Defending Ignorance

In the defence of a parent's right to inform and guide their children in the tenets of their religion, parents quail under the onslaught of public agencies that also educate children, insisting that children, to be fully educated require some level of objective exposure to the tenets and beliefs of other religions. Not for the purpose of imposing religions other than those their parents choose for them, but to ensure that children know of the existence of other religions, and know enough about them to offer them respect.

A mandatory new school course in Quebec on teaching children about religions held to be traditional within the province, which includes Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and aboriginal spirituality, from grade one through to grade eleven, has run into resistance from some parents in Drummondville. Who claim that the new ethics course and religious culture course introduced last year across the province, undermines their right to teach their version of Christianity to their offspring.

"In light of all the evidence presented, 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", came down the opinion from Justice Jean-Guy Dubois of the Quebec Superior Court in dismissing the parents' concerns. And obligating them, under the law, to accept that their children, in the course of their education will learn about others among whom they live.

There was a rush of parents requesting course-exemptions for their children when the course was newly introduced. Protest marches took place in some cities, with angry parents insisting that the state had no business in the private religious concerns of families. Despite which all of those requests for exemptions were turned down, some 1,700 of them. The province embarked years ago on the eradication of schools existing primarily as religion-based teaching institutions.

And replaced them instead with schools based on language; French or English, complemented by the ethics and religion-information courses. One might logically imagine that parents would be pleased that their children attending public schools in the province are given instruction that will enable them to better balance their views of the nominal differences between religious groups. Eradicating ignorance and suspicion, replacing it with knowledge-based distinctions.

Parents still have the upper hand, after all, in teaching their children the tenets of their own religion, since there is no agency more powerful in imprinting children than the family home. The purpose of introducing the morals and religion courses was to help achieve a social balance and the promotion of "equality, respect and tolerance in the Quebec school system", according to the Quebec government.

A laudable goal, and one which should have the support of parents concerned that their children find their place within the social contract of their province. Even families that are secular in their lack of religious adherence would be welcoming, one would think, of having their children academically exposed to an objective view of the religions commonly practised in the wider society. It is an information net-gain for the children.

In fact, given the influx of Muslims within the province in the last decade, it is likely high time that Islam also be included in the panoply of religious studies introduced in the school system. It is not only the traditional religions that have long been practised by citizens of Quebec that should be highlighted, but those that have been more recently introduced to the province through growing immigration.

As a Universite de Sherbrooke law professor commented: "This right to ignorance is certainly not protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Freedom of religion does not protect the right not to know what is going on in our universe."