Groups to protest over Muslim prayers in school

Good, hopefully these protests will lead to ALL religion being kicked out of schools.

Yeah *derisive snort*, knowing this country the CHRC will jump in and prosecute the protestors on behalf of the Muslim families whose children are taking part.

Now here's a decisive politician who tackles issues head on.

Passing the buck is a time honored tradition among politicians and after that quote it appears Dalton has achieved Grand Master status.

I think he tackled it pretty well. He isn't passing it on, he's taking a stance that it's not a political issue and that the School board is qualified to handle it.

Yeah right, the Jewish Defence League, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and the Christian Heritage group. Wonder if they would protest if it were prayers associated to any of their religions.

Who knows? There ARE Muslims here that are against this as well.

So am I, but protests by this bunch carries no weight what so ever.

Instead of protesting, each of those groups should demand they be accommodated too.

And how do these kids make up the lessons they missed? My understanding is that teachers don't bother to teach the rest of the kids anything during that time, because they'd just have to repeat it when the Muslim kids return from prayer. Might as well shut down the classrooms and let the other kids out early.

But they already have been. Sunday and Saturday are selected to be the weekend for a reason to accomadate the Lords day and Shabath. The Muslim once a week special "mass" is held on Friday and is a day off is most Muslim majority countries

If you look at it in that context, then asking for 40 mins instead of a complete day off doesn't seem so bad after all, eh ?

First it's 40 minutes.

Then....

Except as you say, we already have a system of days off. Jews want Friday after dusk off as well, do we accommodate them too? Do businesses have to lose their Muslim employees every Friday for 40 minutes to accommodate? And as I say, those 40 minutes are lost to all the kids because the teachers don't teach during that time, because they don't want to repeat themselves when the Muslim kids rejoin the class.

the whole school/city/country/continent/the world, hmmm...thats sounds awfully fimilar in regards to recent events.

I think he tackled it pretty well. He isn't passing it on, he's taking a stance that it's not a political issue and that the School board is qualified to handle it.


Don't know how it works in Ontario but out here the Provincial Government runs a standardized School System with school boards being subordinate to them.

This could very well be a precedent setting case and forcing one school board to make a decision that could have major ramifications for the province or even the country is a completely irresponsible action by the Ontario Government.

You may not think this is a political issue but the reality is different. Just look at the special interest groups protesting and remember that in Canada the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so these same groups likely won't forget Daltons Governments refusal to make a decision on what they see as religous favoritism.

Maybe he should have passed it off to the Ontario HRC, but either way, good leadership demands that in cases like this the guy with the gold braid on his shoulder makes the tough decisions and doesn't pass it off to a group of lower deckers which is what is happening now.