Jews Excluded from Canadian Public Schools
By a recent court decision the children of Jews in Canada are practically denied the privilege of the public schools. Like many other oppressive measures in these last days, this decision is based upon an old law supposed to be obsolete. The law, it is said, was designed to limit the public-school privilege to people who paid taxes on real estate; and, as the Jews do not usually invest in that way, they are, in the main, ineligible to the schools. A writer in the Montreal Gazette says: “Their owning or not owning real estate has nothing to do with the question involved, and in no degree diminishes liability to be taxed to the fullest extent of citizenship. If they do not pay taxes on land, they pay these taxes in rent. . . . The exclusion of the Jews from equal rights in the matter of an educational system maintained by public taxation is the relic of an age of which we should all be ashamed. If this is the law, it is an anachronism in modern civilization. It is equally at variance with the genius of the British Constitution and the Spirit of that great Lawgiver who came to proclaim peace, justice, and universal good-will and fraternity among men.” Of course, there must be many other people in like position with the Jews, but this law, like some ancient Sunday laws, has been resurrected for the purpose of satisfying prejudice against a certain class.