Prayers, Petitions, and Protests
The Catholic Church and the Ontario Schools Crisis in the Windsor Border Region, 1910-1928
Description
In 1912, the Ontario Conservative government issued the controversial Regulation 17 in an attempt to improve the quality of English-language teaching in the province, while effectively restricting French-language instruction within bilingual schools. Prayers, Petitions, and Protests explores popular reaction to the policy in the Windsor border area and the radical opposition of the Catholic hierarchy to bilingual schooling. Jack Cecillon presents a comprehensive study of divisions that were created or exacerbated within the local francophone communities, as well as the pivotal role played by the bishop of London, Michael Francis Fallon, who strongly opposed bilingual education within his diocese. Also instrumental was the Catholic Church's desperation to stave off challenges to the province's separate schools system, which was met with aggressive resistance from congregations of French-speaking Catholics. This dispute was of such grave concern to church officials that the Pope had to intervene twice to manage the conflict between the warring Irish- and French-Canadian factions. Although much of the province effectively resisted the school reforms, what emerged in Windsor was very different. Prayers, Petitions, and Protests uncovers a conflict within the church where priests and laypeople challenged the hierarchy, disobeyed orders, and stirred public resistance.
Reviews
"Cecillon’s book offers a deep understanding of the larger debates surrounding French-English relations and the rise of French Canadian nationalism in the early-twentieth century. [It] will be essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history
“This detailed and well-researched study of the Ontario schools crisis in the Windsor area has much to offer to readers interested in education, religion, and minority cultures.” Historical Studies in Education
“Cecillon effectively analyzes the Regulation 17 crisis as it unfolded in the Windsor border region, sheds new light on the limits of the French Canadian nationalist project, and challenges some of the existing historiography. An accessible, thoroughly enjoyable read Prayers, Petitions, and Protests will appeal to both scholars in the field as well as general readers with an interest in the history of Canadian language policy and politics.” Michel Bock, Department of History, University of Ottawa
“Avec cet ouvrage magistral, Cécillon nous permet d’apprécier les idéaux diver¬gents des Franco-Ontariens, mais aussi l’effet dévastateur qu’a eu le Règlement 17 sur la culture et la langue françaises dans le Sud-Ouest ontarien.” Revue Nouvel Ontario