bishop John Sweeny attended the provincial council of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec on May 18, 1873, where he invited the bishops of Quebec to intervene in the New Brunswick school question. The following day, Ignace Bourget
, Bishop of Montreal
, and Louis-François Laflèche
of Trois-Rivières
accepted Sweeny's invitation by issuing a prepared statement opposing the Common Schools Act in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. The statement had the effect of inciting several federal Catholic MPs to break ranks from the government over the issue. At roughly the same time, New Brunswick MP John Costigan
moved a motion on the floor of the House of Commons requesting that the governor-general disallow the New Brunswick acts relating to assessment for local schools. The motion was successful, but Prime Minister John Macdonald
nevertheless refused to disallow the legislation. Facing revolt in his own ranks over the issue, Macdonald did agree to pay $5,000 towards the costs of an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then Canada's highest court) by the New Brunswick Catholics.
During the legislative and parliamentary challenges, Catholics, organized by their bishops, resisted the implementation of the Common Schools Act at a grass-roots level by refusing to pay school taxes. The provincial government responded by imprisoning priests and seizing the property of tax evaders. In late 1873, George King
held meetings with John Sweeny to seek a compromise. Sweeny offered to bring an end to the Catholic opposition in return for the government acceding to a number of conditions, but the Executive Council refused his offer. By 1874, the debate was still continuing in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, and growing more bitter. At the last sitting of the before the 1874 election, the Assembly debated both a proposed amendment to the Common Schools Act, and a motion abjuring federal interference in the province's schools. During these debates, King accused the Catholic opposition of opposing the act for ultramontanist
reasons as part of a long term Roman Catholic plan for domination of Europe and Canda. King went on to say, "If we once abandon the strong line of defence that is along the heights of equality [...] the end will be the overthrow of our rights and independence of action." The amendment was defeated 24-12 and the non-interference motion carried by the same margin.
The 1874 New Brunswick election was fought solely over the issue of common schools, with King's government achieving an overwhelming victory, claiming 36 of the 41 seats.
. Gloucester County, which included Young's home town of Caraquet
, consisted mainly of Acadians (descendants of French colonists) and was strongly Roman Catholic.
Young faced deeply entrenched opposition to the act in Gloucester. In 1873, Gloucester magistrates refused to enforce the provisions of the act. Young responded by having them replaced. At the 1874 elections, although only 5 of the 41 members elected to the Legislative Assembly were not supporters of the Common Schools Act, both of the members elected in Gloucester were in the opposition camp. Gloucester elected Théotime Blanchard
and Kennedy Francis Burns
, both Catholics, and both firm opponents of the act.
The town of Caraquet was opposed to the Common Schools Act and most of its residents had for some time refused to pay the schools tax in protest. In 1874 a meeting was held by the townspeople of Caraquet at which public officials were appointed. Caraquet's small Protestant minority questioned the legality of these appointments, and in response on January 4, 1875 Young held his own, secret, meeting at which he appointed Protestants to the same positions.
On January 14, 1875, a public meeting was convened with the aim of imposing the school tax on Caraquet. The meeting ended in a scuffle. On January 15, a group of Caraquet Acadians held a public protest against further attempts to apply the act. During the protest, drunken demonstrators caused property damage to several premises including a store owned by Young. The demonstrators threatened Young's wife and employees.
On January 25, ten police constables bearing arrest warrants arrived in Caraquet with the aim of identifying and arresting the demonstrators who had damaged Young's store. They were still in Caraquet on January 26, when 20 English-speaking "volunteers", recruited by Young, arrived in the town to assist in the arrests. The "volunteers" gained entry to the house of one André Albert, at which Acadians were gathered, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. One Acadian (Louis Mailloux) and one militiaman (John Gifford) were shot and killed during the exchange. Nine Acadians were tried as accessories to the death of Gifford, but were acquitted. Public sentiment in Gloucester held Young responsible for both deaths.
, met with the government to work out what would eventually become substantial amendments to the workings of the act. The changes, based on proposals originally drafted by John Sweeny, were carried out via amendments to the act's subordinate regulations, and were not publicised for fear of inviting controversy.
The amendments allowed for a less arduous method of certification for religious teachers, in which they would still have to complete examinations but would not have to attend Normal School
classes. The determination of textbook content would be made in consultation with the churches, with passages offensive to the church excised. Church-owned school buildings would be permitted to be used, pending the decision by local school trustees to lease them from the church, and religious instruction could occur in such buildings providing that the regular school day was not shortened for the purpose. The effect of the arrangements regarding church buildings and religious schooling was to limit Catholic education to urban centres and move further argument back down to the level of the local school boards.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Province of New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, passed by the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
The 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly represented New Brunswick between February 16, 1871 and May 15, 1874.Lemuel Allan Wilmot served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick until November 1873, when he was replaced by Samuel Leonard Tilley....
, which replaced the Parish Schools Act of 1858. The legislation aimed to abolish church-run schooling in New Brunswick and replace it with a system of government-run "common schools". The act was stridently opposed by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and its adherents, and a series of clashes between New Brunswick Catholics and the provincial government culminated in the shooting of two people following riots at Caraquet
Caraquet, New Brunswick
Caraquet is a Canadian town in Gloucester County, New Brunswick.-Location:Situated on the shore of Chaleur Bay in the Acadian Peninsula, its name is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for meeting of two rivers...
in 1875, after which the act was substantially amended to implement a joint religious/secular schooling system.
New Brunswick education pre-1871
Since 1858, education in New Brunswick had been governed by the Parish Schools Act of 1858. The Parish Schools Act organised all New Brunswick schools under a provincial Board of Education, but made no provision for the government to own or establish schools. As a result, the impetus to found new schools was required to originate at a local level, and in practice most schools were established and operated by churches (particularly the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches), with the church then receiving a share of the province's education budget in return. In the diocese of Saint JohnRoman Catholic Diocese of Saint John, New Brunswick
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint John, New Brunswick is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Moncton. It was renamed on 15 November 1924.-Ordinaries:*William Dollard...
, for example, there were some 160 Catholic schools operating by 1871, many staffed by professed religious, with a significant minority of them offering instruction in French. There were no standardised texts and teachers had complete freedom in their choice of curriculum. Of those priests and professed religious acting as teachers, the majority had no formal teaching credentials. Attendance at schools was enforced by teachers and parents, with no government intervention.
By 1871, the New Brunswick parliament had begun to have substantial doubts about this system of education. They were skeptical about the quality of education begin delivered, and they were also concerned about attendance rates, with school attendance in the area of Gloucester falling as low as 55%.
Education reform throughout Canada
By 1871, several Canadian provinces had already implemented provincially run public schooling systems, while others were considering it. In OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Egerton Ryerson
Egerton Ryerson
Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist minister, educator, politician, and public education advocate in early Ontario, Canada...
had fought for secularization as a means of keeping power out of the hands of any one church, and from 1844 as Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
he had instituted significant reforms leading to the creation of a strong state-run education system. In Novia Scotia, Premier Charles Tupper
Charles Tupper
Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, GCMG, CB, PC was a Canadian father of Confederation: as the Premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He later went on to serve as the sixth Prime Minister of Canada, sworn in to office on May 1, 1896, seven days after...
had successfully introduced public schooling through his Free School Act of 1864. Closer to home, Lemuel Allan Wilmot
Lemuel Allan Wilmot
Lemuel Allan Wilmot was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge.Born in Sunbury County, New Brunswick, the son of William Wilmot and Hannah Bliss, Wilmot was educated at the Fredericton grammar school and at King’s College. He started articling law in 1825, became an attorney in 1830, and was...
, a former New Brunswick Attorney-General and in 1871 its Lieutenant Governor, had been an outspoken advocate for the creation of a unified taxation-funded public school system in New Brunswick for many years.
Ultramontanism
During the years leading up to 1871, a key conflict within the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
concerned the authority of the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
over secular governments. The doctrine of ultramontanism
Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...
asserted that the Pope held supreme authority over all matters spiritual and secular, and it was vigorously pursued by key members of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, most notably Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several courses of religious study, and in 1837 was named co-adjutor bishop of the newly...
, Bishop of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
from 1840 to 1876.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
published the Syllabus of Errors
Syllabus of Errors
The Syllabus of Errors was a document issued by Holy See under Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1864, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, on the same day as the Pope's encyclical Quanta Cura.- Format :...
, a document collecting several past papal reasonings and presented as a list of "condemned propositions". Among the ideas specifically condemned in the Syllabus of Errors were modern liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, the supreme power of human reason, the teaching of philosophy and natural science as fields distinct from religion, and, at some considerable length, the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
. The syllabus specifically reaffirmed the right of priests to interfere in and direct the course of temporal affairs, and the supremacy of religious law over civil law. Proposition 45 of the Syllabus rejected the right of civil governments to exercise sole dominion over the teaching of children.
At the same time, reform-minded governments gaining power throughout Canada were becoming frustrated by church conservativism, and keen to lessen their dependence on church infrastructure and mitigate the power wielded by the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in Canadian political affairs.
The Common Schools Act of 1871
Development
During the closing sittings of the 21st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly21st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
The 21st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly represented New Brunswick between June 21, 1866 and June 3, 1870.The assembly sat at the pleasure of the Governor of New Brunswick Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon. Charles Hastings Doyle became Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick in 1867 following...
in 1870, a key issue was reform of the New Brunswick school system. George E. King
George E. King
George Edwin King was a New Brunswick lawyer, politician, jurist, and the second and fourth Premier of New Brunswick in the Canadian Confederation....
, then an MLA on behalf of the electorate of Saint John County and City, had been since 1868 developing a bill to create a state-run school system which would provide free education to all New Brunswick children. King's bill was tabled in 1870 but failed to receive support and eventually King withdrew it.
However, in June 1870, New Brunswick's Premier Andrew Wetmore
Andrew Rainsford Wetmore
Andrew Rainsford Wetmore was a New Brunswick politician, jurist, and a member of a prominent United Empire Loyalist family....
retired from politics to accept a position on the Supreme Court, and King was able to seek and receive appointments as the new Premier and Attorney-General. He revived his Common Schools Bill and campaigned on it at the 1870 election. He was successfully returned to office and took leadership of the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
The 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly represented New Brunswick between February 16, 1871 and May 15, 1874.Lemuel Allan Wilmot served as Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick until November 1873, when he was replaced by Samuel Leonard Tilley....
.
However the new government proved unstable, and in February 1871 King lost the confidence of parliament and was forced to resign. George Luther Hatheway took up the mantle of Premier, with King as his Attorney-General. While Hatheway and King were opposed on many political issues, they were united in their support of public schooling, and on April 12, 1871 King reintroduced his Common Schools Bill to parliament on behalf of Hatheway's government.
Enactment
King's bill prompted a long and bitter debate in the New Brunswick parliament. Members opposed to the bill included most of the parliament's Catholics, some Anglicans, and also those members who were opposed to compulsory assessment. On May 5, 1871, free school supporters proposed an amendment to the bill which provided that schools under the act be non-sectarian. The amendment was passed by a 25-10 vote. The bill as a whole was passed on May 17, 1871 and it was signed into law as the Common Schools Act of 1871.The act came into effect on January 1, 1872. The act contained various provisions which had the effect of shutting down religious schooling in New Brunswick. While teachers were permitted to open and close school with Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
, they were prohibited from the teaching of catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
courses, prohibited from wearing religious garb, and schools were forbidden from displaying religious symbols. Control of the school system was given to the Executive Council, exercising its power through the New Brunswick Board of Education. The Board of Education held powers under the act to dictate curriculum and textbook content, require teachers to meet certain standards of qualification, and set the work conditions and employment terms of educators.
Opposition
The government claimed that non-denominational, mandatory schooling would improve access to education for New Brunswick's children. However, opponents of the legislation claimed that sole responsibility for the education of children lay with parents, and resented government interference in what they saw as a parental duty through the imposition of mandatory schooling. Opponents of the legislation were primarily religious organisations including the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church.George Luther Hatheway died in June 1872 and following his death George E. King
George E. King
George Edwin King was a New Brunswick lawyer, politician, jurist, and the second and fourth Premier of New Brunswick in the Canadian Confederation....
regained the position of Premier of New Brunswick. King found himself facing strong Roman Catholic opposition to the Common Schools Act, led by Bishop John Sweeny
John Sweeny (bishop)
John Sweeny was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest and Bishop of Saint John in America from 1859 to 1901.Bishop Sweeney was a leading figure in opposition to the Common Schools Act of 1871 enacted by the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly. He founded the Irish Catholic community of Johnville,...
.
The Catholics, under Sweeny, made an appeal to the Canadian federal government in Ottawa, seeking disallowance of the act. They claimed that Catholic schools had existed under the Parish Schools Act of 1858 and Catholics thus had constitutional rights to sectarian schools under the British North America Act
Constitution Act, 1867
The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
. The appeal did not find any support in the federal cabinet and was unsuccessful. The Catholics then attempted to fight the bill in the federal House of Commons in the spring of 1872. Roman Catholic member for New Brunswick John Costigan
John Costigan
John Costigan was a Canadian judge and politician who served in the Canadian House of Commons and in the Cabinet of several Prime Ministers of Canada....
presented a motion calling on the government to disallow the New Brunswick Common Schools Act, with the support of fellow New Brunswicker Timothy Warren Anglin, but the motion was defeated on the floor of the House. Similarly, a proposal by Quebec Premier Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau
Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau
Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau , born in Charlesbourg, near Quebec City, was the first Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec following the establishment of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. He led a Conservative Party government. He was also the Minister of Education and Provincial Secretary...
which would have asked the Queen to amend the British North America Act
Constitution Act, 1867
The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
to protect sectarian schooling failed to win majority support.
In the final result, the only action taken by the federal government was to seek a constitutional opinion from crown lawyers in London, and call on the New Brunswick government to reconsider its position. George King responded to this call some five months later with a 12-page memorandum, in which he argued that Catholic public schools had never been legally recognised in New Brunswick, and thus had not lost any rights or privileges as a result of the legislative change to the schooling system.
Objectors to the Common Schools Act launched a challenge to the act in the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. In 1873, the court dismissed the objectors' suit and found in favour of the government, although in the course of the case it levelled several criticisms at the act's assessment clauses, which King's government addressed by passing supplementary retroactive assessment legislation.
Following the failure of the court challenge, New Brunswick Bishop John Sweeny attended the provincial council of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec on May 18, 1873, where he invited the bishops of Quebec to intervene in the New Brunswick school question. The following day, Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several courses of religious study, and in 1837 was named co-adjutor bishop of the newly...
, Bishop of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, and Louis-François Laflèche
Louis-François Richer Laflèche
Louis-François Laflèche, , was a Catholic bishop of the diocese of Trois-Rivières, in the province of Quebec, Canada.-Early life and career:...
of Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières means three rivers in French and may refer to:in Canada*Trois-Rivières, the largest city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada*Circuit Trois-Rivières, a racetrack in Trois-Rivières, Quebec...
accepted Sweeny's invitation by issuing a prepared statement opposing the Common Schools Act in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. The statement had the effect of inciting several federal Catholic MPs to break ranks from the government over the issue. At roughly the same time, New Brunswick MP John Costigan
John Costigan
John Costigan was a Canadian judge and politician who served in the Canadian House of Commons and in the Cabinet of several Prime Ministers of Canada....
moved a motion on the floor of the House of Commons requesting that the governor-general disallow the New Brunswick acts relating to assessment for local schools. The motion was successful, but Prime Minister John Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
nevertheless refused to disallow the legislation. Facing revolt in his own ranks over the issue, Macdonald did agree to pay $5,000 towards the costs of an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then Canada's highest court) by the New Brunswick Catholics.
During the legislative and parliamentary challenges, Catholics, organized by their bishops, resisted the implementation of the Common Schools Act at a grass-roots level by refusing to pay school taxes. The provincial government responded by imprisoning priests and seizing the property of tax evaders. In late 1873, George King
George E. King
George Edwin King was a New Brunswick lawyer, politician, jurist, and the second and fourth Premier of New Brunswick in the Canadian Confederation....
held meetings with John Sweeny to seek a compromise. Sweeny offered to bring an end to the Catholic opposition in return for the government acceding to a number of conditions, but the Executive Council refused his offer. By 1874, the debate was still continuing in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, and growing more bitter. At the last sitting of the before the 1874 election, the Assembly debated both a proposed amendment to the Common Schools Act, and a motion abjuring federal interference in the province's schools. During these debates, King accused the Catholic opposition of opposing the act for ultramontanist
Ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...
reasons as part of a long term Roman Catholic plan for domination of Europe and Canda. King went on to say, "If we once abandon the strong line of defence that is along the heights of equality [...] the end will be the overthrow of our rights and independence of action." The amendment was defeated 24-12 and the non-interference motion carried by the same margin.
The 1874 New Brunswick election was fought solely over the issue of common schools, with King's government achieving an overwhelming victory, claiming 36 of the 41 seats.
1875 Caraquet riots
In 1872, Robert Young was appointed as President of New Brunswick's Executive Council, which had ultimate control of the New Brunswick school system under the terms of the Common Schools Act. A particular priority for Young was implementing the Common Schools Act in Gloucester CountyGloucester County, New Brunswick
Gloucester County is located in the northeastern corner of New Brunswick, Canada. Fishing, mining and forestry are the major industries in the county...
. Gloucester County, which included Young's home town of Caraquet
Caraquet, New Brunswick
Caraquet is a Canadian town in Gloucester County, New Brunswick.-Location:Situated on the shore of Chaleur Bay in the Acadian Peninsula, its name is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for meeting of two rivers...
, consisted mainly of Acadians (descendants of French colonists) and was strongly Roman Catholic.
Young faced deeply entrenched opposition to the act in Gloucester. In 1873, Gloucester magistrates refused to enforce the provisions of the act. Young responded by having them replaced. At the 1874 elections, although only 5 of the 41 members elected to the Legislative Assembly were not supporters of the Common Schools Act, both of the members elected in Gloucester were in the opposition camp. Gloucester elected Théotime Blanchard
Théotime Blanchard
Théotime Blanchard was a teacher, farmer, merchant and politician in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada...
and Kennedy Francis Burns
Kennedy Francis Burns
Kennedy Francis Burns was a Canadian businessman and politician.Born in Thomastown, Republic of Ireland, he emigrated to British North America. He worked as a clerk for a merchant at Chatham, New Brunswick and bought his employer's store at Bathurst in 1863. In 1865, Burns married Harriet McKenna...
, both Catholics, and both firm opponents of the act.
The town of Caraquet was opposed to the Common Schools Act and most of its residents had for some time refused to pay the schools tax in protest. In 1874 a meeting was held by the townspeople of Caraquet at which public officials were appointed. Caraquet's small Protestant minority questioned the legality of these appointments, and in response on January 4, 1875 Young held his own, secret, meeting at which he appointed Protestants to the same positions.
On January 14, 1875, a public meeting was convened with the aim of imposing the school tax on Caraquet. The meeting ended in a scuffle. On January 15, a group of Caraquet Acadians held a public protest against further attempts to apply the act. During the protest, drunken demonstrators caused property damage to several premises including a store owned by Young. The demonstrators threatened Young's wife and employees.
On January 25, ten police constables bearing arrest warrants arrived in Caraquet with the aim of identifying and arresting the demonstrators who had damaged Young's store. They were still in Caraquet on January 26, when 20 English-speaking "volunteers", recruited by Young, arrived in the town to assist in the arrests. The "volunteers" gained entry to the house of one André Albert, at which Acadians were gathered, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. One Acadian (Louis Mailloux) and one militiaman (John Gifford) were shot and killed during the exchange. Nine Acadians were tried as accessories to the death of Gifford, but were acquitted. Public sentiment in Gloucester held Young responsible for both deaths.
Amendment
The Caraquet deaths brought a realisation to both sides of the school debate that compromise was required on the issue. In the spring of 1875, the Catholic opposition, headed by Kennedy Francis BurnsKennedy Francis Burns
Kennedy Francis Burns was a Canadian businessman and politician.Born in Thomastown, Republic of Ireland, he emigrated to British North America. He worked as a clerk for a merchant at Chatham, New Brunswick and bought his employer's store at Bathurst in 1863. In 1865, Burns married Harriet McKenna...
, met with the government to work out what would eventually become substantial amendments to the workings of the act. The changes, based on proposals originally drafted by John Sweeny, were carried out via amendments to the act's subordinate regulations, and were not publicised for fear of inviting controversy.
The amendments allowed for a less arduous method of certification for religious teachers, in which they would still have to complete examinations but would not have to attend Normal School
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
classes. The determination of textbook content would be made in consultation with the churches, with passages offensive to the church excised. Church-owned school buildings would be permitted to be used, pending the decision by local school trustees to lease them from the church, and religious instruction could occur in such buildings providing that the regular school day was not shortened for the purpose. The effect of the arrangements regarding church buildings and religious schooling was to limit Catholic education to urban centres and move further argument back down to the level of the local school boards.