Ontario RC Schools can't Teach Abortion is Wrong

[BlueEyedLady]

what I’m saying is, you don’t see her telling Muslims that wearing a burka is misogynistic do you? She wouldn’t dare…

Actually, a lot of times in the west women who wear niqabs and burqas do so of their own volition because they feel that it is the best way to honor Allah. If it is the woman’s choice and she isn’t forced in to it, it certainly isn’t misogynistic.

As for these laws not being directed at Muslims, only Catholics, that is just not the case. Bill 13 applies to ALL schools, it does not single out Catholic schools. So yes, Muslim schools will have to comply. The reason it seems like Muslims get “special treatment” is because there aren’t nearly as many Muslim schools that will be affected and outraged over this.

Really, I do not understand the dislike of Muslims that so many people have.

 

[JacquesMaritain]

Actually, a lot of times in the west women who wear niqabs and burqas do so of their own volition because they feel that it is the best way to honor Allah. If it is the woman’s choice and she isn’t forced in to it, it certainly isn’t misogynistic.

As for these laws not being directed at Muslims, only Catholics, that is just not the case. Bill 13 applies to ALL schools, it does not single out Catholic schools. So yes, Muslim schools will have to comply. The reason it seems like Muslims get “special treatment” is because there aren’t nearly as many Muslim schools that will be affected and outraged over this.

Really, I do not understand the dislike of Muslims that so many people have.

Hi BlueEyedLady:

It’s an interesting thesis, but I hate to say it, I’m a Catholic teacher here in Ontario and it just doesn’t hold water. There are fewer Muslim schools, true. But the affair of the Mosqueteria (so named because they segregated the menstruating girls in the school cafeteria) got lots of publicity, everybody heard about it (and got outraged over it). We Catholics are singled out, that is hard to deny. We could NEVER hold any school function where the girls were forced to sit in the back. If we segregated girls because they were on their periods, people would be horrified. They’d close the School down the very same day. Think about where you work. I don’t care what the line of work is. Suppose your boss came in one day and said, okay, on the next company function, the men ride at the front of the bus, the women have to go to the back. Oh, and if you’re on your period? No company retreat for you, you have to answer the office phones. What would happen? A sexual harassment lawsuit, maybe? Or maybe he’d be tossed back to the 7th century cave from whence he came? Seriously! I know a lot of people want to defend Islam because they are uncomfortable with the idea that people might think bad things about them or call them bigots or racists if they don’t “toe the line”, but honestly. There is a double standard here. We owe it to ourselves to be honest about it, even if it challenges what we really want to believe to be true.

Jacques

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Hi BlueEyedLady:

It’s an interesting thesis, but I hate to say it, I’m a Catholic teacher here in Ontario and it just doesn’t hold water. There are fewer Muslim schools, true. But the affair of the Mosqueteria (so named because they segregated the menstruating girls in the school cafeteria) got lots of publicity, everybody heard about it (and got outraged over it). We Catholics are singled out, that is hard to deny. We could NEVER hold any school function where the girls were forced to sit in the back. If we segregated girls because they were on their periods, people would be horrified. They’d close the School down the very same day. Think about where you work. I don’t care what the line of work is. Suppose your boss came in one day and said, okay, on the next company function, the men ride at the front of the bus, the women have to go to the back. Oh, and if you’re on your period? No company retreat for you, you have to answer the office phones. What would happen? A sexual harassment lawsuit, maybe? Or maybe he’d be tossed back to the 7th century cave from whence he came? Seriously! I know a lot of people want to defend Islam because they are uncomfortable with the idea that people might think bad things about them or call them bigots or racists if they don’t “toe the line”, but honestly. There is a double standard here. We owe it to ourselves to be honest about it, even if it challenges what we really want to believe to be true.

Jacques

Can you please provide reputable documentation of this incident? I’ve looked it up by the issue and by the actual name of the middle school and all that comes up are heavily biased “news” sites claiming that this happened with no statements from parents, students, administrators, etc. Some very conservative “the Muslim threat is here!” others very liberal “Canada is oppressing women!” but none that seem factual. But even these articles that I have my doubts about claim that the Canadian government is investigating and that there is a huge outrage nationwide. So even if it is true, as doubtful as that is, it doesn’t look like Muslims are getting away with anything.

 

[Dale_M]

Can you please provide reputable documentation of this incident?

Here is a press release from the Toronto District School Board

In the case of Valley Park, the school is not teaching the “religious practice.” Rather it is accommodating for the religious and spiritual needs of the students like many other schools do around the country for a number of different faith communities. Providing this religious accommodation does not violate any Board policies since the service is not a Board or school activity.

There have been concerns expressed that the practice of Islam separates individuals by gender. We do not have the authority to tell faith groups how to pray. The division of the sexes which occurs during the service is a part of the Islamic faith. Students who participate in the prayer services do so voluntarily and with parental permission, and no one is obligated to participate.

We understand that this is a very sensitive issue for many, and that there will continue to be differing opinions among members of our communities. However, we believe it is the willingness to have courageous conversations like these that has made Canada the diverse yet cohesive society that comes together in Toronto District School Board’s classrooms every day.

tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/Room.asp?show=TDSBnews&view=detailed&enableNav=true&self=30364

The full document can be read at the link

 

[Link0126]

Hi BlueEyedLady:
We owe it to ourselves to be honest about it, even if it challenges what we really want to believe to be true.

Jacques

There you go. She will never be able to see the truth b/c in her mind, as well as many others, Muslims are still somehow the victims.

 

[Dale_M]

There you go. She will never be able to see the truth b/c in her mind, as well as many others, Muslims are still somehow the victims.

Honestly, it seems the criticism of the so-called “mosqueteria” is an example of the abuse which Muslims have to put up with. Granted, it isn’t physical abuse, but it is a clear message to devout Muslims that “you’re not welcome here.”

 

[Link0126]

Actually, a lot of times in the west women who wear niqabs and burqas do so of their own volition because they feel that it is the best way to honor Allah. If it is the woman’s choice and she isn’t forced in to it, it certainly isn’t misogynistic.

As for these laws not being directed at Muslims, only Catholics, that is just not the case. Bill 13 applies to ALL schools, it does not single out Catholic schools. So yes, Muslim schools will have to comply. The reason it seems like Muslims get “special treatment” is because there aren’t nearly as many Muslim schools that will be affected and outraged over this.

Really, I do not understand the dislike of Muslims that so many people have.

Ok, so it’s fine to voluntarily wear a burka (of course, the government isn’t making a distinction) but not fine to voluntarily attend a school that teaches Catholic beliefs? As if everyone who is sitting in that school is forced to be there, forced to deal with the most misogynistic thing ever. No, even if both are voluntary (which only one really is 100% of the time) you still have a double standard. Only one religious faith is being infringed on by the government and it’s not even the misogynistic one. It’s just the one that isn’t protected by PC attitudes and the one that won’t kill them.

 

[Link0126]

I don’t think anyone bothered to read your link - they’re too busy blaming the Muslims for everything

I’m not blaming the Muslims for anything (other than actually being the true misogynists). I’m blaming the Canadian government and other governments for pandering to them but at the same time attacking Catholics simply b/c we’re a safe target. They can get their daily religious violations in on us without worry of retaliation. Meanwhile, women walk around covered head to toe in sheets.

I’m just using Islam to show the double standard of the government. Saying they are violent isn’t really an insult in this case. B/c of their violence against those who threaten their religion everyone is afraid of them, including the government. In contrast, the government isn’t afraid of Catholics, we are afraid of the government.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Cardinal rebukes McGuinty gvmt: Catholic schools’ pro-life activities guaranteed in Constitution

The Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto has shot back against Ontario’s government after Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Education Minister said the Catholic schools should not be teaching that abortion is wrong.

“Defending the voiceless is our mission,” Cardinal Thomas Collins told a crowd of 1,700 at the annual Cardinal’s Dinner in Toronto on Thursday. “Both the constitution and the Education Act make it clear that the Catholic identity of the school must be respected.”

This identity must be respected, he said, “when it comes to protecting the freedom of all in the school community to engage in pro-life activities in order to foster a culture of life in which the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected and honoured throughout their whole life on earth from the moment of conception to natural death.”

…

In his remarks, Cardinal Collins insisted that the Catholic identity of the schools is “recognized and protected both by section 93 of our Canadian constitution – for without recognition of that identity the agreement that created Canada would not have proceeded – but also by section 1 of the Education Act of Ontario.”

Catholics’ denominational rights must be respected when it comes to anti-bullying groups, he insisted, which, he said, “means following the method outlined in the document Respecting Difference.”

He said the “essential role” played by people of faith in our society “should give pause to those … who seek to sterilize public discourse and publicly funded institutions from religious influence.”

“They should realize that apart from the strangely forgotten fact that people of faith pay taxes, Ontario would be a colder, harsher, darker, more cruel place without the generous action of people of faith motivated by their faith,” he continued. “There is more beauty in the variety of a garden than in the uniform, undifferentiated, monotony of the dull flat surface of a parking lot.”

Marino Gazzola, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, told LifeSiteNews they found it “incomprehensible” that the Minister would label Catholic teaching on abortion “misogynistic,” but also indicated they still have no intention of challenging Bill 13.

“We deliver the curriculum that affirms life, our curriculum is aligned to the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he asserted. “I think it’s a well known fact the Catholic teaching that abortion is an act that is contrary to the core teachings of our curriculum and the values we promote in Catholic schools. And that’s what we continue to go with.”

OCSTA had strongly endorsed Bill 13 before the government introduced a clause forcing schools to allow clubs named “gay-straight alliance,” but when the bill passed with the clause intact they announced that the schools would obey it nevertheless.

Gazzola told LifeSiteNews he sees no connection between Bill 13 and abortion, and that OCSTA will continue to advise school boards to comply with the law.

“I don’t see the correlation between Bill 13 and this. That’s her choice I guess. I don’t remember seeing anything in Bill 13 about abortion,” he said. “It’s still legislation that is in effect and we’re complying with it. I don’t see that changing right now and I don’t see our position changing.”

He said he would not comment on whether the government was taking an adversarial stance towards Catholics.

Cardinal Collins’ full talk is available is available at the Archdiocese of Toronto’s blog.

 

[Blacksword]

No they aren’t. Not in the US or Canada, besides they are always running around killing people anyway. Maybe you should join an atheist site or something.

This post is offensive, I’m sorry. If you made this sort of statement on here about another religion a quick ban would likely be on the way and deservedly so. It’s also hilarious that so many seem to think Muslims are getting some kind of special treatment in a positive way when they are clearly singled out for all sorts of discrimination and worse. Is the media afraid of offending them? Sure. But it’s also Muslims who get caught up for having a similar name to someone on a watch list and rendered to black sites, detained indefinitely and tortured, denied airline boarding, and having phone calls wiretapped on mere suspicion, and many other ills.

How many Catholics were wrongfully detained and tormented for years in Gitmo or Abu Graib or the “Salt Pit”? It was all Muslims, and overwhelmingly they were innocent of any wrongdoing, just in the wrong place at the wrong time or with the wrong name.

 

[JacquesMaritain]

Here is a press release from the Toronto District School Board

…There have been concerns expressed that the practice of Islam separates individuals by gender. We do not have the authority to tell faith groups how to pray. The division of the sexes which occurs during the service is a part of the Islamic faith. Students who participate in the prayer services do so voluntarily and with parental permission, and no one is obligated to participate…

tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/Room.asp?show=TDSBnews&view=detailed&enableNav=true&self=30364

The full document can be read at the link

Hi Dale:

I remember discussing this last year with you and others in the old thread. I hope things have been going well with you. For those interested, it is here (it runs over 9 pages and it has all the documentation that anyone could ever seek regarding the Toronto Mosqueteria story). It is correct, in so far as it is written; a Toronto publicly-funded middle school is, in fact, converting its Cafeteria into a Mosque on Friday Afternoons to hold Islamic prayer services where boys and girls are segregated, and menstruating girls are forbidden to take part.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=580297

I’d like to touch a bit on the Toronto District School Board’s press release on this, because while it is factual in so far as what is happening, it is also misleading (deliberately so). As teachers we see a lot of education documents, both from the School Boards and the Provincial Government; and it is fair to say that they are written in an opaque manner, in an effort to avoid saying anything that could be construed in a negative fashion. They claim that the practice is “voluntary” and that no one is forced to participate; however, this is held on Friday afternoons during Instructional time, when they are compelled to be in school. In fact, the reason it started is because students would get notes to “get out of class” on Friday afternoons, ostensibly to go to the nearby Mosque…but instead, once outside the School, they walked to the nearby malls and hung out with their friends instead. That’s why the administrators decided to bring the Mosque into the School, and put it in the Cafeteria…so that they kids couldn’t escape going to it. This is not voluntary; it is coerced. About the most we can say is that they do have parental permission for that, but on the other hand, just because parents want something in a school, that is no excuse to practice sexual discrimination of this type. The Board claims that it doesn’t have the authority to tell religious groups how to pray, but we all know that if (say) Digambar Jainist monks wanted to set up a service where they pray in the nude (yes, they do that, believe it or not) the Toronto Public School board would suddenly have second thoughts. I doubt they’d be willing to accept Jewish students practicing Kapparot, which has led in the past to police charges of animal cruelty; nor would they be on board with El Colacho (baby jumping), Hindu Thaipusam body piercing, or Grishneshwar infant dropping (you throw the baby out of a 50 foot temple and catch it with a sheet), to name a few more. In this Toronto Mosqueteria case, Hindu students objected to the Halal food served in the School Cafeteria, because they felt that the Halal method of ritual slaughter is inhumane; but again, the Toronto Public School Board doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. Christian groups were also told that they could not distribute Bibles in the Schools, even though Islamic groups had previously placed Qurans there; again, the Toronto School Board doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. Multiculturalism looks fine in the abstract, but as they say, the devil is in the details; up close and personal, it isn’t a pretty sight.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digambara
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaparot
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Colacho

I asked my own principal and the admin team here at the School if it would be permitted to hold any event on Catholic School property, inside of school hours or not, where I could segregate the boys from the girls, and turn the menstruating girls away. They were horrified by the idea, and said to me, “absolutely no, not for any reason”; when I showed them this Mosqueteria story last year, they were astonished (as I was), and couldn’t believe it was happening in 21st Century Canada. It’s clear the Board has a double standard about this, largely because they are (with some justification) afraid of violence if they refuse Islamic demands. Because Catholics act reasonably when they don’t get what they want, there’s no problem with infringing their rights. We might organize a petition to oppose the government if it tells us we can’t teach that abortion is morally wrong. Maybe we will carry out a peaceful protest. But we won’t riot, kill our enemies, or burn down embassies/government buildings, if we don’t get what we want. That’s why the double standard exists, in my view.

campaignlifecoalition.com/index.php?p=Petition&_p=1&id=4

Jacques

 

[Dale_M]

They claim that the practice is “voluntary” and that no one is forced to participate; however, this is held on Friday afternoons during Instructional time, when they are compelled to be in school. In fact, the reason it started is because students would get notes to “get out of class” on Friday afternoons, ostensibly to go to the nearby Mosque…but instead, once outside the School, they walked to the nearby malls and hung out with their friends instead. That’s why the administrators decided to bring the Mosque into the School, and put it in the Cafeteria…so that they kids couldn’t escape going to it. This is not voluntary; it is coerced.

How is it coerced when they have to ask to be excused from class? If they didn’t request to attend the prayer service, they would still be in their classes.

 

[JacquesMaritain]

How is it coerced when they have to ask to be excused from class? If they didn’t request to attend the prayer service, they would still be in their classes.

Hi Dale:

The published reports seem to indicate that the School in 80-90% Muslim; this is not a small number of kids getting parental notes to “get out of class”, but rather a school wide event, where several hundred attend the Friday afternoon prayer services. Because it is such a large group, the Cafeteria is completely closed off while this is going on; the 10%-20% of Hindus and Christians are not allowed in. I don’t know if the Hindus would want to use the Cafeteria at that School anyway, as they will only serve Muslim-approved Halal meats (Hindus apparently consider this sort of ritual slaughter inhumane and cruel). From the media reports, it seems that the parents approached the School Principal because they didn’t want their kids evading Friday prayers; apparently so many get out of class for this that Friday afternoons are a write-off for the few non-Muslims left behind, in terms of teaching/Instructional time (that’s another serious problem, by the way, but I don’t want to get into that here). Anyway, the parents provided the Imam and signed the permission forms that force the Muslim kids to go to the Service (I recall an interesting interview with one of the parent volunteers who helps run the service, who said it is mandatory, not optional, to attend the Friday prayer). This was last year so I’ll see if I can find the article again. Anyway, it’s pretty clear that the kids would rather be hanging out at the mall than going to the service (which is where they go if they get the chance…so very few of them wanted to go to the outside Mosque when they got the original notes from their parents, the parents retaliated by bringing the Mosque inside the School so the kids couldn’t escape).

Jacques

 

[mcw013]

Who are the As and who are the Bs? Catholics aren’t the only ones who oppose abortion. We don’t oppose abortion because we are Catholic, we oppose abortion because we value all life just as people of many other faiths do.

Even if you want to limit it to Catholic teaching, you have to be able to explain **why **Catholics don’t support abortion. If you can’t say, “Catholics believe it is wrong”, what can you say that would explain the Catholic teaching to a student? Can you say, “Catholics believe that all babies, even those unborn, have the same right to life”? Can you say, “Catholics believe that murder is wrong and that murder is the deliberate killing of another human being of any age, even before it is born.”

As and Bs are simply representations of people who are for and against abortions. I never implied that Catholics were the only ones against abortions. AND YES, all that you mentioned CAN be said, it is just a matter of explaining it properly.

 

[Dale_M]

Hi Dale:

The published reports seem to indicate that the School in 80-90% Muslim; this is not a small number of kids getting parental notes to “get out of class”, but rather a school wide event, where several hundred attend the Friday afternoon prayer services. Because it is such a large group, the Cafeteria is completely closed off while this is going on; the 10%-20% of Hindus and Christians are not allowed in.

If 80-90% of students attended the prayers, then I could how peer pressure would tend to make attendance at the prayers “mandatory.”

However, it seems less than 1/2 of the Muslim students in the school attend the prayers. There are 1200 students total, so 85% would be 1020 Muslim students. The article I am linking to puts the number at 800+. It also says that attendance at the prayers range between 300-400. So regardless if the number of Muslim students is 800 or 1000, more than half of those students do not attend the prayers.
torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2012/03/21/allah-in-the-cafeteria/

I think those numbers underscore the voluntary nature of the prayer service.

 

[lerapt78]

Another comment (made last year) from Education Minister Laurel Broten, regarding the opposition to schools being required to promote sexual “tolerance” through gay clubs (apparently this legislation falls under the Bill 13 An Act to amend the Education Act With Respect to Bullying and Other Matters):

metronews.ca/news/london/35832/radical-sex-ed-agenda-behind-anti-bullying-law-religious-groups/

McVety, who led the fight against the Liberals’ last attempt to update the sex-ed curriculum, says Premier Dalton McGuinty is using the problem of bullying to advance “his radical sex-education agenda.”

The religious leaders say that agenda is driven by gay activists.

“When you are forcing teachers, Christian teachers, Jewish teachers, Muslim teachers, to teach things that are contrary to the values that they hold, to teach that there are six genders and that you are not attached to the gender of your anatomy, do you not find that that may be an offence to a lot of Ontarians?” McVety said.

**Education Minister Laurel Broten rejected the criticisms as “homophobic.” **

It appears they are trying in any way possible to subvert Church teachings through control and indoctrination of our children. What will they come up with next, I wonder?

 

[JacquesMaritain]

If 80-90% of students attended the prayers, then I could how peer pressure would tend to make attendance at the prayers “mandatory.”
However, it seems less than 1/2 of the Muslim students in the school attend the prayers. There are 1200 students total, so 85% would be 1020 Muslim students. The article I am linking to puts the number at 800+. It also says that attendance at the prayers range between 300-400. So regardless if the number of Muslim students is 800 or 1000, more than half of those students do not attend the prayers.
torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2012/03/21/allah-in-the-cafeteria/
I think those numbers underscore the voluntary nature of the prayer service.

Hi Dale:

I agree that the numbers are confusing (and depending on the media reports, sometimes a little self-contradictory). The local Toronto media reports that the school is 80% Muslim, and I have read this in several sources, typical examples are here:

en.islamtoday.net/artshow-230-4126.htm
citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/144877
skepticnorth.com/2011/07/a-skeptic%E2%80%99s-take-on-muslim-prayers-in-a-toronto-public-school/

“80 per cent of Valley Park students are Muslim, and the school began the Friday services to prevent students from missing classes to pray at a nearby mosque.”

Your article (from 2012, not 2011) says that 400 students take part in the service; on the other hand, the picture of the Service I posted in 2011 certainly didn’t have 400 students in it, the number was much fewer; there appeared to be about 30-40 girls behind the barriers erected to separate them from the men, and about a dozen or so not taking part at all (the menstruating girls, presumably). It is my suspicion that the numbers of students “taking part” in this Service is changing over time, thus all the varying numbers (this actually started in 2008, but it didn’t become a story until the blogs and media sources discovered it in 2011). Perhaps there are Muslims at the School who don’t go to the Cafeteria Mosque, but go outside to the nearby Darus Salaam Mosque, just as they always did before this Mosqueteria idea came along. Maybe some continue to hoodwink their parents and hang out at the Mall instead (I suppose these students are voting with their feet, and rejecting the faith).

I don’t really think that the variant numbers change anything; it’s a clearly discriminatory and odious practice, segregating girls in this manner, whether you do it on School grounds or in the local Mosque. That’s the real issue: that while the Ontario government is saying that Catholic Schools are misogynistic for teaching that abortion is wrong, they are quietly tolerating a much greater misogyny in the gender apartheid at these Muslim services. This is a double standard.

amazon.com/The-Caged-Virgin-Emancipation-Proclamation/dp/0743288343

Jacques

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Here is a press release from the Toronto District School Board

tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/Room.asp?show=TDSBnews&view=detailed&enableNav=true&self=30364

The full document can be read at the link

Thanks!

If it’s voluntary and they have parental permission and the school is not endorsing, just accommodating, I don’t see the issue. It appears this is a public school that is just facilitating the religious desires of their students. And like it said, parents gave consent and no one was forced to do it.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Ok, so it’s fine to voluntarily wear a burka (of course, the government isn’t making a distinction) but not fine to voluntarily attend a school that teaches Catholic beliefs? As if everyone who is sitting in that school is forced to be there, forced to deal with the most misogynistic thing ever. No, even if both are voluntary (which only one really is 100% of the time) you still have a double standard. Only one religious faith is being infringed on by the government and it’s not even the misogynistic one. It’s just the one that isn’t protected by PC attitudes and the one that won’t kill them.

As long as the Catholic schools in Canada accept public funds they will be held to the public government. That’s the way it works. The government is not going to take tax dollars from gay people and give it to Catholics to teach kids that being gay is wrong.

And just like the Muslims who can have a prayer group in public schools, Catholics can too. Allowing Catholic prayer groups but not Muslim ones would have been discriminatory.

 

[JacquesMaritain]

Thanks!

If it’s voluntary and they have parental permission and the school is not endorsing, just accommodating, I don’t see the issue. It appears this is a public school that is just facilitating the religious desires of their students. And like it said, parents gave consent and no one was forced to do it.

Hi BlueEyedLady:

You don’t see the issue? The boys and girls are segregated, and the girls on their periods can’t take part at all, and have to sit at the back so that the whole school community (boys and girls, teachers and students) see that they are menstruating? This is an outrageous intrusion into the girls’ privacy; it is astonishing that people could rationalize acceptance of it in a public school, supported by taxpayer dollars. They shouldn’t be promoting religious observance of any kind, and particularly not a religious observance that treats the women as second-class citizens. This is Canada in 2012, not Medina circa 700 AD.

i.thestar.com/images/ce/6d/f2167ead46eca7d856aa36d6167f.jpeg

I am a Catholic school teacher here in Ontario. If I told my female students to sit at the back of my class, I’d probably be fired. if I told the girls they couldn’t come to class if they were menstruating, I’d probably be crucified (and deservedly so).

I maintain the School is endorsing this; it is going on during Friday afternoons, which are part of the Instructional day in Ontario Schools. You want to pray in a Muslim Mosque? Fine, do it on your own time, not at the public schools, who are supposed to be secular. The fact that the Ontario government is okay with this speaks volumes; they will pounce on Catholic Schools for the heresy of teaching that abortion is wrong because it might upset some women. But they have no problem with treating women as unclean in a School Mosque. That’s a double standard.

Jacques