Except maybe when it comes to religion. The province of Ontario has two separate, publicly-funded school systems. One is Catholic, albeit in name only as there are no priests or religious teachers, and no instruction in the Faith. Why not? That would offend all the non-Catholic students whom the Catholic schools are obliged to accept because they receive the government's dollar.
The other school system is resolutely secular. No religious observance of any kind is allowed. Period. Fifty years ago students were compelled to recite the Lord's Prayer (the Protestant version of the Our Father) before the start of classes. No more. And they don't sing "O Canada" any more so they don't have to cope with the phrase "God keep our land..."
Yep, secular humanism is the order of the day in Ontario's public schools.
Except for Valley Park Middle School in Toronto. For three years now Valley Park's administration has been allowing a local imam to use the school's facilities to hold Friday prayers for the school's Muslim students. This is supposed to help with the safety of students, who don't have to leave school to go to the mosque. Obviously this was a problem since many of the little Muslims failed to return to class after Friday services.School officials said the prayer sessions are working well and they haven’t been approached about making changes. Until last week. Even though school's out for the summer, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy is now planning to protest outside Valley Way until the prayer sessions are stopped.
“This is alarming and unacceptable,” said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. “We respect the separation of church and state. There’s not supposed to be any religious classes taking place in public schools. Our organization has received many complaints from Hindu students and parents in the Valley Park Middle School region.”
Christian students and parents are, needless to say, too politically correct to complain...or to say anything at all.
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