nd privileges enjoyed by Roman Catholics in the Province of
Ontario at the time of Confederation, or by the Protestant minority in
the Province of Quebec, shall not be interfered with by the provinces.
Subject to these rights the provinces are given absolute power to
legislate on school matters. There is the whole question so far as the
legal and constitutional aspect is concerned. You have to see what in
1867 were the rights of the respective minorities in Ontario and Quebec.
So far as Quebec is concerned, it is not and never was subject of
misunderstanding. Everyone has agreed as to what the rights of the
Protestant minority were and are, and no one has interfered with them.
But it is different in Ontario. I have been there for thirty-two years,
and it has always been more or less a subject of discussion and dispute.
The rights of the Catholics in Ontario in 1867 were the rights given by
the act of 1863.

The first part of the act gave to the Roman Catholics the right to elect
trustees to conduct the Catholic separate schools, in other words the
right to fully administer the schools. Other provisions of the statute
dealt with the right to determine the kind and description of the
schools, in other words the right to have schools where both languages
would be taught, as it had been previous to 1863. Then there was the
right to appoint teachers and define their duties; also to appoint
inspectors or superintendents. Every one of these essential
things has been wiped out and taken away from the separate schools
supporters of the city of Ottawa, not in part, but wholly and
completely, and conferred upon Government appointed Commissioners.

Let us see what this means. The questions involved in this controversy
are in principle as essential and as important as any question that ever
came before the British people. Why, it goes back to Runnymede, when
this principle was settled forever--No taxation without representation.
The French-Canadians of Ottawa are compelled to pay taxes and they have
no representation. They are taxed and have to pay taxes for schools, and
yet they have nothing to say regarding the expenditure of their taxes or
the conduct of these schools.

What would you say if my good friend, Sir Lomer Gouin, undertook to say
to the city of Quebec: I don't like the members that you send to
represent you--they don't do things as I like to have them done, and
hereafter you are not going to select your representativ