Faith-based schools: misreading the entrails

Here are three apparently unconnected facts.

1. On 10 October 2007 the people of the province of Ontario elected a Liberal government, giving the Liberals 71 out of a possible 107 seats in the legislature. A major plank in the platform of the losing Progressive Conservatives was the funding of "faith-based schools", schools operating outside of the public or Roman Catholic systems.

2. In the same election, voters defeated a proposal to change from first-past-the-post to a form of proportional representation. Only 37% of the participating electorate and 5 out of 107 ridings voted for the new system.

3. In June 2009, Tim Hudak was elected leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, replacing the too-aptly-named John Tory, who failed to win his seat in the 2007 election. One of the things Mr. Hudak proposes to do, if he forms the next government of Ontario, is to overhaul the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Commission which enforces it.

Here is the connection between the first and second items. The Tories accused the winning Liberals of appealing to the meanness of the electorate, of being unduly influenced by racist and anti-minority sentiments of (one presumes) "ordinary Ontarians", i.e. those not members of a visible of other minority.

As to the third item, it would seem that now the Tories want to make that same appeal, by taking away the HRC's power to punish discrimination and incitement to hatred. One of Mr. Hudak's opponents, Frank Klees, came out in favour of the reform of the HRC and was labelled a "dinosaur" by the media. Two other would-be leaders called the policy "toxic" and the Liberals rushed to agree. They are saying, now, that Mr. Hudak and his party are appealing to white, Christian Ontarians to the detriment of non-white, non-Christians. And, they say, "ordinary Ontarians" won't be taken in by this "appeal to racism and hatred".

They are wrong. The results of the 2007 election should be understood as an expression of the frustration of the majority -- white and nominally Christian Ontarians -- of being dictated to by the minority. Outside of parts of the GTA, the anger and sense of helplessness is almost palpable. Worse, the government won’t talk about this problem and won’t do anything about it. We all know (because the Toronto Star and CTV tell us) that it's not politically correct to even suggest that the politicians are pandering to the vizmins and other noisy minority groups. And those who do suggest it risk being hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission!

It's not that Joe Average wants to "keep the fuzzy-wuzzies down". Most people acknowledge that racism and discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and gender are real problems that need to be addressed. But Joe (and Walt) feel that the government only makes these problems worse through incessant and misguided tinkering. Government is falling for the "civil rights industry" propaganda which confuses equality of opportunity with equality of result.

Case in point: the proposed establishment of an "Afrocentric" school in Toronto. What problem does this address? Apparently the feeling is that because blacks are not scoring as well on examinations or staying in school as long as others, it must be because they need their own school! What other reason could there be? So...give them their own school. Excuse me, but wouldn't that be a segregated school -- the kind that the civil rights lobby fought for decades to outlaw in the USA?

Mr. Hudak and his party may be onto something here. Perhaps the Ontario Liberals should take a view of the province as a whole, not just the part that can be seen from the observation deck of the CN Tower.