demonstrations of the meaning of the regulation. In the City of Windsor there were in 1912 three Roman Catholic Separate Schools, namely, the “Sacred Heart,” with 45 per cent, “St. Francois,” with 65 per cent, and “St. Edmond,” with 85 per cent of French speaking Catholic pupils. Prior to 1912 French was a subject of study in the Sacred Heart school only. French has continued since 1912 to be a subject of study in that school. Prior to 1912 there was no French taught in St. Francois and St. Edmond School; since 1912 the trustees of these two schools have applied to the Department, for permission to teach French in these two schools for one-half hour in one of them and for one hour in the other. The following letter from the Department peremptorily denies them the right to have even one minute of French in these two schools:

This letter was signed by Mr. Colquhoun, Deputy Minister of Education in Ontario, and is dated October 31st, 1914. Now, the other day the acting minister of the department, the Hon. Mr. Ferguson, published a long statement covering nearly two pages of newspaper, explaining this matter. With regard to this particular case, concerning the schools in the city of Windsor, his answer was, I respectfully submit, unworthy of himself, unworthy of the province, and especially unworthy of the great subject of education. His answer was that the children of the French-Canadian parents at Windsor had not been refused anything to which they were entitled under regulation 17. That was his answer, begging the whole question.

May I now give you a very independent and impartial opinion as to the effect and nature of this regulation? Within a year after it was promulgated and sought to be enforced, the six inspectors appointed by the Government, for the very purpose of enforcing the regulation, were called to Toronto by the Head of the Department of Education, to make a report of their findings after the regulation had been in force about a year. The six inspectors were three English-speaking and three French-speaking inspectors. They met in Toronto, and, after comparing notes, made a unanimous report to the Minister of Education, and please remember that this report and the investigation from which it arose were both made at the request of the Minister of Education. The report was unanimous. I shall not quote it all, but only a few lines:

That is not my statement, remember, gentlemen, but the unanimous statement of three English inspectors and three French inspectors charged with the duty of enforcing this regulation.

Naturally the French-Canadians of Ontario, of whom there are 250,000, who have in the past enjoyed the right of teaching their language to their own children, promptly and strongly resented all this. But they have not been the aggressive and turbulent agitators which they have been represented to be. On the contrary, they took the constitutional means of going to the Department about the matter. Memorials, representations and calm and dignified protests were made. Delegations were sent to Toronto. On one occasion the chairman of the Ottawa separate school board went to Toronto as the representative of most of the different separate school boards throughout the province. Nothing came of it. Sir James Whitney told them that he was not going to establish RACIAL SCHOOLS in the Province of Ontario, whatever the meaning of that may be. He sought to make them feel that he looked upon the use of French in the Ontario schools as introducing racial schools.

Gentlemen, I have to touch on these points very briefly because I know your time is precious, and I do not want to trespass upon your indulgence. I might say that such litigation followed. However I do not propose to go into that as I do not know that much profit could be derived from it in the time which you have kindly allowed me.

Then this statute was passed last year, of which we are now asking the disallowance, and I am going to speak of that briefly. I am sure you have heard something of the petitions which have been circulated, not only in the Province of Ontario, but also in Quebec, calling upon the Dominion Government to disallow this statute passed in 1915. The statute has two effects, the validating of regulation 17, which in the meantime was being tried in the courts, and the purpose of establishing the Ottawa Separate School Commission, of which I have no doubt you have also heard.

The act takes all the powers from the Roman Catholic Separate School Trustees elected by the Roman Catholic rate-payers and confers them upon the Commission. This Commission—which I shall not qualify, but which I shall describe—was composed of three gentlemen, Mr. Denis Murphy, Mr. D'Arcy McGee, and Mr. Charbonneau. The first two being Irish Catholics, and the other a French-Canadian Catholic.

The Roman Catholic population of Ottawa is composed of nearly 50,000 people, of whom about 33,000 are French-Canadians and about 17,000 are Irish Catholics. As I said, the Government appointed two Irish Catholics and made one of them chairman, the other vice-chairman, and Mr. Charbonneau simply a member. This commission was vested with all the powers which the board of elected trustees had the statutory right and the duty to administer. You can imagine, gentlemen, how efficiently these schools could be conducted under such conditions and with such a commission. You can imagine the provocation it was to the French-Canadian population of Ottawa. I should add that one of the commissioners—they are all respectable men—but one was in the unfortunate position of being a license holder under the Government which appointed him. Mr. Charbonneau, or the firm to which he belonged, held a license for the sale of intoxicating liquors. He held his license from the Government appointing him, and this was the man who was going to administer these schools in the capital of Canada. You can imagine the resentment of the people and how difficult—how impossible—it was for such a commission to administer in a proper way the schools confided to their care. The result was confusion worse confounded, and considerable agitation, with the result that to-day there are nearly 5,000 children belonging to the English-French schools of Ottawa who are deprived of an education, and have been so deprived for two months. Their teachers have not been paid some of them for five, ten, fifteen and twenty months. The taxes belonging to the French-Canadian supporters of these schools have been used for the payment of the teachers in the schools attended by the Irish Catholics, schools which have not in any way, at any time, under any conditions being interfered with by the French-Canadian people of Ottawa.

Another result of regulation No. 17 is—I doubt if there is anyone in this room who will really believe me, but I assure you that it is true—let me tell you, gentlemen, that to-day the Germans in the Province of Ontario have and are