Why Alberta Has Catholic Separate Schools

The Canadian and Albertan constitutions guarantee that Catholics (and Protestants) have the right to fully publicly funded schools under certain circumstances. Some confusion and misunderstanding exists over why this right exists and what exactly it means. Yet Prime Minister Tupper actually said that, without this right to separate schools, Canada would never have become a country. This presentation will go over WHY Alberta has publicly funded Catholic schools--the history of how this right ended up in our constitution, what the courts have said it means, what it tells us about Canadian identity, why some people take issue with it, and why it still matters and what we can learn from it today.