Chris Selley: Hate religion in public schools? Yell at your MPP, not your school board

Chris Selley on the violent opposition of some for religious accommodation by allowing prayers to take place in Peel Region schools, rather than a more measured discussion of the form and limits of any accommodation:

But the OHRC’s interpretation of the Ontario Human Rights Code makes it plain: only cost and health and safety may stand in the way of a religious accommodation. Wiffly concepts like “secularism” may not. So whether you’re a perturbed secularist, vexed feminist, scandalized menstrual-rights advocate or fulminating Islam-hater, there’s no point aiming your complaints at the local school board. You should call your MPP.

That probably won’t get you anywhere either, frankly. Secularism and feminism are all well and good, but the New Democrats are unlikely to align with the Qur’an-stompers. The Liberals think religious accommodations are the Pope’s pyjamas. And after John Tory’s faith-based schools debacle and Patrick Brown’s sex-ed switcheroo, the Progressive Conservatives are scared stiff of this stuff. (Opposing prayer in public school isn’t exactly home-run conservative policy, anyway.)

Nevertheless, it’s not Ontario’s educators you should be bothering — it’s Ontario’s legislators. They made this world. The schools are just living in it.

Source: Chris Selley: Hate religion in public schools? Yell at your MPP, not your school board | National Post