MEDIA RELEASE: Clear Line to be Drawn on Religion in Public Schools

Freedom Party of Ontario

- MEDIA RELEASE -

For immediate release

Clear Line to be Drawn on Religion in Public Schools

Freedom Party denounces Progressive Conservative quiet agenda for religious public schools; releases 8-point election plank banning niqabs, prayer, and more.

August 2, 2011 Toronto - Ontario's Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties have refused to do anything to prevent Ontario's public schools from being used for religious purposes: the distribution of religious texts, organized prayer, etc.. Freedom Party today is blaming Liberal-Conservative inaction on both a 2009 Liberal mandate that facilitates such measures, and a deliberately understated plan by Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservatives to give parents religious school options within Ontario's public school system.

Freedom Party is releasing a major 8-point election plank today that would create a clear line separating religious practice from Ontario public schools. The plank - and the exposure of the Hudak PCs' plan for religious public schools - is being illustrated by three new 30-second pre-election commercials, also released today, which can be viewed by clicking here.

(Click on the Image to Watch the Video)

"Although most voters do not yet know it", says Freedom Party leader Paul McKeever, "the coming provincial election will in fact be a referendum on whether we are going to move from a unified secular public school system to a fragmented system in which public school students are separated according to their religious affiliations. If we do not want our public school system to be hijacked by an agenda for taxpayer-funded religious schools, it is crucial that voters say 'no' to Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservatives and their subtle agenda to create religious schools within our public school system.

"Our public schools should be places where children can focus on learning how to think and choose rationally and independently. That means public schools should not be places used for religious worship or indoctrination. They should not be used - as they are at present - to distribute religious texts to grade 5 students. We must put an end to alleged 'pilot' projects that teach children in Arabic, and that attempt to skirt the law requiring students to be taught in Canada's official languages. Girls and women in our public schools should learn and teach in an environment free from the sexist, second-rate status that is implied by the wearing of a niqab or facial-covering. We must put an end to religious considerations in matters of cafeteria menus, and should provide a wide selection of healthy foods suitable for all students, regardless of their religion. Our schools must explain to students the value and superiority of democracy to the theocratic systems found in other parts of the world, where dissent is punished, women are treated as second-class citizens, and gays and lesbians are victimized."

For further details, contact:

Paul McKeever, Leader - Freedom Party of Ontario
e-mail: pmckeever@freedomparty.on.ca

Freedom Party has been releasing 2011 election planks since early October of 2010. A complete list of the planks released so far can be viewed here. Freedom Party has also released a number of pre-election video ads to promote its planks. They all can be viewed on Freedom Party's youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/fpontario .

Freedom Party of Ontario
240 Commissioners Road West
London, Ontario
CANADA N6J 1Y1

web: https://freedomparty.on.ca