Relevant Legislation and Case Law | Local Democracy and Reasonable Local Autonomy for Public Schools | 1998 Alberta Court of Appeal Decision | 1995 Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Decision | The Schmidt Case | The Bakker Case | The Jacobi Case | The PSBAA et al. vs The Attorney General of Alberta

An Excerpt from The Constitution Act, 1867
(formerly, the British North America Act, 1867)

(Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867, is closely patterned on section 92, which describes the general mandate of each province's legislature. Education was dealt with in a separate section only because of the need to protect the rights of the dissentient religious minority with respect to education.)

Education

93. In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following Provisions:--
(1) Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union:
(2) All the Powers, Privileges, and Duties at the Union by Law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the Separate Schools and School Trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic Subjects shall be and the same are hereby extended to the Dissentient Schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic Subjects in Quebec:
(3) Where in any Province a System of Separate or Dissentient Schools exists by Law at the Union or is thereafter established by the Legislature of the Province, an Appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or Decision of any Provincial Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education:
(4) In case any such Provincial Law as from Time to Time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due Executive of the Provisions of this Section is not made, or in case any Decision of the Governor General in Council on any Appeal under this Section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that Behalf, then and in every such Case, and as far only as the Circumstances of each Case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial Laws for the due Execution of the Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of the Governor General in Council under this Section. (Altered for Alberta by section 17 of the Alberta Act, 1905.