CANADIAN FEDERATION OF STUDENTS

Canadian Federation of Students

Canadian Federation of Students

Introduction

As provinces joined the confederation, any denominational schools that were previously legally recognized within their territory also gained this constitutional protection. Today, the province of Ontario has constitutionally protected and publicly funded separate Catholic schools from grades 1 through 8 and, through a modus vivendi between the government of Ontario and the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association, public funding for separate Catholic schools for students in grades 9 through 12 (Shragge, 2007).

Canadian education policy has been characterized throughout its history by four underlying tensions. First, church-state relations affected education, with church control of schooling receding before secularization and state power over the past 200 years. Second, English-French linguistic tensions have been important. During the past century, diversity initiatives produced increased school rights for linguistic minorities, particularly French-speaking people (LaRose, 2009). Third, federal-provincial jurisdictional disputes have characterized the development of education in Canada, with both the constitution and political realities favoring provincial dominance.

Discussion

Expanded access to education, health care, and public welfare benefits, matters within provincial juris-diction, had been stimulated by federal funding for specific programs. In 1977, the federal government moved away from conditional grants to block funding, and by the mid 1980s, it significantly reduced its share of funding for health and social programs. In 1993, the federal government replaced the universal family allowance with a child tax credit intended to benefit the working poor (Rapheal, 2009).

Education Policy Development

Labour historians use the label “postwar compromise” for government support for collective bargaining and an enhanced social wage, in exchange for restrictions on workers' right to strike. The social wage included enhanced state-funded old-age pensions, a national employment-based pension plan funded by compulsory contributions from employers and employees, and publicly funded hospital and medical insurance (LaRose, 2009). The latter, pioneered in Saskatchewan by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government led by Tommy Douglas, was implemented across the country by 1970. Federal government guarantees to encourage the private sector to offer student loans, introduced in 1964, along with expansion in the number of institutions offering university-level training (from 30 in 1945 to 60 in 1970), created unprecedented access to university education (Hardina, 2002).

Much twentieth century curriculum reform spotlighted individual development. First came the turn-of-the-century new education movement (most active in Ontario), which promoted kindergartens; introduced new subjects such as manual training (industrial arts), domestic science (home economics), physical education, and school gardening; and harnessed schools to child-study and public-health concerns. The progressive education movement of the 1930s (strongest in Alberta) included a new social studies curriculum (combining history, geography, and civics), the “enterprise” system of inquiry-based learning, and the junior high school (Hardina, 2002).

The greatest impact of this child-centered approach came with three later provincial education reports: Quebec's Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (Parent Report) of 1963-1966, Ontario's Living and Learning (Hall-Dennis Report) of 1968, and Alberta's Report of the Commission on Educational Planning (Worth Report) of 1972 (Hardcastle, Power, 2004). These commissions recommended greater local autonomy in decision making, broadening curriculum ...