MONTREAL — An investigation into a climate of fear at a Montreal primary school has reignited a debate about secularism in Quebec's education system, with the provincial government pledging to consider new measures to keep religion out of classrooms.
MONTREAL — An investigation into a climate of fear at a Montreal primary school has reignited a debate about secularism in Quebec's education system, with the provincial government pledging to consider new measures to keep religion out of classrooms.
On Tuesday, Quebec Premier François Legault made his first comments on the affair in a social media post, saying he was"very shocked" by the"attempt by a group of teachers to introduce Islamist religious concepts into a public school." The investigation revealed that most members of the dominant faction were of North African descent, and that teachers were influenced by the local mosque. But it also pointed out that some teachers of North African heritage opposed the dominant clan, and the report characterized the situation as a clash of ideology rather than culture.
This week, that tone changed. On Monday, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon came out swinging, claiming there is a problem of"religious and ideological infiltration" in Quebec schools. But Louis-Philippe Lampron, a professor of human rights at Université Laval, said the government is using secularism as a smokescreen to distract from other issues. Teachers were forbidden from imposing their religious beliefs in classrooms well before the passage of Bill 21 in 2019, Lampron said, and the government already has"all the tools" it needs to deal with such matters.
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