Download MP3 Show Show #80 Download Part 1
DR. JEAN MORSE-CHEVRIER, Psychologist and President of the Psychologist and President of the Catholic Parents Association of Quebec will join us to talk about the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent leave to hear one of the most important cases concerning parental rights in Canada. This is IMPORTANT!! Parents must tune in!!
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Montreal Gazette ;
Catholic Civil Rights League ;
LifeSite News
Top court agrees to study up on Quebec schools' religion course
By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News October 21, 2010
A religion and ethics course, imposed province wide two years ago by the government of Liberal Premier Jean Charest on students in elementary and secondary schools, seeks to promote harmonious social relations in Quebec in response to a heated debate over what qualifies as the "reasonable accommodation" of religious minorities
OTTAWA — In a case that will test the rights of Quebec parents in the education of their children, the Supreme Court of Canada will consider whether students can opt out of the province's mandatory course on ethics and religious culture.
The class, imposed provincewide two years ago by the government of Liberal Premier Jean Charest on students in elementary and secondary schools, seeks to promote harmonious social relations in Quebec in response to a heated debate over what qualifies as the "reasonable accommodation" of religious minorities. A Catholic couple from Drummondville, Que., is challenging the course, saying the province's refusal to exempt their two children violates their freedom as parents as well as their religious beliefs.
The Supreme Court, as usual, did not give reasons for granting leave to appeal. The parents, identified in court documents as S.L. and D.J., lost their case last year in a Quebec court. "For us, the whole issue is parental rights versus the rights of the state," said Jean Morse-Chevrier, president of Association of Catholic Parents of Quebec. "Who has the final word on the education of our children?" The course was introduced in 2009 in Quebec schools, public and private, with the goal to sensitize Quebec schoolchildren by exposing them to the cultural aspects of a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and aboriginal spiritualities.
Public schools in Quebec are non-denominational — so no classes on any one religion are offered, a choice that remains in private school. In the first year of the course, about 2,000 parents applied for their child to skip the course, but they were rejected by school boards, said Morse-Chevrier. "The children are specifically guided to take a critical attitude toward religious beliefs, they are expected to question beliefs and rules, and parents find this very intrusive," said Morse-Chevrier.
The Toronto-based Catholic Civil Rights League says that objections focus on the mandatory nature of the course, its "over-broad" definition of religion and exposure of young children to material that may contradict their parents' religious views and teachings. The Quebec Court of Appeal refused to consider the parents' appeal of the lower court decision, ruling it was no longer meaningful for them because they no longer had children in the system. One child graduated and the youngest transferred to a private school.
In a separate decision earlier this year, the Quebec Superior Court sided with Loyola high school, a private Catholic high school in Montreal that was granted an exemption from teaching the course. Loyola took the Department of Education to court after it refused to permit the school to teach what it considered to be an equivalent course, but with a Catholic outlook.
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League supports SCC appeal in Quebec schools’ question
MONTREAL, QC, October 21, 2010 – The Catholic Civil Rights League is pleased to learn that the Supreme Court of Canada has allowed the appeal of families from Drummondville, Quebec seeking an exemption from the province’s ethics and religious culture (ECR) course.
“This case is about the principle of parental authority in the religious education of their children,” said League President Phil Horgan. “The appeal is a significant opportunity to affirm these rights in the public forum, and encourage parental rights in the implementation of moral and religious instruction in Quebec’s public schools.”
The League supports Quebec’s Catholic parents, and those of other faiths, in their insistence that parents are the first educators of their children, and have the right to choose their religious education. The League is among the educational and religious organizations that supported the application for appeal, in recognition of the rights of parents to direct their children’s religious education.
The League hopes to participate in an intervention in the appeal with the support of its members.
The Quebec Court of Appeal refused Feb. 24 to hear an appeal of the lower court’s decision, claiming that the family’s request was no longer meaningful since it had no children in the system. Since then, the court ruled on an application from Loyola High School, a private school that had applied to cover the ECR content from a Catholic perspective. The decision – currently under appeal by the province – exempted the school from the ECR course.
“It is quite simply unacceptable that most families are denied a right, allowed in theory by the Law on Public Education (LIP), but denied to them in practice,” said Jean-Morse-Chevrier, League director and President of the Association of Catholic Parents of Quebec (APCQ). “According to the APCQ, the ministry has to amend the instructions it sends to school boards so that public schools grant the same right of exemption from the ERC course as the court has just recognized for private schools.”
The new course was introduced in September, 2009 to replace older courses in Catholic or Protestant religion, or non-religious ethics courses. More than 70 per cent of families had been choosing courses with religious content. Criticism of the new course includes lack of doctrinal content, an emphasis on moral relativism and an over-broad definition of religion, as well as the course’s compulsory nature. Most school boards refused requests for exemption, leading the Drummondville parents to start the court case. Their application for the right to an exemption was refused by the court in September, 2009.
About CCRL
Catholic Civil Rights League (www.ccrl.ca) assists in creating conditions within which Catholic teachings can be better understood, cooperates with other organizations in defending civil rights in Canada, and opposes defamation and discrimination against Catholics on the basis of their beliefs. CCRL was founded in 1985 as an independent lay organization and has chapters across Canada. The Catholic Civil Rights League is a Canadian non-profit organization entirely supported by the generosity of its members.
Further information: Mrs. Jean Morse-Chevrier, CCRL director, Quebec region, and president, Association des parents catholiques du Québec (APCQ), apcq406@bellnet.ca or (514) 276-8068, (819) 661-7140.
CCRL national office: Joanne McGarry, executive director, joanne.mcgarry@ccrl.ca, or 416-466-8244.
Top court to study up on Quebec schools' religion course, Montreal Gazette, Oct. 22, 2010.
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Quebec Relativism Course Going to Supreme Court
Friday October 22, 2010
By Patrick B. Craine
QUEBEC, October 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Supreme Court of Canada, in a case with implications for parental rights across the country, has agreed to examine whether Quebec parents should be allowed to exempt their children from the province's mandatory course in moral and religious relativism.
Sylvain Lamontagne, president of the Coalition pour la liberte en education (CLE), praised the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case, saying the ethics and religious culture (ERC) course "undermines the fundamental rights of freedom of conscience and religion, by imposing what some sociologists have likened to indoctrination."
The ERC program, which took effect in 2008-2009, purports to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a "neutral" stance. It has been criticized for its relativistic approach to moral issues, teaching even at the earliest grades, for instance, that homosexuality is a normal choice for family life.
The course is being challenged by a Drummondville family who argue that its mandatory nature violates their freedom of religion and their right to direct the education of their children.
Despite legislation in the province allowing for exemptions, none have been given, and the Ministry of Education has even sought to impose the course on private schools. They faced a setback on this in June, when the Quebec Superior Court allowed Loyola High School, a Catholic boys' school in the Jesuit tradition, to teach the course from a Catholic perspective. Justice Gérard Dugré said the Ministry's actions assumed "a totalitarian character essentially equivalent to Galileo's being ordered by the Inquisition to deny the Copernican universe."
The Quebec Court of Appeal refused to hear the family's case in February after they lost at the Quebec Superior Court in August 2009. Justice Yves-Marie Morissette said the appeal was "doomed to failure." He dismissed it in particular on the grounds that the parents no longer had children who were required to take the course, because one had graduated and the other was put in private school.
Opponents of the course argued that by dismissing the appeal partly because one of the children was in private school, the judge had thus recognized exemptions for private schools, and that students in public schools should then also be allowed the exemption.
The Catholic Civil Rights League, which hopes to intervene in the case, insisted in a press release yesterday that parents are the first educators of their children. "This case is about the principle of parental authority in the religious education of their children," said League President Phil Horgan. "The appeal is a significant opportunity to affirm these rights in the public forum, and encourage parental rights in the implementation of moral and religious instruction in Quebec's public schools."
Richard Decarie, a spokesman for CLE, which has been supporting the parents, compared the parents' case against the Quebec government to David and Goliath. "The moral authority of parents over their children is at stake," he said. "If the parents from Drummondville lose, the government will be free to go all the way in other areas," such as child care.
"For us it's major because Quebec is the first province, but it could spread across Canada," he added.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Judge: Quebec Gvmt 'Totalitarian' in Imposing Relativism Course
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10062110.html
Quebec Parents to Take Mandatory Relativistic Ethics Course to Supreme Court
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042907.html
Quebec Family's Appeal Rejected for Exemption from Mandatory Relativism Course
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10022610.html