Quebec Government Forcing Evangelical Private Schools to Teach Sex Ed, Darwinism
Schools will be shut down if they do not comply with order, regardless of religious beliefs
by Gudrun Schultz
As originally posted on: LifeSiteNews.com
October 24, 2006
QUEBEC, Canada, October 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Private Christian schools in the province of Quebec must teach sex education and Darwin‘s theory of evolution, the province’s Ministry of Education has ordered, or they will be shut down.
The National Post reported today on a controversial decision by Quebec’s education ministry to force small Christian schools to comply with provincial curriculum standards for all subjects, regardless of whether there is a contradiction with the school’s religious beliefs.
A province-wide investigation followed complaints by an Outaouais school board that children at a small evangelical school near Saint-Andre-Avellin, Que. were not being taught the full provincial curriculum.
“Quebec children are legally required to follow the provincial curriculum…but these evangelical schools teach their own courses on creationism and sexuality that don’t follow the Quebec curriculum,” said Pierre Daoust, director-general of the Commission Scolaire au Coeur-des-Vallees in Thurso.
The 20 students attending the school operated by Eglise Evangelique, both in elementary and high school grades, are taught a “world view” that school administrators defend as essential, including both evolutionary and intelligent design theories.
“We offer a curriculum based on a Christian world view rather than humanistic world view,” Alan Buchanan, chairman of the school reorganization committee and a former Quebec public school teacher, told the Post.
“We want the children to understand what they’re going to meet in the outside world, and also what’s wrong with the theory [of evolution],” he said. “We also teach a better theory - that God created the universe and so on.”
The school teaches biology, but not sex education, Buchanan said. “You have the Christian world view that says sex should only be in the marriage and a public school system that teaches kids about sexuality. We believe students should be taught abstinence.”
Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, told LifeSiteNews she is surprised the Quebec government would be “dogmatic” about an issue that is “clearly understood to be a religious issue.”
“Darwin’s theory of evolution is an issue about which many Christian parents are very concerned,“ said Dr. Epp Buckingham. “They don’t like the way [the theory] is taught in a very atheistic way. That’s one reason parents send their children to private Christian schools, so that they’re not subjected to public school teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution as being not only fact, but in a way proof that God is not involved in creation.”
Dr. Epp Buckingham said parents’ right to educate their children in accordance with their religious beliefs is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled that although an Alberta pastor who was running a school out of the basement of his church did have to license the school, the provincial government had to provide reasonable accommodation for religious belief.
The court ruled that the province must “‘delicately and sensitively weigh the competing interests so as to respect as much as possible the religious convictions as guaranteed by the Charter,’” Dr. Epp Buckingham quoted.
“That makes it pretty clear that when the Quebec government is licensing schools they have to respect religious beliefs.”
“We have seen a number of religious freedom cases coming out of Quebec where the government hasn’t been respecting religious freedom. So we would hope they are aware that this is a Charter right, parents do have the right to educate their children in accordance to their religious beliefs, and that they will negotiate on that basis.”
Three unlicensed evangelical schools in the Outaouais have been identified as failing to meet Ministry standards, according to Ministry spokeswoman Marie-France Boulay, including 40 students at the Pentecostal Eglise Nouvelle Alliance in Gatineau, Quebec, and a school in Hull.
The province will negotiate with the schools for the next few weeks, said Ms. Boulay, to see if they can agree on a curriculum that will meet the provincial standards by including Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Dr. Epp Buckingham said until the negotiations are completed it won’t be clear if the Ministry is in violation of the Charter, but she added that at this point the situation is “certainly a squeeze on religious freedom.”
Read National Post coverage:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=c5715990-a9eb-45f2-9c66-26d3ea3c56fa&k=4546
To express concerns to the Quebec Minister of Education, Monsieur Jean-Marc Fournier:
Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport
1035, De La Chevrotière, 16e étage
Québec, Québec
G1R 5A5
Email:
ministre@mels.gouv.qc.ca
Schools will be shut down if they do not comply with order, regardless of religious beliefs
by Gudrun Schultz
As originally posted on: LifeSiteNews.com
October 24, 2006
QUEBEC, Canada, October 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Private Christian schools in the province of Quebec must teach sex education and Darwin‘s theory of evolution, the province’s Ministry of Education has ordered, or they will be shut down.
The National Post reported today on a controversial decision by Quebec’s education ministry to force small Christian schools to comply with provincial curriculum standards for all subjects, regardless of whether there is a contradiction with the school’s religious beliefs.
A province-wide investigation followed complaints by an Outaouais school board that children at a small evangelical school near Saint-Andre-Avellin, Que. were not being taught the full provincial curriculum.
“Quebec children are legally required to follow the provincial curriculum…but these evangelical schools teach their own courses on creationism and sexuality that don’t follow the Quebec curriculum,” said Pierre Daoust, director-general of the Commission Scolaire au Coeur-des-Vallees in Thurso.
The 20 students attending the school operated by Eglise Evangelique, both in elementary and high school grades, are taught a “world view” that school administrators defend as essential, including both evolutionary and intelligent design theories.
“We offer a curriculum based on a Christian world view rather than humanistic world view,” Alan Buchanan, chairman of the school reorganization committee and a former Quebec public school teacher, told the Post.
“We want the children to understand what they’re going to meet in the outside world, and also what’s wrong with the theory [of evolution],” he said. “We also teach a better theory - that God created the universe and so on.”
The school teaches biology, but not sex education, Buchanan said. “You have the Christian world view that says sex should only be in the marriage and a public school system that teaches kids about sexuality. We believe students should be taught abstinence.”
Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, told LifeSiteNews she is surprised the Quebec government would be “dogmatic” about an issue that is “clearly understood to be a religious issue.”
“Darwin’s theory of evolution is an issue about which many Christian parents are very concerned,“ said Dr. Epp Buckingham. “They don’t like the way [the theory] is taught in a very atheistic way. That’s one reason parents send their children to private Christian schools, so that they’re not subjected to public school teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution as being not only fact, but in a way proof that God is not involved in creation.”
Dr. Epp Buckingham said parents’ right to educate their children in accordance with their religious beliefs is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled that although an Alberta pastor who was running a school out of the basement of his church did have to license the school, the provincial government had to provide reasonable accommodation for religious belief.
The court ruled that the province must “‘delicately and sensitively weigh the competing interests so as to respect as much as possible the religious convictions as guaranteed by the Charter,’” Dr. Epp Buckingham quoted.
“That makes it pretty clear that when the Quebec government is licensing schools they have to respect religious beliefs.”
“We have seen a number of religious freedom cases coming out of Quebec where the government hasn’t been respecting religious freedom. So we would hope they are aware that this is a Charter right, parents do have the right to educate their children in accordance to their religious beliefs, and that they will negotiate on that basis.”
Three unlicensed evangelical schools in the Outaouais have been identified as failing to meet Ministry standards, according to Ministry spokeswoman Marie-France Boulay, including 40 students at the Pentecostal Eglise Nouvelle Alliance in Gatineau, Quebec, and a school in Hull.
The province will negotiate with the schools for the next few weeks, said Ms. Boulay, to see if they can agree on a curriculum that will meet the provincial standards by including Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Dr. Epp Buckingham said until the negotiations are completed it won’t be clear if the Ministry is in violation of the Charter, but she added that at this point the situation is “certainly a squeeze on religious freedom.”
Read National Post coverage:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=c5715990-a9eb-45f2-9c66-26d3ea3c56fa&k=4546
To express concerns to the Quebec Minister of Education, Monsieur Jean-Marc Fournier:
Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport
1035, De La Chevrotière, 16e étage
Québec, Québec
G1R 5A5
Email:
ministre@mels.gouv.qc.ca
1 comments:
From: Miss Jane shantel Kamara.
#43, Olympic Ave.
Community 11, Tema.
Ghana.
Dearest one,
It is my pleasure to write you after consideration, since I can not be able to see you face to face, at first, please I need your help. I am Miss Jane Shantel Kamara, the only Daughter of late Mr. & Mrs. Richard Kamara, from Cote D'Ivoire . (I am 22years of age.) My father was a liability Cocoa and Gold merchant in Abidjan Cote D'Ivoire before his untimely death.
After his business trip to Tunisia , to negotiate on a cocoa and gold business he wanted to invest in Tunisia , a week after he came back from Tunisia , he got an accident with my mother of which my mother died instantly but my father died five days after in a private hospital. On that faithful afternoon, I did not know that my father was going to leave me after I had earlier lost my mother, but before he gave up the ghost, it was as if he knew he was going to die.
He my father, (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE) he called me to his bed side and told me that he deposited the sum of ($12,500,000.00) Twelve Million Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars in a bank in Ghana. That the money was meant for his cocoa and Gold business he wanted to establish there, according to my father he deposited the money in a security conpany using my name as the next of kin, He instructed me to seek for a reliable and trust worthy business partner for my life time investment abroad. Now I have succeeded in locating the deposit documents and the security conpany where this money is here in Ghana .
Due to war in my country Cote D'Ivoire., I am now seeking for your assistance to help me transfer this money out from Ghana , to your country abroad so that we should invest it in any meaningful and lucrative business in your country because this is my only hope in life. I am willing to offer you 25% of the total fund if only you can help me out of my present predicament. I seek your assistance in the following ways:
(1.) To provide your details and your telling phone number to nuable me call you and send you the neccessary document regarding this funds.
(2.) To make arrangements for me to come over to your country after the successful transferring of this money into your country, to come and further my education.
(3.) To help invest this money in a profitable business since I am only 22yrs of age and do not know much about business.
(4) To sponsor me transfer this money to your country,
(5). I want you to promise me that you are not going to betray me after the money gets to your country.
The worst part of it is that my uncle is trying to kill me over this money because I refused to hand him over the documents covering this money, He has sold all my father's landed properties including his cars which rightful belong to me and now he want me to hand over the document regarding the money of my late father in my possession which I refused.
Now he said that he will have this money by all means even if it means killing me, so because of this I ran away from home and hide in a hotel, pending when this money will be transferred so that I can leave the country for my safely.
Please reply.
Thanks and God bless you.
Yours sincerely,
Miss Jane shantel Kamara.
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