The governance of Canadian schools is undergoing change. Provincial ministries of education are pursuing contradictory policy initiatives: local school boards are being consolidated to become more "efficient," and individual schools are developing school councils to become more "democratic." This paper applies Jurgen Habermas's democratic theory to Canadian educational governance, underlining the importance of public dialog, of erecting democratic dams against modernity's dehumanizing forces. (19 references) (MLH)