## Facts

- John Kelly Barrett, a Roman Catholic ratepayer in Winnipeg, challenged a municipal by-law levying school taxes under Manitoba’s Public Schools Act, 1890.
- Before Manitoba entered Confederation (1870), Roman Catholics had church-controlled schools where Catholic doctrine was taught, though no public school system had been established by statute.
- The 1890 legislation created a single, tax-supported, non-sectarian public school system under centralized provincial administration and restricted religious exercises.
- Barrett sought to quash the by-law, asserting that Catholic children could not, consistent with conscience, attend non-sectarian schools lacking Catholic religious instruction.
- Barrett argued the 1890 scheme and resulting taxation prejudicially affected denominational school rights Catholics possessed “by law or practice” at union, contrary to the constitutional limitation in the Manitoba Act, 1870.

## Issues

1. Whether Roman Catholics in Manitoba had “rights or privileges with respect to denominational schools” “by law or practice” at the time of union within the meaning of the Manitoba Act, 1870.
2. If such rights existed, whether the Public Schools Act, 1890 and the Winnipeg school-rate by-law “prejudicially affected” those rights, placing the legislation beyond provincial competence to that extent.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Canada allowed Barrett’s appeal and reversed the judgment upholding the by-law.
- The Court held Roman Catholics had protected denominational school rights by “practice” at union, notwithstanding the absence of statutory establishment.
- The Court held the 1890 public school scheme prejudicially affected those rights by removing denominational control and compelling Catholic ratepayers to fund a non-sectarian system their children could not attend in conscience.
- The municipal taxation by-law, as an instrument implementing the unconstitutional impairment, was quashed.

## Legal Principles

- A constitutional guarantee protecting denominational school rights “by law or practice” extends to settled, pre-union religious-school arrangements even if not created by statute.
- Where a constitution grants provincial authority over education subject to a restriction against prejudicially affecting denominational school rights, that restriction is judicially enforceable and limits legislative competence.
- A law “prejudicially affects” denominational school rights when it materially impairs denominational control over schooling and forces affected adherents to financially support an alternative system that conflicts with conscience, to the extent it displaces the protected practice.

## Conclusion

The Court construed “by law or practice” to protect pre-union church-run Catholic schooling and held Manitoba’s 1890 non-sectarian public school regime invalid insofar as it displaced that protected denominational practice and compelled Catholic ratepayers to fund the replacement system.


Barrett v. City of Winnipeg, [1891] 19 S.C.R. 374 (Can. 1891)