The Manitoba school question, which agitated the country from 1890 until 1896, was one of great gravity on account of the issues involved.  The history of the case shows that, prior to the formation of Manitoba in 1870, there was not in the province any public system of education, but the several religious denominations had established such schools as they thought fit to maintain by means of funds voluntarily contributed by members of their own communion.  In 1871 the legislature of Manitoba established an educational system distinctly denominational.  In 1890 this law was repealed, and the legislature established a system of strictly non-sectarian schools.  The Roman Catholic minority of the province was deeply aggrieved at what they considered a violation of the rights and privileges which they enjoyed under the terms of union adopted in 1870.  The first subsection of the twenty-second section of the act of 1870 set forth that the legislature of the province could not pass any law with regard to schools which might “prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to denominational schools which any class of persons have, by law or practice, in the province at the time of union.”  The dispute was brought before the courts of Canada, and finally before the judicial committee of the privy council, which decided that the legislation of 1890 was constitutional inasmuch as the only right or privilege which the Roman Catholics then possessed “by law or practice” was the right or privilege of establishing and maintaining for the use of members of their own church such schools as they pleased.  The Roman Catholic minority then availed themselves of another provision of the twenty-second section of the Manitoba act, which allows an appeal to the governor-in-council “from any act or decision of the legislature of the province or of any provincial authority, affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen’s subjects in relation to education.”

The ultimate result of this reference was a judgment of the judicial committee to the effect that the appeal was well founded and that the governor-in-council had jurisdiction in the premises, but the committee added that “the particular course to be pursued must be determined by the authorities to whom it has been committed by the statute.”  The third subsection of the twenty-second section of the Manitoba act—­a repetition of the provision of the British North America act with respect to denominational schools in the old provinces—­provides not only for the action of the governor-in-council in case a remedy is not supplied by the proper provincial authority for the removal of a grievance on the part of a religious minority, but also for the making of “remedial laws” by the parliament of Canada for the “due execution” of the provision protecting denominational schools.  In accordance with this provision Sir Mackenzie Bowell’s government passed an order-in-council on the 21st March, 1895,