The public school board of Windsor, Ont., has decided to venture deeper into the multicultural forest by offering what it calls Arabic immersion instruction at an elementary school where 50 per cent of the pupils speak Arabic as a first language.
And they think the story here is the immersion class?
Both Ms. Gallagher of the Windsor board and Mr. Wachowicz of the Edmonton board cited a number of private Arabic-language schools that have been started in their areas. They argued that children had a greater opportunity to integrate into mainstream Canadian society by staying in the public school system.
Egads.
I remember when they introduced ukrainian immersion in schools in Alberta. It wasn't long before all the kids, regardless of background, were forced to paint easter eggs and wound up coming home smelling like cabbage.
"all they need is money" -
....and they are probably going to get it from provincial/federal govt's - albeit probably well disguised in the name of multiculturalism and how it will be so effective in having young people assimilate (but don't dare use this word as in Education circles this is unacceptable.) It is time the books are opened in terms of just where all of the money is both coming from and going to in all of the schools from Grades K-12.
How much do we know about Saudi money already "invested" in Canadian schooling for all of the "right" reasons. There is likely to be more.
The AB gov't will take money from anywhere/anybody if it means paying less out of the provincial coffers - like charter schools, 3P financing of new schools, fed money for French Immersion schools, and on it goes. Education in Alberta has been out-sourced to the point where Public Education is a shadow of itself two decades ago.
When TO is seeking similar status to the Francophones for Islamic schools - the rest of the country is not far behind. Indeed - English is truly becoming a second language and financed by who else but our sitting governments in collaboration (or at least with a blind eye) with offshore money.
It seems that curriculum has been left in the hands of the faceless Provincial Education Bureaucracies who in turn foist their Liberal/Progressive ways upon individual school boards - all in the name of Official Multiculturalism/Official Bilingualism/ and now non-official bilingualism.
60% taught in English is a joke - the options almost take up this amount of time so is it these subjects that will be the English component?
The transnational progressives are trying to turn Windsor into a post-western Windsorstan.
This decision to spend taxpayer money to avoid assimilation needs to be tabled in our legislatures. That this kind of decision can be taken by a local school board is frightening because it has such far reaching implications. How we handle this will determine if we are going to remain a country or become part of some world order.
This issue should be part of the campaign between John Tory and Dalton McGuinty this fall.
No lower Government should be allowed to effectively overturn the official languages act which states the Canada has two official languages.This is already one too many.Why on earth do we want a stronger Arabic culture imported to Canada? Do we admire Stonings,Honour killings and oppression of half the population?
No facit of this depraved Culture should be allowed to grow in our country.
Arabic versus Islamic.....they are and should be different because the provincial governmnet doesnt want any religon taught in schools, except as an object of study....which I agree with by the way....so does Arabic=Islamic???
This news hit our newspaper on Thursday last. The only talk show we have spent three hours debating this. 90% of the callers are totally against this move. Also, there was an online poll with 85% respondents against this.
Begley school in Windsor is 50% Arabic speakers. They already know this language. The plan was to teach in Arabic from junior kindergarten through grade two. That is just the start. If this program is successful they will add another school with Mandarin immergence.
This has nothing to do with the fact the majority of these children are muslim, this has to do with them being comfortable within their own language. In the past, the Greek children went to Greek school on Saturday, as did the Italian children. When I was growing up we had an area in Windsor that spoke mostly Slovak and they were taught in English. Most the Slovak families in this area are very successful and comfortable within this city.
As of Friday the Minister of Education got involved. The conclusion was - this is a bilingual society - English and French. It is not going to happen - but of course - they will figure a way around this. Now, MS. Gallgher is allowing Arabic immersion limited to Junior and Senior Kindergarten.
This is something that we better all be aware of. They claim it is just a pilot program but if it is allowed to proceed we could very well end up with a trilingual country - which of course we will pay for in more than money.
....maybe we should have a peek at the curriculum to see there is not a publicly funded madrassah that turns out little domestic martyrs.
I will attempt to translate what is being proposed....not advocating just trying to see if there is some kind of reasonable explaination.
It is likely an attempt to bring children into the mainstream by offering them an environment where they speak their native language while introducing english.
If that is the case I dont have any trouble with the objective but I do with the method.
My daughter is in french immersion and they do that by reducing the amoutn of english almost immeadiately.....they have a fall back of english if they really need to communicate something they dont know but it is pretty brutal...and it works.
So, I dont think there needs to be a lengthy period of Arabic instruction. And teaching Arabic culture....well honestly that is the responsibility of the parents. They should be taught Canadian history, geography, politics and culture.....if you want to do A SINGLE project where you contrast and compare Canadian and Arabic culture go ahread....that should take about 2 weeks at the end of term.
One of those wolly headed tactics in response to real problem, integration of non english speakers into an english speaking school system.
See the tensions between 1st and 2nd generation youth in todays Toronto Star FOB's, Freshies and Guru's vs Coconuts and Banana's
Medieval history class at a Brampton public school, which my son is attending, touched on the crusades. The teacher told the students that initially, the Arabs lived in Jerusalem and the crusaders tried to capture the city. My son raised his hand and said, that initially, the Jews lived in Jerusalem and the Arabs captured the city, that the crusaders attempted to liberate. The teacher walked towards him and whispered into his ear: 'Yes, but we have Muslim students in our class and I don't want to offend their feelings'. He replied: 'You've just offended mine'.
nick
One lower government has already (and very successfully) done just that - PQ used Law 101 to over-ride the Charter in terms of anglo language rights and it has been allowed to stand.
I am for Alberta doing exactly the same thing with our own legislation as regards maintaining English as the first language in Alberta. All core subjects should be taught in English in all schools except for (Francophone-by law there is no way to change this) and the rest (options) could be taught in "whatever" according to where function dictates (not a court order). Will it happen under the sitting provincial conservatives - not a chance.
With Charter Schools being first allowed in the late '80s, I think the farm has already been sold.
I'm all for young people learning new/retaining family languages and for small m multiculturalism but Official Bilingualism/Multiculturalism has been allowed to go just far to far. I am for assimilation and promoting those things which bring us closer together. Isolation in grades K-12 in immersion schools is not the way to go - this is much more divisive than it is helpful.
Is the issue financial/political? That is, is the Windsor public school system viewing the development of PRIVATE schools in the area, which teach in Arabic, as a financial competitor to their public school system?
After all, isn't the public school system funded in part, based on the numbers of children it enrolls? And if this school is afraid that its numbers will decrease due to their being enrolled in the competing private schools - is this really the issue?
That is, it has nothing to do with any desire for 'better education of the children by using their own language'; it has nothing to do with the ideology of multiculturalism. It's about money. Period.
And they'll use the rhetoric of 'better education' and 'multiculturalism' as their cover.
My own view is that the public education system remains public, with classes only in the two official languages. Third languages are for the weekends, and paid for by the parents.
This still leaves open the problem of private schools. I'm not aware of their mandate, but, surely they must operate within the educational guidelines of the state, ie, they can't operate as sectarian propaganda, but must teach the basic curriculum of the state. Yes? No?
just a few more rooms added to Hotel Canada.
Not a good or needed renovation . . .
Aaron....LOL, great anecdote.
I wanted to raise the point about how, as conservatives, who generally are in favour of school choice, now react when funding schools that teach ideologies rather than just a dollop of "values" in with their math.
I used to support religous schools but now I think none should be publically funded, this means Jewish, Catholic, Anglican, Muslim...any of them. Perhaps this is an overreaction but I am curious as to how others might propose acheiving the, sometimes contradictory, goals of
1) Liberty
2) Accessible Public Education
3) Creation of a core common civic culture
I am at a loss myself, other than one publically funded system (which believe me I know has a host of problems)
Dont mean to hijack the thread but it seems related and I am curious what others think on this matter, a particualrly thorny one. Kate, feel free to delete this post if you think it takes it off topic, just seems germaine to the newsstory, particularly the mention of the private Arab schools.
You know, we had a parallel situation here in California. We had "bilingual" education, which was not, in fact, bilingual. It was education (of a sort) conducted in Spanish. About fifteen years ago, Ron Unz, a successful entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, used his own money (plus some others') to get a proposition on the ballot specifying that classes were to be taught in English. The education "professionals" told all of us voters why it was a terrible idea. We passed it anyway, and the courts sustained it. Test scores went up. Being taught exclusively in English works. Speaking English well is worth at least $10,000 per year to the speaker in the United States (and it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case in Mexico, as well).
Have we not learned anything from the European experience in "multiculturalism" and the problems they now face from home grown terror to the Islamification of the European continent.
Does the Left and Liberal "Academia" not see that they are only setting themselves up to be Dhimmi's. That they will be the first victims of Islamification (ie, womens right, abortion, homosexuals) all the special interests that the left loves so much are despised by Islamists. Who will stop at nothing to force their agenda down every Kuffars(Infidels) throat.
Islamic schools are proven to be nothing more than breeding grounds for sexist, racist, hateful islamic supremest teachings and we should fight against this rather than kneeling before it.
For kneeling will only get your head cut off!!
ET when you say “it has nothing to do with the ideology of multiculturalism. It's about money. Period.”
That’s true enough. But taken to its logical conclusion that’s why the progressive, transnational elitists are striving to be at the un-elected pinnacle of the heap .. it’s all about money. But multi-culti ideology is the path to the money.
The multi-cultis are able to take immigrant groups and designate them as victims. This is no different than the original ideology of Marxist progressives who set up the culture wars of the privileged versus the marginalized.
The problem for the progressives in Windsor is that the auto workers are hardly marginalized when they earn $80,000 a year. Therefore the ideology of multi-culti, with its weapon of political correctness to shut down dissent, is set up to create new class wars instead of building a strong assimilated middle-class of shared values and common language and so on.
As to the teachers' unions, I think you are onto something there.
I completely agree with you, nomdenet, I'm opposed to the whole multicultural ideology and the creation of separate 'identity groups' with their attendant political and financial agendas.
I agree with Stephen - no 'identity group' private schools for the mainstream education. That is, you can run these schools only on the weekends. The agenda is to promote a common civic identity, shared communication skills in the official languages and a common basic foundation of knowledge. Any sectarian agendas ought to be paid by the parents and on the weekends.
My point is that I suspect that the agenda of the Windsor school board does not lie within their multicultural sophistry. It's about money. I suspect that their funding from the gov't is heavily based on their student population numbers. If the private schools in the area bleed off these numbers, and particularly at the lower levels of Kindergarten, grades 1 and 2- those schools would lose public funding.
I think that's what it's really about - and I hope someone with more knowledge of the system could provide some input to this blog.
Argh, what a terrible idea! I noticed in the G&M article that they've already announced the programme, and now they're going to travel to Dearborn Michigan and Cincinnati to see how it should work. Shouldn't that have been the first step?
Educate your kids in whatever language you want, just don't ask the taxpayers to foot the bill. This rightly belongs in the private system. In the public system we have french and/or english, depending on location. If you want more, then you have to pay for it yourself, IMHO.
Need anymore reason why we need to oppose the NORTH AMERICAN UNION and stop this entirly
OK - I've done a bit of googling on my own.
The facts are, that education funding in Ontario is allocated on a per pupil basis. Again, pupil enrolment affects the number of staff.
So, I'm suggesting that the Windsor strategy has little to do with any genuine interest in the education of these Arabic speaking children. Enabling them to speak, write and read in English; enabling them to integrate with other children rather than remain isolated in identity groups - would do far more for their education.
It's not about a genuine interest in these children's well-being. It's about money. For staff salaries.
Again, the funding formula in Ontario is based on student enrollment. This school is concerned that it is losing its enrollment to private schools. Once those children get into a private school at an early age, they stay there. So, the Windsor school wants to get them into THEIR school as early as possible. That's what this is all about.
AND, the school can fund this new program, using funding provided by the government via grants for something called 'Local Priorities'. So, the school will get its basic funding from their ability to increase and hold those Arabic speaking students. AND, they'll get extra funding from the gov't for 'Local Priorities'. They can use that money to fund the program - and for other costs.
It's about money. The school board is not interested in helping these children get a proper education. If they were, they'd refuse to isolate them into sectarian tribal groups and would help them gain skills to integrate and work within Canada.
It's about money.
ET, regarding the "its about the money" point you made, I had thought of the same thing only from a different perspective...it would be interesting to see if any of those who are pushing for this change have any stake in an ENGLISH private school. You know, scare the parents out of the public school board and into a private school using this issue as a cover.
As an example, in one town here in Ontario, a mayor verbally chastised the local taxi companies for what he claimed to be their reckless driving...but little did folks know that a friend of his was opening up a NEW taxi company in town and benefitted from the negative press about the other taxi companies.
Something similar happening regarding the Arabic immersion wouldn't surprise me a bit.
I have always been in favour of tax support for ALL schools, i.e. the voucher system. In that way, Christian children would learn about creation rather than evolution. However, if that allows Muslims to teach the Koran and Hadith, then I would probably change my mind, hold my nose and opt for a public system, bad as it is.
As far as language is concerned, kids are very quick to learn a new language, even at the playground. That has never been a problem, from my experience. I'm for English only.
eeyore - interesting tale of sleaze politics in a small town.
But I suspect that the Windsor scenario is strictly about funding that public school. Since gov't funding is based on student enrollment, the School Board wants those students, as soon as they start school in kindergarten, within THEIR school. Not a private school.
And, the Board will get extra funds from the "Local Priorities' program.
It's all about money. The fact that they are isolating these children into sectarian groups, setting them apart from others, - a deeply divisive and harmful strategy - they don't care. It's all about money.
ET maybe this is quibbling but the point I was trying to stack onto yours is that multi-culti and the money are co-dependant.
When you say “does not lie within their multicultural sophistry. It's about money. I suspect that their funding from the gov't is heavily based on their student population numbers.”
You have described the viscous circle that we find ourselves in.
The McGuinty government is being investigated by the Auditor General, after John Tory finally got some support from the MSM ; for channeling money to ethnic groups. We know this happened federally too. An Imam would receive say a million dollars for education, no strings attached. It just falls under the “ oh aren’t we Liberals the most tolerant goody goodies on the face of the earth helping our immigrants with our generous multi-culti programs”
Private instruction in Arabic then takes place. That leads to what ET describes and the teachers’ unions react by calling for Arabic to be taught in public schools so that they don’t lose funding and jobs.
But because we’re all taught to believe that multi-culti is part of our Canadian identity, nobody questions the slippery slope of ghettoization this is leading to; Windsorstan will be just like what Melanie Phillips calls Londonistan.
It’s all about money and the ideological catalyst to grease the funding mechanisms is multi-culti. Because it is un-Canadian to even question multi-culti and to insist that immigrants learn the language(s) of the land and assimilate. This all ties back to the visceral reaction in the USA about the new immigration Bill. Voters are worried about the lack of assimilation, the faster we drive home that point to politicians the better.
rudy espinoza there is no way I want my children to go to schools based on my background.
They are to be Canadian even though it doesn't mean much in trudeaupia.
Idiots. In complete denial of Wahabiism.
Aaron:
Good grief! How can you twist history like that and still call it 'education'?
Doesn't this kind of put about half the teachers out of work? I can't imagine the typical Ontario schoolteacher picking up a functional knowledge of Arabic in middle life.
Anyway, it's the wave of the future ... perhaps.
Enjoy, dhimmis!
Luckily harper raised immigration so we will have more diversity to enrich us.
hobo:
They had a series of classes on the -ISMs, i.e. Faithism. In the faithism class they were told that it is Okay to believe in anything. I asked him, if it was Okay to believe that killing other people was Okay and he is going to raise that question with the teacher.
They also had a Sexism or Heterosexism (could not exactly figure by his description) class where they were told that it is Okay to have two fathers or two mothers in a family. They told that to the 10 year olds, for Chrissake! Isn't that a bit too young to corrupt their minds?
Screw the socialists! I think it's time for a rebellion - we all should stop paying taxes until they remove crap from education! I am refusing to pay $1000 a year in educational levy plus that portion of income tax and business taxes, that are used to pay the teachers, who teach sodomy to my children.
john lewis - no, this proposed arabic immersion doesn't put teachers out of work. It ADDS teachers, who would be funded under that extra grant from the gov't, called 'Local Priorities'. These are the Arabic immersion teachers.
At the same time, since these children are attending the public school rather than a private school, the student numbers don't decrease - and the overall school funding increases. Again, funding of the public schools is dependent on their student numbers. If a public school loses its students to a private school, it will also lose its funding.
This way, by offering these 'special immersion' programs, the public school is keeping its student population numbers high, and keeping its funding high, AND, AND, getting EXTRA funding from the gov't to run these immersion programs.
Who benefits? The teachers.
Who loses? The students and Canadian society.
As nomdenet points out - and I do agree with you - the multiculturalism and funding issues are linked.
Solution? No private schools funded by gov't under any mandate (eg. multiculturalism) or by foreign interests (ie, no Saudi Wahhabi funded schools). All children must attend a public school for the first five grades; instruction must be in English and/or French. Other languages are up to the parents.
Multiculturalism: how do you like it so far?
Next step: Urdu immersion; makes you eligible to transfer directly into a Pakistan madrassa once you leave Grade 6.
Yes, this is about money. It's dollars per head. We have a rather large Arabic private school in this area. The school in question, as I have previously mentioned is 50% Arabic speaking. There is another school in the area that have half Chinese speaking. The pilot program at Begley if successful, will lead the way to other schools emerging in whatever language.
In Canada both public and separate Catholic schools were allowed, covered I believe, in the BNA act. Quebec being at the time mostly Catholic were given equal treatment as far as their school system. It was always funded up to grades 10. This I know because I am a product of the Catholic system. In rescent years it was extended to grades 12.
When the Arabic school opened in Windsor they felt they also should be funded. Unfortunately, they have no idea of our history or why the Catholic schools were funded in the first place. As 90% of people in my area believe, this should not happen - not even in junior or senior kindergarten. It is opening a rather large can of worms.
unfortunately Canada is becoming like a fractured fairy tale. dreams and promises but with an unlikely ending.
but hey - look at this looney.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2007/05/22/gore-book.html
"University of Windsor sociologist Reza Nakhaie, another academic specialist in multiculturalism, said research shows that if children of immigrants do not feel alienated from their family's language and culture, they adapt most readily to Canadian culture and values."
This makes no sense, sounds more like telling us what the most naive among us want to believe. How is anyone going to adapt to Canadian culture and "values" when their own culture ridicules and denigrates ours.
I am from Windsor and the out cry against the immersion classes was huge .Windsor has the largest Arab population in Canada , our mayor is Lebanese (and a total piece of _ _ _ _ )
Begley is the newest school in the city .The Arabs from all over the city send their children to the school as the principal is an Arab Muslim and the school is close to the Arab section of the city.
This is an attempt to secure public funding and create a secular school .Not going to happen!
McGuinty is going to get rid of all school boards and have just one public school board.
Religion and private schools will be a thing of the past.
dmorris - I fully agree; that sociologist is talking nonsense. She is saying:
"IF children of a sectarian group do NOT feel isolated from THEIR sectarian ideology, THEN they will readily integrate with non-sectarian children and ideas".
Nonsense. How about:
"IF children of a sectarian group do NOT feel isolated from their sectarian ideology, THEN, they will readily integrate ONLY WITH their sectarian co-inhabitants and feel ISOLATED from non-members of this sect".
And, as we are finding out more of the context of the situation in Windsor, we find out that it has two agendas. First, it has everything to do with money. AND, AND, second, it is also the take-over of a public school by a sectarian group, who want their non-official language and their ideology funded by the public system.
It is a rejection of 'being Canadian' and an insistence on identity politics, on the isolationism and rejection of shared citizenship that is multiculturalism. It is an extortion of public money by a fallacious appeal to 'equality of treatment' - the fallacy that rests within multiculturalism.
We, as Canadian, fund only two languages: English and French. Any other language must be privately funded. And we, as Canadian, must reject sectarian education that is paid for by the public.
ALl public or private schools hsould teach a minimum standard curiculumn and in one of the two officials languages of the coutnry, and no other, except as aprt of the satndard curiculumn.
This is a scheme to prevent assimulation.
Fine, I say.
Turn the school into a Madrass.
No Girls.
No Gays.
Don't like it?
Lose your head.
The Ontario Education System is one tangled mess.
We already have four system running with buildings and staff included. English Public, French Public, Roman Catholic French, Roman Catholic English at a great cost.
It's so outrageous to be funding an immersion for Arabic speaking students in this country. It's English they need to integrate into mainstream Canadian society.
This is going down a dangerous path, we can brace ourselves for Sharia law next.
Bit by bit we will Balkanize the Country without a whimper. It's the Canadian way since the Lefty creep crawled over the land and now we stand for nothing.
If any of these issues are challenged in the Supreme Court they will be favored by the Trudeau Charter.
http://tinyurl.com/2z2dkb
Check the link from the Edmonton Public School Board, for a list of the schools.
Had a fun conversation the other day.
Started talking about crusades to reconquer/reconvert the traditional Christian core states, you know that'd be what's now Turkey, the Near East, and much of North Africa.
I suggested we'd generously allow any one who didn't want to convert to pay a modest tax, or leave - if they insist, we can shoot them.
Hey, why NOT roll back the Muslim expansion, using their OWN rules.
I can't imagine why everyone felt an urge to change the subject.
This is stunning beyond belief. I had not thought that things were so far gone in Ontario.
I hope that this is the final push we need to get off our butts and start talking about what "public education" means.
I saw the Catholic school board as a historical issue which was too hard to get rid of, and was never threatened by the odd Hebrew school here and there. But these taxpayer funded future Muslim indocrination facilies scare the crap out of me.
I would utterly endorse the elimination of all school boards and creation of a single curriculum across Ontario, with aggressive monitoring of curriculum in all private schools. All private schools would have to have their student take examination year to maintain certification.
The only way we can live together in the future is through common ideas and education. Otherwise we are doomed to the European scenario.
Fifty years from now, when Canada has been fractured by reckless immigration and social policies, our children will look back upon this time and curse our stupidity.
Further to Aaron and Fred: The Muslims did not take Jerusalem from the Jews, rather from the Christian Byzantines. This was long before the split in Christianity between Orthodox and Catholic, and took place while the Muslims were on their way to conquering many other Christian lands. By comparison the Crusades to retake Jerusalem were very small beer (or wine).
The Crusader states existed from 1098 to 1291, just under 200 years.
What about modern Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria? These were the Christian heartland of the Eastern Roman Empire until conquered by Muslims between 632 and 641 AD. To this day this area remains largely Muslim and mostly under Muslim rule. It should be remembered that the goal--successfully achieved--of the First Crusade was to regain Jerusalem for Christendom from Muslim rule.
What about Christian Spain, conquered by Muslims in the early eighth century (after conquering Christian North Africa) and not completely reconquered by Christians until 1492?--a much longer period of time than the Christian Crusaders' rule in a very small geographic area of the middle east.
And what about the Christian Balkans? These were conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries and mostly remained under their rule until the nineteenth century.
Not the mention the Muslim conquests of Persia (seventh century) and later (16th century, after earlier invasions) of northern India. Talk about the sword.
In light of historical reality, playing the role of victim on the part of some Muslims seems most disingenuous, and exploits the ignorance of contemporary Christians about their religion's history--unlike the apparent obsession by some Muslims with their own. The ebb and flow of conquest in history are matters of record.
Mark
Ottawa
ET: That was my immediate impression: an attempt to retain market share [read: union jobs, budgets] the multiculturalism pretext mere pitch.
Funding is on a per-pupil basis. Forget which one now, but one US state, in order to preserve the voucher system (vehemently fought by the unions), promised the school district that funding would not be reduced by a drop in the student population.
The strong resistance to home-schooling is similiarly motivated; in this case the pitch being "the importance of socialization" even when a child is temporarily removed due to bullying (one of my daughters a few decades back).
Follow the money (if you'll excuse the cliche) and follow what hurts/helps the bureaucracy.
I would utterly endorse the elimination of all school boards and creation of a single curriculum across Ontario, with aggressive monitoring of curriculum in all private schools. All private schools would have to have their student take examination year to maintain certification.
A beautiful plan. We know from long experience that the power and wealth enjoyed by those running the government can never grow if ordinary citizens are permitted to decide what their children should learn. Children must be forced out of their homes at the earliest possible age and placed in government-approved schools in order to be educated as we see fit, and the parents of any truant children must be dealt with harshly. Because when you get right down to it, the last people who should be allowed to have anything to do with raising children are the parents.
If necessary, scare the citizens by telling them that they will be killed by fanatical terrorists and cut-throats if they don't accept our new program of increased educational socialism. Accuse anyone who complains of "not understanding that the world changed" and "siding with the terrorists". But to sweeten the deal, give a happy-sounding name to the new laws - like "every child not falling behind" - or something catchy like that.
Yours truly,
K. Marx
V. I. Lenin
N. Ceaucescu
F. Castro
P. E. Trudeau
D. McGuinty
And friends
There is Saudi funding for the largest Islamic School in North America.....built in Edmonton, AB....in case anyone wanted to know.
OK then Ugh, you can homeschool your kids at home how to defend themselves against Canadian-born suicide bombers who come to hang out / detonate at the mall as they learned all the cool kids did in their Islamic Academy down the street from your house.
Maybe you eventually abandon this corrupt society and write off the government. You find some like-minded individuals on the internet, and form a small enclave, say, somewhere in the Rockies, where you can live "freely". You call your group something pretty and slightly biblical, like the Solar Gate of David. You can have a private compound, be a messianic leader, import some weapons from other true believers in the US, teach your flock the truth as you see it, maybe take several wives and father multiple children, all raised by the community according to those precepts ordained by yourself. After a while, when the world stops being able to ignore your existance and makes a few touchy inquiries about just what goes on in your enclave, you can gather your flock and decide (for them) that this mortal coil no longer should imprison your spirits, and shuffle off in some dramatic way (although I would understand if you did not choose to castrate yourself).
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Jones
David Koresh
JD Mambro
MA Applewhite
Look, time and demographics are not on the side of the status quo if that is what you are seeking to preserve. Either we all learn to live togther, or we fight each other for our own little pieces of turf, and all end up diminished. For today's adults there is probably little hope, but for tomorrow's adults maybe it's not too late. Segregating them into religiously divided schools is a recipe for future disaster.
Public money, public school.
Not only am I against this idiocy of funding arabic (read: Muslim religious) schools, I'm in favour of changing the constitution to remove the Catholic school boards in Ontario and any other province that has religiously based segregation.
There's a reason why religions should be kept separate from the public sphere. I realize that the "separation of Church and State" is entirely a product of the American system but they had it right.