Ontario government faces legal challenge for funding Catholic schools
CBC
A Hamilton high school teacher is one of two plaintiffs who submitted a legal application against the Ontario government, arguing its publicly funded Catholic school boards are unconstitutional.
"My ideal outcome is that we would amalgamate the public and Catholic school boards," said 39-year-old Adrienne Havercroft.
Her lawyers filed the application in the Superior Court of Ontario in January while affidavits and exhibits were filed on Wednesday.
Havercroft, who is Christian, said she blames much of her inability to get a full-time teaching job between 2009 and 2019 on the fact the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB) generally only hires Catholic educators.
She said she refused to apply there because she isn't Catholic and doesn't believe it should be publicly funded.
"To me the separation of church and state, it doesn't just protect the integrity of the state ... it protects the integrity of religious institutions as well," said 39-year-old Adrienne Havercroft. "If you want to retain your separate status, you don't get to take public money."
The second plaintiff is James Sutton, from Markham, Ont.
The notice of application, obtained by CBC Hamilton, states he has two kids who go to public schools far away from home and doesn't want to enrol them into closer Catholic schools "because of his conscience." It also says he identifies as an atheist.
The Ministry of Education said in an email it is "committed to protecting denominational school rights and minority language education rights and that includes Ontario's publicly funded Catholic and French-language education systems."
Havercroft said her job hunt was a "soul-crushing experience."
She said she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2012 and not having a full-time job affected her ability to pay for her health care.
She got better and worked long-term occasional positions with the public board to fill in for maternity leaves and sick leaves. In 2014, she got a real estate licence in an "act of desperation."
"I definitely wouldn't have done it ... I didn't think I was going to come back to teaching," Havercroft said.
She eventually got a full-time teaching job with the public school board in September 2020.
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