Canadian Court Rejects Challenge To Quebec's New Religious Survey Courses

In the Canadian province of Quebec, a trial court judge has rejected a challenge by Christian parents to the mandatory new course in grades 1 through 11 in Quebec schools that teaches about a broad range of world religions. The Ethics and Religious Culture course covers Christianity, Judaism, aboriginal spirituality, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. (See prior posting.) It replaces parents' choice of one of three separate courses that focused on Catholic or Protestant thought, or moral instruction. Yesterday's National Post reports on the decision by a Drummondville Superior Court. Justice Jean-Guy Dubois wrote that "the court does not see how the ... course limits the plaintiff's freedom of conscience and of religion for the children when it provides an overall presentation of various religions without obliging the children to adhere to them." During the trial, one mother testified that it was confusing for her son to learn about Islam while he was still forming his own Catholic spirituality.