IV.—­A National Reason

The Constitution of a country has as its specific object the maintenance of the perfect equilibrium between authority and liberty.  “It is the charter of a people’s liberties, the shield of the individual against the possible tyranny of government, the effective check upon the ambition of every government to extend the sphere of its delegated powers.  Unlike the law, its primary purpose is to restrain the Government, not the citizen. . . .” (P.  Blakely, S.J.) America, Sept. 18, 1920.

The greatest liberty for the individual, combined with the greatest good of the commonwealth, has always been the ideal aimed at by the Fathers of a democratic country.  To tamper with the Constitution on vital issues, to conceive it as an experiment, to ignore its spirit,—­that obvious intention of its framers—­is always eventually fatal to the peace and welfare of the nation.  No one lays hands with impunity on that Ark of the Covenant.  The essential changes in the Constitution of a country act as a time-fuse.  An explosion necessarily follows, although it may take years and generations for a faulty legislation to disclose its real consequences.  This is particularly true in matters of education.  Laws of the educational departments may change to become more efficient in their administration but should never touch the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

In Canada the protection of the minority rights is a principle embodied in our Constitution, in the Imperial Statute of the British North America.  Act.  Even where the letter of the Provincial Law has established the “public school,”—­as is the case in the Maritime Provinces—­the spirit of the law is generally observed, and by a compromise and tacit agreement the rights of the minority are to a great extent recognized.

In the West, Manitoba stands out in Canadian History as the battlefield of educational rights.  Although the British North America Act, 1867,—­that intangible charter of Canadian liberties—­stipulates, section 93, that in the carving out of new Provinces in the vast domains of the North West Territories the existing educational rights guaranteed to the minority should be respected, yet, the Manitoba Legislative Assembly has broken away from the letter and spirit of the Constitution and constituted a grievance which demands rectification.

The Federal Parliament partially recognized the principle of Separate Schools in the formation of the Provinces of Saskatchewan and of Alberta, by introducing, in section 17 of the Autonomy Bills of 1905, the section 93 of the B.N.A.  Act, and by reasserting the existing rights granted by the N.W.T.  School Ordinances of 1901.  We say “partially,” for it is not the right of collecting separate taxes and teaching Religion during the last half hour of the school-day that constitutes a really Catholic school.