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Separate school

In Canada, a separate school is a type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and statutory status in the three territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut). In these Canadian jurisdictions, a separate school is one operated by a civil authority—a separate school board—with a mandate enshrined in the Canadian Constitution (for the three provinces) or in federal statutes (for the three territories). In these six jurisdictions a civil electorate, composed of the members of the minority faith, elects separate school trustees according to the province's or territory's local authorities election legislation. These trustees are legally accountable to their electorate and to the provincial or territorial government. No church has a constitutional, legal, or proprietary interest in a separate school.

The constitutionally provided mandate of a separate school jurisdiction and of a separate school is to provide education in a school setting that the separate school board considers reflective of Roman Catholic (or, rarely, Protestant) theology, doctrine, and practices. This mandate can manifest itself in the Program of Studies and the curriculum, exercises and practices, and staffing. The limits of this mandate are determined by the application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and judicial decisions.

The different experience in Ontario as compared to Alberta and Saskatchewan is principally the result of the same constitutional provisions having effect on settlement at different stages in Canadian history.

The Constitution of Canada does not establish separate school education as a natural or unconditional right available to all. Only Protestants or Roman Catholics, whichever is the minority faith population compared to the other in a community, can consider the establishment of separate school education. The separate school establishment right is not available to citizens of any other faith (such as Orthodox Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus or Sikhs). In addition, the minority faith must establish that they wish to leave the public school system and create a separate school system.

When France's colonies in North America were conquered by Britain during the 18th century, British authorities were faced with the dilemma of ruling over a large Roman Catholic community. This was significant, as Catholic-Protestant violence in England and Ireland had been nearly constant since the beginning of the English Reformation. Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, however, Protestantism had been the official religion of the British state as evidenced by the Act of Settlement 1701 which forbade Catholics to become monarch. This was the beginning of a long period of anti-Catholic laws and policies in the British Empire, most famously expressed through the Irish "Penal" Laws. In the case of the New World French there was also the fear that the new population was potentially more loyal to a foreign king, that of France, than to Britain.

The first French colony to fall to the British was Acadia on the Atlantic coast in 1713 (invaded in 1710). Here the problem of dealing with a French Catholic community was solved through the simple but brutal method of expulsion. The Expulsion of the Acadians of 1755 saw some 12,000 Acadians killed and/or forcibly resettled to the Thirteen Colonies, Louisiana, France, England, etc. Some later returned, but their land and villages had been given away to Anglo-Protestant settlers. However, the trigger for expulsion was about the fear that Acadians would side with France during the "French and Indian War" (1754–1760/1763).

When the much larger colony of Canada fell in 1763 (Quebec City invaded in 1759, Montreal in 1760), deportation was seen as less practical. Instead British officials promised to allow French Canadians to keep their religion and customs:

His Britannick Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholick religion to the inhabitants of Canada: he will, in consequence, give the most precise and most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannick Majesty farther agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others who had been subjects of the Most Christian King in Canada, may retire with all safety and freedom wherever they shall think proper...

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