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The Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear an appeal of a Saskatchewan court ruling that upheld public funding for non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools, putting an end to a long legal battle between the province’s public and separate boards.
In a decision published on Thursday, the nation’s highest court rejected Good Spirit School Division’s application for leave to appeal in what’s come to be known as the Theodore case. That spares the provincial government from using the constitution’s notwithstanding clause to protect the funding, as it had promised to do.
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A Court of Queen’s Bench decision on a local lawsuit could have far-reaching implications for public education in Saskatchewan, and possibly across the country. Last week, Justice Donald Layh ruled on a 12-year-old challenge by the Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) of Christ the Teacher Catholic Schools’ (CTTCS) right to receive funding for non-Catholic students. Layh’s verdict was that the government must stop funding non-minority faith students to attend separate schools. Although the judge acknowledged minority faith, meaning Catholic, education rights are protected under the Constitution Act and Saskatchewan Act, he wrote that the Constitution “does not provide a constitutional right to separate schools in Saskatchewan to receive provincial government funding respecting non-minority faith students.”