Gatineau parents lose fight to skip diversified religion course

Some Gatineau parents are outraged after they lost a fight to keep their children out of new mandatory religion and ethics classes.

The parents, whose children attend schools in the des Draveurs school board, wanted their kids exempted after Quebec expanded the Grade 1 to Grade 11 curriculum to include religions other than Catholicism, as well as ethics and social justice, starting this fall.

However, on Monday night, the school board rejected a request that some children be exempted from the course. Other school boards in the region have rejected similar requests.

Julien Croteau, president of the des Draveurs school board, said the program reflects Quebec's new multicultural society, and exposes students to concepts that touch on justice and social equality, not just religion.

Marc-André Richard said the school board has just started a war with parents like himself.

He said he is worried that if his kids learn about other religions on top of Catholicism, they will become confused by too many choices.

To prevent that, he and his wife will pull their kids from the class, he said, even though that means the children will officially fail the course.

Sonia Bouchard, the Outaouais spokeswoman for the provincewide Coalition pour la Liberté en Éducation, said the rights of parents such as Richard should be respected, and her group is prepared to go to court to ensure that.

In the past, parents had the right to choose whether their children should learn about Catholicism, Protestantism, or morals and ethics, and they have now lost that, she said.

The group is organizing a march in Montreal on Oct. 18 to protest the fact that parents aren't allowed to keep their children out of the course.