"Honorary Protestants": The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997

FRASER, DAVID

Abstract

When the Constitution Act of 1867 was enacted, section 93 guaranteed certain educational rights to Catholics and Protestants in Quebec, but not to any others. Over the course of the next century, the Jewish community in Montreal carved out an often tenuous arrangement for public schooling as “honorary Protestants,” based on complex negotiations with the Protestant and Catholic school boards, the provincial government, and individual municipalities. In the face of the constitution’s exclusionary language, all parties gave their compromise a legal form which was frankly unconstitutional, but unavoidable if Jewish children were to have access to public schools. Bargaining in the shadow of the law, they made their own constitution long before the formal constitutional amendment of 1997 finally put an end to the issue.

In Honorary Protestants, David Fraser presents the first legal history of the Jewish school question in Montreal. Based on extensive archival research, it highlights the complex evolution of concepts of rights, citizenship, and identity, negotiated outside the strict legal boundaries of the constitution.

Citation

FRASER, D. (2015). "Honorary Protestants": The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997. University of Toronto Press

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Publication Date: Oct 30, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2015
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• ISBN: 9781442630482
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1106337
• Publisher URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctvg251p0
• Related Public URLs: https://utorontopress.com/us/honorary-protestants-3
• Additional Information: Fraser, D. (2015). Honorary Protestants" : the Jewish school question in Montreal, 1867-1997. Toronto: Published for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History by University of Toronto Press.