GOVERNOR GENERAL SIGNS AWAY NFLD RELIGIOUS SCHOOLING

OTTAWA, Jan 9 (LSN) – On Thursday, Gov. Gen. Romeo LeBlanc gave royal assent to a constitutional amendment which will deprive Newfoundland Christian families of their constitutional guarantee to religious schooling.  Catholic and Pentecostal parents had appealed to Justice David Osborn of Newfoundland Supreme Court to intervene and grant a temporary injunction to the amendment’s final approval.  Justice Osborn refused the request, stating that the group did not have legal grounds for an injunction.  The province’s lieutenant governor will proclaim the reform package on Monday, and the first public school board elections in Newfoundland’s history will take place in February.  The Catholic Education Committee has a lawsuit against the planned reforms and the referendum process before the courts. “We [will] pursue it further because we have a good case and Catholic parents have been ignored,” said spokesman Bon Fagan. “Our concern all along is that government would now make changes that, should the courts determine were not legitimate or legal, it would be much harder to change back to the system we had.”