Legislation Planned to Give Jews Right to Vote in Protestant School Board Elections

A Quebec Education Ministry official announced yesterday that legislation is planned to give 40,000 Montreal Jews the right to vote in elections for the Protestant School Board of Montreal whose schools are attended by many of their children and whose costs are supported by their property taxes. Dr. Victor Goldbloom, Minister Without Portfolio attached to the Education Ministry, announced yesterday that legislation to enfranchise the Jewish parents will be introduced in the Quebec Assembly in time for passage for Jewish participation in the forthcoming June elections to the board. Some 20,000 Jewish children, about 75 percent of all Jewish children of school age, attend the Protestant schools. There are no non-sectarian public schools in Quebec. Schools are under Catholic and Protestant sponsorship. Some Jewish children attend privately-sponsored Jewish day schools. Taxes on property paid by all resident property owners, Jews included, finance operations of the Protestant and Catholic schools, No Jewish children attend the Catholic-sponsored schools, the JTA was informed. Dr. Goldbloom said the measure would “put an end to an anachronistic situation where there was taxation without representation.” The Canadian Jewish Congress, which has long sought such a change, said the measure would end “blatant discrimination.”