Eug
Senior Member
My nephew who challenged his catholic high school on the religious classes issue did so in the previous decade. The school's administration obviously wanted no part of having any student being allowed to skip those classes. However, once they were seriously challenged, that school's administration (and school board?) backed down and said nothing more of it. I have to think that some higher ups in the catholic school board were afraid of a legal challenge, partially because his family had the means to mount such a legal challenge. But in the end he didn't have to.On the subject of non-catholics attending catholic school, I grew up with non-catholics who went to both catholic elementary and high school. It is a lot easier to enroll as a non-catholic at a catholic high school, then it is to enroll at a catholic elementary school. But this is slowly changing, as I think now that approximately half of the catholic elementary boards in the province will admit non-catholics without making you jump through hoops (ie. prove that at least one parent or grandparent was catholic). On the flip side, no board in the province can stop you from enrolling in a catholic high school for being non-catholic, and confirmed in court as of last year, no catholic high school board can compel you to attend liturgy or take religious classes.
However, it finally happened. Someone else legally challenged it, and Hallelujah! () the court has now set a legal precedent that one does not have to take religion classes at a publicly funded catholic school in Ontario.
IMO, this effectively makes the Catholic School Board completely pointless. Let's just get rid of it already.
BTW, dissolution of the Catholic School Boards is part of the platform of the Green Party. I'm not endorsing the Green Party. Far from it, but I just wanted to mention that it isn't completely ignored in provincial politics. I'm happy to see that at least one well-known party is willing to put it in their platform, although arguably they have nothing to lose by doing that.
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