Time to Combine the School Systems

I have tended to stay away from this issue on the grounds that it really isn't my purview, since I don't really have a dog in the fight, but I really feel like I have to step up. It's long past time for Canada, and Ontario in particular, to lose its "separate" (that is, taxpayer-funded Catholic) school system. We shouldn't dismantle it; it's a perfectly viable school system, but we should amalgamate it into the parallel secular system.

The reason I bring this up now is because of the recent revelations about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Ireland, Hong Kong, and the very large, high-profile abuse cases in the United States. All this gets heaped upon disturbing stories (now in the spotlight because of a new movie) about so-called "Magdalene laundries", which might more properly be termed hybrids of "maternity homes," convents, and concentration camps. Besides that, there's always the dark rumours about Opus Dei, the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust, and the current Pope's being a former member of the Hitler Youth (an error very difficult to expunge, in my mind) and current reactionary. Let us also not forget about the very difficult campaigns waged by Catholic women to achieve even a modicum of voice within the active Church itself.

So why, why, given all that, is the Canadian government supporting and giving money to this corrupt, women- and children-hating institution? If individual Canadians wish to, I have no problems with that. If private citizens even wish to send their children for religious instruction at private Catholic schools, I have no problems with that, either. What I do have problems with is using public funds to support the Catholic Church. I was willing to basically let it slide until now, since I didn't see the harm in it, exactly, but no. Not any more.

Political Realism Note: The likelihood of this little proposal ever happening, in a country where the largest single religious bloc is Catholic, far and away, is negligible, but it doesn't hurt to air one's objections. Another day, another thing to be pissed off about...