The Globe and Mail – September 6, 2011
At a time when progressive sex education and gay-rights clubs are becoming an increasing part of the secular curriculum, many devout families in Canada’s most populous province are looking for a faith-based approach to learning. In Ontario, however, the only publicly funded faith-based option is Catholic schools – and that’s just fine for some Muslim parents, even if it’s someone else’s faith.
Though at least one parent must be Catholic in order for a student to enroll in a Catholic elementary school, at the high-school level faith doesn’t matter as long as there’s room. Declining high school enrolment has meant that there often is room – about 10 per cent of the pupils attending Catholic boards in the Greater Toronto Area are non-Catholic. In the Catholic board, religious accommodation hasn’t ignited controversy like it has at the Toronto District School Board.
