Canada at War: ONTARIO: Jehovah’s Witnesses

Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-to-3 that children of Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot be compelled to salute their country’s flag. Last week, in an almost identical case, the High Court of Ontario ruled the other way.

Robert Donald, Hamilton, Ont., is one of Canada’s 6,900 Jehovah’s Witnesses.* He had sued the Hamilton school board for $2,600 after his two sons had been expelled from school for refusing to salute the flag, sing God Save the King or repeat an oath of allegiance. Justice John Andrew Hope dismissed the suit. Said he: “I can conceive of no more certain way of creating . . . friction amongst the pupils of a class as to their love of country, and their duty to their country, than by permitting haphazard compliance with the singing of the national anthem. . . .”

The U.S. decision, based on the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights (guaranteeing freedom of religion), was conclusive for the whole U.S.

Justice Hope’s decision (from which an appeal was unlikely) was based on Ontario laws requiring all public school students to sing the national anthem, all teachers to teach patriotism.

* In 1940 the sect was outlawed under Defense of Canada regulations. Many members were fined or interned. In 1943 the ban was lifted.