LES DÉBATS SUR LE PARTAGE DE LA TAXE SCOLAIRE À MONTRÉAL

Abstract

In 1869, the provincial government of P.-J.-O. Chauveau established a school tax in Montreal. This tax was deducted from land properties, and income was divided between the Catholic and Protestant school boards with regard to the landowners’ religion. Generally wealthier than the Catholics, Protestants were favoured by this mode of distribution of the school tax. This article attempts to explain the causes of the adoption and continuation of this mode of financing during more than a century by examining the major debates about the distribution of the school tax at the end of the 19th century. The study concludes that the continuation of this mode of financing is not devoid of ideological foundations strongly connected to the educational concept of the Catholic and Protestant elite and their respective visions of interethnic relations.* * La traduction du résumé est de Gabriel Saint-Jean, sous la supervision de sa professeure d’anglais, Diane Pigeon.