1909 Canada Sturgeon Falls ON Loyal Orange Lodge – education $

Two printed letters from 1909 sent from the Sturgeon Falls Ontario Loyal Orange Lodge #1709 to the Craigvale Ontario Loyal Orange Lodge #605. Looking for funds and support to fight the financing of Sturgeon Falls Public Schools.

Cover Letter

Sturgeon Falls Ontario December 10^th, 1910

To secretary L.O.L No 605 Craigvale Ont.

Dear Sir and Brother

..Enclosed you will find an appeal to your Lodge on behalf of the Surgeon Falls Public School Supporters….

JOHN HANNAN P.M. L.O.L. No. 1709

Enclosure

…Sturgeon Falls School Case, brought about by the Michaud Act, an Act of the late Ross Government passed I 1904, which Act tended to legalize an illegal agreement and aims to divert part of the taxes of sa Protestant Corporation from the Public School to the Separate School.

The Sturgeon Falls Public School Board are not able to carry on this fight alone…carried to the Privy Council and in order to combat the enemies of the Public School System of Ontario successfully it will require a considerable amount of money…

…the Public School will be at the tender mercy of an organization which will stop at nothing to attain its goals…ask that each Primary Lodge will help us as they see fit..

--Wicks Rec. Sec

Folded horizontally.

21 ½ x 14 cm

The 1909 Sturgeon Falls Dispute

In 1909, the Provincial Grand Orange Lodges of Ontario East and West, along with the County Orange Lodge of Toronto, published a pamphlet challenging the Separate Schools Act and its concessions since Confederation.

Their opposition was rooted in concerns over:

•           Public financing of religious (Catholic) education.
•           The growing influence of French-language instruction in Ontario schools.
•           The perceived erosion of English-Protestant cultural dominance.

Broader Context

•         Sturgeon Falls had a significant Francophone Catholic population, which intensified the local debate.
•        The Orange Order’s resistance was part of a larger movement that culminated in Regulation 17 (1912), which restricted French-language instruction in Ontario

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