{"id":14676,"date":"2012-02-16T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/cccc\/2012\/02\/16\/supreme-court-affirms-right-of-province-to-implement-religious-course\/"},"modified":"2012-02-16T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"supreme-court-affirms-right-of-province-to-implement-religious-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/cccc\/2012\/02\/16\/supreme-court-affirms-right-of-province-to-implement-religious-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Affirms Right of Province To Implement Religious Course"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in the case of <em>S.L.<\/em> v.<br \/><em>Commission scolaire des Ch&ecirc;nes<\/em>. The case involved Catholic parents who objected<br \/>to their children being required by the Province of Quebec to take the Ethics<br \/>and Religious Culture course, which taught religion from a secular point of<br \/>view and equated all faith perspectives. The parents were offended that the<br \/>course treated Bible stories as legends and taught Christianity as a cultural matter,<br \/>rather than something that had any validity for ordering one&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Court decided that there was no evidence that the course interfered with the parents&#8217;<br \/>ability to pass their faith on to their children: &#8220;It is not enough for a<br \/>person to say that his or her rights have been infringed. The person must prove<br \/>the infringement on a balance of probabilities.&#8221; The Court accepted the<br \/>Minist&egrave;re&#8217;s position that the purpose of the course was not to teach relativism<br \/>or influence the beliefs of the students. In the words of the court, &#8220;[T]he<br \/>early exposure of children to realities that differ from those in their<br \/>immediate family environment is a fact of life in society. The suggestion that<br \/>exposing children to a variety of religious facts in itself infringes their<br \/>religious freedom or that of their parents amounts to a rejection of the<br \/>multicultural reality of Canadian society and ignores the Quebec government&#8217;s<br \/>obligations with regard to public education.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our Concern<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CCCC intervened in this case because it might set a precedent allowing provinces to implement a<br \/>particular mandatory religion course of their choosing at the expense of<br \/>violating the religious sensibilities of Christian schools and their<br \/>supporters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Court has shown a lack of regard for the religious sensitivities of the parents in this<br \/>case. Our concern is for the religious sensitivities of Christian schools to<br \/>choose their own religious curriculum. The Court was unable to see how the<br \/>Ethics and Religious Culture course, &#8220;interfere[d] with the applicants&#8217; freedom<br \/>of conscience and religion for their children when what is done is to make a<br \/>comprehensive presentation of various religions without forcing the children to<br \/>join them.&#8221; The Courts said the government could not set up a &#8220;system that<br \/>favours or hinders any one religion or a particular vision of religion. Nevertheless,<br \/>it is up to the government to choose educational programs within its<br \/>constitutional framework.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>CCCC is of the view that the religious curriculum in question favours one particular vision of<br \/>religion &ndash; that of the Quebec government at the expense of the vision of the<br \/>parents who objected.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Court&#8217;s holding therefore supports Quebec&#8217;s jurisdiction to set up a mandatory<br \/>religious course for all educational institutions including private religious<br \/>schools. Clearly this decision has compromised the ability of private religious<br \/>school supporters to protect their institutions from unwanted government<br \/>interference in matters of religious belief.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the last number of years we have witnessed the diminution of religious freedom<br \/>protection in the Supreme Court&#8217;s decisions,&#8221; says Barry Bussey, V-P Legal<br \/>Affairs of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, one of the groups that<br \/>intervened in the case. &#8220;This court continues to give greater deference to<br \/>government action though it interferes with religious practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;CCCC is concerned about the precedent this decision could have on the ability of<br \/>Christian schools to select their own curriculum,&#8221; says John Pellowe, CEO of<br \/>Canadian Council of Christian Charities. &#8220;We will continue our monitoring of the<br \/>effect of&nbsp;this decision as it unfolds.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in the case of S.L. v.Commission scolaire des Ch&ecirc;nes. The case involved Catholic parents who objectedto their children being required by the Province of Quebec to take the Ethicsand Religious Culture course, which taught religion from a secular point ofview&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/cccc\/2012\/02\/16\/supreme-court-affirms-right-of-province-to-implement-religious-course\/\" class=\"linkbutton\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-14676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court Affirms Right of Province To Implement Religious Course - CCCC Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/cccc\/2012\/02\/16\/supreme-court-affirms-right-of-province-to-implement-religious-course\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Affirms Right of Province To Implement Religious Course - CCCC Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in the case of S.L. v.Commission scolaire des Ch&ecirc;nes. 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