Having faith in Canada’s public schools

Atieh Noori, a 27-year-old student at St. Louis Adult Learning and Continuing Education Centre in Kitchener, prays at lunch time in the school's prayer room.

Last month, Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division made headlines, after a handful of Muslim-Canadian families demanded their children be excused from music and gym classes. 

The Winnipeg Free Press reported the families believe music is un-Islamic, and physical education classes should be segregated by gender.

Since voicing concern, the families have had “positive and solution-focused meetings” with school officials, says Louis Riel superintendent Terry Boys. “The requests for exemption were discussed respectfully and resolved,” he says. “Parents have a better appreciation of the curriculum and our staff has a better appreciation of why some of the requests were made,” he adds.

The executive director of the Manitoba School Boards Association, Carolyn Duhamel, says issues like this one are becoming commonplace in boards across the country.

“We’re seeing a definite rise in the number of accommodation requests, as our immigrant population rises and people with a variety of cultures, faiths and languages become members of our school communities.”

She suggests some school divisions are better than others at accommodation, but insists effective communication is almost always the answer.

“Dialogue is key. Schools have to ask themselves, 'What are the values of this school division? And this community?' and then see how far can they go in terms of accommodation,” says Duhamel.

Accommodation in Canada

Reva Joshee is a professor of educational theory at the University of Toronto, and the author of Multicultural Education Policies in Canada and the United States

In Canada, policies that deal with inclusivity and multiculturalism differ from school board to school board, says Reva Joshee, professor of educational theory at the University of Toronto.

“Each school board is having these issues ... and they will be dealt with on a district by district basis, on the basis of need.”

Joshee notes that the requests made in the Louis Riel School Division would never have even been entertained in the United States.

“Even though we didn’t have a multicultural policy until 1971, [Canada] has been working on it since 1940 ... trying to figure out how we can bring people into a sense of belonging in Canada. Even though the answers have been different at times, it’s always focused on the blending of cultures,” she says.

But the idea of students demanding accommodation based on faith is disconcerting to some Canadians, including Mahfooz Kanwar, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary and a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

“When you come to Canada, you should not become ungrateful to Canada. Such people are taking advantage of our lenience, our secular system and our patience,” he argues.

Kanwar says it is the responsibility of the minority to adjust to the majority, and worries about the strain accommodation requests will put on already overextended public school systems and teaching staff. “Accommodating is not the responsibility of the schools, and goes against the fundamental idea that religion and education should not mix."

"This is not an isolated instance either,” Kanwar adds. “Requests like this are on the rise all over the country.”

While there aren’t any official statistics or records that confirm faith and culture-based accommodation requests are on the rise, Cara Zwibel, spokesperson for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, says it’s a given.

“Absolutely, and there will be more calls for exceptions in the future,” she says. “But these issues aren’t necessarily new. We’ve seen variations of this for years.”

Indoctrination versus education

According to Zwibel, the most important concept for school boards to consider is the difference between freedom of religion and freedom from religion. 

“There’s no problem with the Bible being in the school library, or even discussing religion in an educational way. But there is a problem when students are forced to make a choice about religion in front of a public institution,” she says.

Zwibel says this is ultimately what stopped the daily recital of the Lord’s Prayer in Canadian classrooms.

“People could opt out of saying it, but in doing so, you’d have to identify yourself as the minority. It’s an indoctrination issue, and not just a religious education or accommodation issue.”

She says public school boards, such as the Waterloo Region in Ontario, still grapple with indoctrination issues.

The Gideons' Youth Bible, which includes the New Testament, plus the Hebrew Bible books of Proverbs and Psalms

The Gideons have distributed their New Testament Bibles through the Waterloo Region school board since 1947. The board distributes free copies of the Bible on behalf of the Evangelical Christian group, to Grade 5 students whose parents indicate they would like a copy.

Now, a number of school trustees and parents have voiced discontent with the arrangement and have asked for the board to abandon the distribution entirely. And the Waterloo board isn’t alone. Gord Balfour, chief business officer for the Gideons International in Canada, says there have been sporadic instances of boycotts regarding the distribution, but most schools see it as a “non-issue.”

He says last year approximately 173,000 students across the country were sent home with the Gideons’ New Testament after their parents indicated interest by signing a permission slip.

Zwibel argues there is danger in distributing the Gideons' literature, because it’s forcing students to make choices about religion in a public setting.

“The book’s message is incredibly postulating, and it leaves no room for interpretation. It also is stressful for students, because teachers are distributing the books in the classroom. So just like the Lord’s Prayer, students are being identified and associated with a religion in front of their peers,” she says.

The Waterloo board has decided to seek a legal opinion on changing its policy on Bible distribution.  Like most faith-based policy decisions that school boards make, this process will likely be lengthy and involve extensive consultation with teachers' organizations, provincial board associations, and community groups.

“It’s important that schools make decisions and find solutions that are tailor-made for them,” says Joshee. “This won’t ever happen on a provincial level. Precedents will be set on a district-by-district basis, and that’s what makes the process in Canada so unique.”