Yukon NDP leader calls to scrap public funding for Catholic schools
Speaking to reporters after Question Period, White said she was prepared for pushback from Catholics. But she said her position on axing public funding for religious schools is based on fairness, and that no other faith should receive taxpayer support either.
"They can have a private school and they can do whatever they want in their private school," White said.
"But if they're taking public funds from all of us here as taxpayers, then they have an obligation and responsibility to live up to the policies and the statements from the Department of Education and they aren't."
Catholic schools in the Yukon are public schools. While they have the right to provide religious teachings and lessons on Catholic values, a 1962 agreement between the territory's commissioner and the Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Whitehorse states the schools must follow the Yukon government's laws and policies.
The NDP raised several instances in the legislature where the Department of Education's sexual orientation and gender identity policy (SOGI) was reportedly violated.
Those included a teacher publicly speaking about homophobia she faced at a Holy Family Elementary School council meeting, a St. Francis of Assisi school councillor who opted not to run for re-election and a homophobic textbook that was used at St. Francis of Assisi.
Last month, the principal of Holy Family Elementary School stepped down from her position, alleging the local bishop was interfering with school operations, particularly relating to inclusivity and SOGI policies.
Education Minister Jeanie McLean responded to White's comments by saying her job is to implement the Education Act and the department's policies, reforming inclusive and special education, among other objectives.
She noted the NDP did not include defunding Catholic education in its last election platform, nor either version of the confidence-and-supply agreement the party signed with the governing Liberals.
McLean challenged the party to run on the idea.
"If this is something they feel strongly about, then they should put it into their election platform so that we can have a territory-wide discussion about this issue," McLean said.
"I think that's very important, in terms of our consultation on any major changes to education, that we need to have a full wholesome discussion about that. And maybe that's something that they would want to do as well, I hope. I don't really believe in governing on the fly and I don't think that's how the work of our government should be done at any time."
White said violations of the government's SOGI policy keep happening because the Department of Education has not "stood up" to the Catholic Church. She said the department needs to enforce boundaries related to the operation of schools.
"The church is not supposed to be involved in the day-to-day running of schools. They're not allowed to harass the educators. They're not allowed to harass families there," she said.
McLean defended the work of public servants within the education system and rejected any notion that workers are out to "harm children."
However, McLean did acknowledge "governance challenges" with Catholic schools, namely making sure the diocese understands that it's the Department of Education that sets policies that must be followed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Social housing improvements a must
Opinion The NDP government's pledge to end chronic homelessness by 2031 is both ambitious and overdue. For a province where more than a thousand people sleep in shelters or on the streets on any given night, it is a commitment that should be applauded. But it is also a promise that cannot be realized without a comprehensive plan, one that takes aim at the multiple factors keeping people unhoused. That includes revising rent control rules, building more social housing units, and reforming the province's Rent Assist program, something the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives took aim at last week. Manitoba has long had rent-control rules, but tenants know all too well how easily those rules can be undermined. Each year, landlords can apply for exemptions to raise rents above the guideline, and those requests are routinely granted. For someone living on a low or fixed income, an unexpected increase of even $50 or $100 a month can push them out of their home. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Files Without social housing, the cycle of shelter use, encampments and homelessness only deepens. If the government is serious about preventing homelessness, it must strengthen protections for tenants. That does not mean ignoring the genuine costs landlords face in maintaining buildings. But it does mean closing loopholes that allow excessive rent hikes under the guise of routine upgrades. Affordable housing begins with stable rents. Without that, more Manitobans will continue to find themselves at risk. Another pillar of the solution is social housing, an area where Manitoba has fallen badly behind. The former Progressive Conservative government sold off public housing units, shrinking the supply at a time of rising demand. Those decisions are still being felt today. Social housing is not a luxury. It is a lifeline for people who cannot compete in the private rental market, whether because of low incomes, health issues, or systemic barriers. Without it, the cycle of shelter use, encampments, and homelessness only deepens. The NDP government must make rebuilding Manitoba's social housing stock a top priority. That means replacing what was lost under the PCs and building new units in the years ahead. It will take significant public investment, but the alternative — continuing to warehouse people in shelters or leave them in tents along riverbanks — is neither humane nor fiscally responsible. Equally important is reforming the Rent Assist program, which is supposed to help low-income Manitobans cover the cost of housing. In its current form, the program is fundamentally unfair. Thanks to changes introduced by the previous PC government, renters who receive Employment and Income Assistance get less support than other low-income renters. This two-tiered system penalizes those already living in the deepest poverty. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. In a report released last week, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives called for changes to the program, including ensuring that all low-income renters – whether on social assistance or not – are treated equally, so they have a better chance of remaining in their homes. Some may balk at the price tag attached to new housing, enhanced rent supports, and stronger tenant protections. But the costs of doing nothing are already staggering. Homelessness fuels pressure on the health-care system, emergency shelters, and police services. More importantly, it exacts an incalculable human toll on those forced to live without the security and dignity of a home. The government's 2031 goal sets a high bar. Meeting it will take more than political will, it will take concrete reforms and a willingness to make difficult choices. Tightening rent control rules, rebuilding social housing, and repairing Rent Assist are not optional pieces of the puzzle. They are essential. The alternative is to watch the cycle of homelessness deepen, with more Manitobans left behind. That is not acceptable. Manitoba can, and must, do better.
Winnipeg Free Press
8 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Jules Witcover, reporter best known for ‘Politics Today' column, dies at 98
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jules Witcover, who cowrote one of the nation's leading political columns for nearly three decades, died Saturday at the age of 98, his daughter Amy Witcover-Sandford said. Witcover's widely syndicated daily column, written jointly for 24 years with the late Jack Germond, gave him an outlet to register strong opinions, leaving little doubt which politicians he admired or despised. 'Politics Today' began at The Washington Star and then moved to The Baltimore Sun, and he continued writing it solo for another five years at The Sun after his partner retired in 2001. Witcover also covered the political beat for the Newhouse News Service, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, in books and in several magazines, including The New Republic, Saturday Review and The Nation. Through his long career, Witcover had a remarkable front seat to history, some of it tragic. He watched Robert F. Kennedy steady first lady Jackie at President John F. Kennedy's grave in 1963. Five years later, in 1968, he pushed his way through a crowded hotel kitchen in Los Angeles after hearing shots and saw Robert F. Kennedy bleeding on the floor. He would later write of RFK's brief presidential campaign in the book '85 Days.' Witcover described himself and the curmudgeonly Germond as 'friendly rivals laboring for obscure newspaper chains' who enjoyed long, booze-soaked dinners on the campaign trail, a culture that was chronicled in Timothy Crouse's classic account of reporters covering the 1972 presidential election, 'Boys on the Bus.' When Witcover and Germond began co-writing their column in 1977, 'we often played the good cop/bad cop routine, each of us able to blame the other guy when a column one of us wrote caused a politician to complain. But sometimes, too, one of us would take the bullet for the other when it unjustly came our way. That was the nature of playing duet pianos in the house of ill repute called political writing,' Witcover wrote in The Sun after Germond's death in 2013. At its peak, the syndicated column ran five times a week and appeared in about 140 newspapers. In his final years as a columnist, Witcover relentlessly hammered President George W. Bush over the Iraq war, calling it 'the most wrong-headed foreign policy in my lifetime and the most dangerous.' But he did not blame that view for The Sun's dropping his column. Editorially, the newspaper also opposed the war, although less vigorously. 'The war was a colossal mistake from the start and has disintegrated into a calamity, damaging not only the people of Iraq but the international reputation of this country, not to mention the terrible cost in American lives and treasure,' he wrote for the Poynter Institute's blog. Witcover was born in Union City, New Jersey, to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. He was raised Catholic and showed an early interest in writing. He wrote in his memoirs that he and a cousin produced a one-page family newspaper on Thanksgiving that they sold for a nickel. A classmate on his high school basketball team persuaded him to apply to Columbia, which he attended for a semester before joining the Navy. He then re-enrolled in the college after the war ended and obtained a master's degree at Columbia's graduate school of journalism. Years later, he told a reporter that he thought his ship had come in when a newspaper in the Boston area offered him a starting job covering the Boston Braves in spring training. Before he could get started the team decided to move its franchise to Milwaukee and the opportunity died. By 1962, 11 years after graduation, he had become a senior correspondent and the chief political writer for the Newhouse News Service. Witcover lived in Washington with his second wife, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, a biographer of the journalist H.L. Mencken. His first marriage, of nearly four decades, to Marian Laverty, ended in divorce. 'Jules was the hardest working newsman I ever knew,' said Walter Mears, who as the chief political writer for The Associated Press traveled extensively with Witcover. 'On the road, you could hear him banging the typewriter before dawn, working on one of his books. He never stopped writing columns and political histories long after most of us had retired.'
Winnipeg Free Press
12 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Islamic State-backed rebels killed at least 52 people in eastern Congo, UN says
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Attacks by an Islamic State-backed rebels killed at least 52 people between Aug. 9 and 16, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo said Monday. The UN mission, known as MONUSCO, said in a statement that the attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) took place in several localities of Beni and Lubero territories, in the North Kivu province. 'The violence was accompanied by abductions, looting, the burning of homes, vehicles, and motorcycles, as well as the destruction of property belonging to populations already facing dire humanitarian conditions,' the statement read, adding that the death toll is likely to rise. Eastern Congo has suffered deadly attacks in recent years by armed groups, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed rebels. The ADF, which has ties to the Islamic State, operates along the border with Uganda and often targets civilians. The group killed nearly 40 people in the Ituri province last month, when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and opened fire on worshipers, including many women and children. The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following military assaults by Ugandan forces, the group moved its activities to neighboring Congo and has since been responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians. In 2019, it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The Congolese army has long struggled to contain the group, especially while also confronting renewed conflict involving the M23 rebel movement backed by neighboring Rwanda. ____ AP's Africa coverage at:
