It’s a sneak attack.
Last December, a committee of Canada’s Liberal government recommended removing charitable status from religious organizations in Recommendation 430. The Conservatives oppose it, and the Liberal campaign won’t disown it.
Anyone serious about education sees it as a Trojan Horse. Religious organizations play a key role in establishing and maintaining independent and Catholic schools, among other purposes. That means the Liberal policy is a direct attack on independent and Catholic schools
Churches are the unseen backbone of the independent school system. Schools are often started in buildings owned by churches, even if those schools are independent of the church. The churches provide the seed funding. They supply key volunteers and staff – often assigning staff at the expense of the church. The churches also provide sustaining bursary programs and financial aid. Even if churches do not own independent schools, the schools are often still dependent on church ecosystems for survival.
Now, we’ve danced this dance before.
In the so-called Dark Ages of Europe, learning was kept alive by monks and bishops when the secular authorities were indifferent to it at best. The tradition was powerful: most European schools were run by religious orders, whose members embraced poverty, dedicating themselves to service rather than material gain.
But these schools were threatening to colonial-era superpowers. The word bandied about for culture wars – kulturkampf? That's the name Imperial Germany gave to their laws to force Catholics to give up their schools.
In France, the Ferry Laws and the 1901 Law of Associations evicted Catholic teaching orders from the schools they had operated for centuries, and gave them to doctrinaire atheistic revolutionaries. Religious orders were literally deported for teaching. In Alberta, you can find journals in the town of Trochu that discuss how the town’s founders had resigned their French cavalry commissions rather than evict monks and nuns at swordpoint.
In Canada, Premier Haultain boasted that he had “administered the separateness out of the separate schools” to circumvent the protections that the BNA Act afforded Catholic schools. Religious education was restricted, and Catholics were forbidden to have their own curriculum or facilities for teacher training—a condition that still exists in Alberta today.
When the government attacks religion, it is always about the government taking control over education. The results are seldom pleasant.
The current Liberal government is loath to waste a tradition.
Trudeau appointed Kristopher Wells as Senator – the same Wells who declared that "the church has no place in the classrooms of the nation," echoing Pierre Trudeau’s 60’s “sexual revolution” dogma. Wells is a sexual revolutionary himself, stridently demanding the introduction of schoolchildren to queer sexuality without parental consent.
This current move—stripping charitable status from churches—may be marketed as tax fairness. Functionally, however, it will weaken the base of support for independent schools, dry up seed funding for new schools, and, by eliminating non-state options, undermine parental authority and choice in education. As Michael Wagner points out, home education isn’t safe either. In fact, progressive activists hope to gain power over education by removing churches.
The data says that defunding religious charities will deal a disproportionate blow to the charitable sector. 37% of all charities claim to be religious. While not all are educational, a substantial minority are integrally connected to schooling, especially in new school startups. Selectively removing charitable status would devastate these groups – while leaving hyper-ideological organizations untouched.
No government can control the churches; their educational activities are governed by their own pursuit of transcendent truth. But if their ability to affect education is reduced, the government can use grants and contracts to control hyper-ideological organizations such as Egale Canada, that push their radical agendas on schools.
Simply put, the Finance Committee's recommendation gives ideological cover for partisan activity by the government. Even if the government doesn't immediately act on the recommendation, the existence of this recommendation means that bureaucrats can use it to justify CRA audits and regulatory pressure. Future ministers can cite it to push for legislation or regulatory change – including a federal Department of Education. And as it stands, it will chill charitable involvement in education, as churches worry about what will happen to their own existence rather than establishing new schools.
The proposal to end charitable status is not really about taxation. It's a declaration of war on civil society's capacity to educate outside of state control. The Left's target is not religion per se, but the freedom and independence that churches enable.
Make no mistake: Recommendation 430 isn't about taxation. It's about power. The target isn't just faith – it's freedom. If churches are no longer able to support education, then only the state will remain.
If Carney’s Liberals form the government on April 28th, this Trojan Horse will wheel straight through our gates. They're coming for independent education.
This is a red alert moment for every parent and defender of civil society. Speak now, or watch educational freedom burn to the ground.
John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www.parentchoice.ca
This article originally appeared in the Western Standard on April 16th, 2025. A printable pdf is available.