bstract questions of separate schools and the
constitution were less important than the practical question, What kind
of schools were to be guaranteed by these bills? Sir Wilfrid Laurier
declared that the school system to be continued was that actually in
force in the North-West, which had been established under the clause
respecting schools of the Dominion Act of 1875, which the present bills
repeated word for word. {243} This system worked very satisfactorily.
It gave Catholic and Protestant minorities the right to establish
separate schools, and to pay taxes only for such schools. In all other
respects the school system was uniform; there was only one department
of education, one course of study, one set of books, one staff of
inspectors. No religious teaching or religious emblems were permitted
during school hours; only in the half-hour after the close of school
might such teaching be provided. The separate schools were really
national schools with the minimum of ecclesiastical control.

It soon became apparent, however, that the schools then existing in the
North-West, though based on the Act of 1875, were much less
ecclesiastical in character than the act permitted, and less
ecclesiastical in fact than the schools which had formerly existed in
the territories. In 1884 the Quebec system had been set up, providing
for two boards of education, two courses of study, two staffs of
inspectors, and separate administrations. But in 1892 this dual system
had been abolished by the territorial legislature, and in 1901 the
existing system had been definitely established by a series of
ordinances. To meet the {244} objections urged, the new bills were
amended to make it clear that it was the limited separate school system
established in 1901 that was to be continued, and not a complete
separate system as authorized in 1875. The bills as originally drafted
virtually gave the Church complete control over separate schools, but,
as now amended, control over religious education only.

The measure was hotly debated, inside and outside parliament.
Particularly in Ontario the original bills were denounced by many
Liberals as well as Conservatives as oppressive, reactionary, and a
concession to the hierarchy. The West itself was not disturbed, and
the Protestants of Quebec acquiesced in the recognition of separate
schools. Mr Sifton made the measure the occasion for resigning from
the Ministry. The controversy was a great