Religious diversity, perspectives being studied in Manitoba schools

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/03/2026 (197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In January, the provincial government announced a new resource for schools to address Islamophobia. Two years ago, it announced the creation of a new curriculum about the Holocaust.

Those are good things. They will help students know more about Islam and Judaism, and the challenges facing members of those groups. But I wondered: What resources are available to help students develop an even broader sense of religious literacy?

As it turns out, the province has an optional grade 12 course titled “World of Religions: A Canadian Perspective.” It’s designed to help students build interfaith and intercultural understanding as they explore the diversity of religions and religious perspectives within Manitoba and Canada.

That’s also good. Knowing more about other religions is important. But my next question was: How many schools are using it? The answer, it turns out, is not many.

Currently, only three schools in the province offer it: Winkler’s Northlands Parkway Collegiate in the Garden Valley school division; Fort Richmond in the Pembina Trails school division, and Sturgeon Heights Collegiate in the St. James-Assiniboia school division.

At Northlands, “the course is a very popular elective credit, with the class size near capacity,” said Dan Ward, superintendent of schools for the Garden Valley school division. At Fort Richmond, 33 students are enrolled this year. At Sturgeon Heights, where it has been taught for the past five years by Patrick McGuire, between 15-23 students take it each year.

Of the three schools where it was taught, only McGuire was available to share about it.

When I asked why he teaches it, he said, “It promotes understanding … it’s a chance for students to learn about the beliefs of others.”

Through the course, students spend time on each of the major religions. “It gives them a good baseline of understanding,” McGuire said, noting the optional course competes against other offerings such as law, psychology, film and global issues at the school.

Students also get an opportunity to visit places of worship and meet people who believe differently than them. They discover they “are just regular people,” he said.

McGuire himself is not religious; he grew up Catholic, but left the church and describes himself as “mostly atheistic,” something he sees as an advantage when teaching the course.

“I have no bias,” he said, adding his own view is that all the world’s religions are like tent poles for a teepee, each pointing upward to the divine.

Students tell McGuire the course is eye-opening. “They say it helps them deal with misinformation, and to see contributions of other faiths to the community,” he said, adding it also helps them examine their own beliefs.

I had a chance to talk to three students taking the course at Sturgeon Heights.

Soleil Wolfe, who was Catholic but says she is agnostic now, is taking it because she wanted to learn more about other religions such as Buddhism. “I had a lot of misconceptions,” she said, adding that now she is now aware of the deeper levels of Buddhism, including its ideas about death and suffering.

For Amina Ibiyeye, who is Muslim, the course is helping her learn more about other faiths, including how people from other religions view the world.

“It’s given me a different lens,” she said, adding she appreciated being able to learn more about Judaism — a religion she didn’t know much about before.

Josh Warkentin attends a Mennonite Brethren church. The course has helped him to dispel stereotypes about other religions, including information that is designed to only make them look bad. He has also learned about things different religions have in common. “It gives me a bigger picture,” he said.

All three appreciated the field trips. For Amina, it was her first time being in a synagogue and a Hindu temple. Soleil appreciated a chance to talk to leaders of different places of worship. Josh said just being there was important. “It’s one thing to learn about it in class, another to see people worshipping and praying,” he said.

Alice Chan directs the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy, a secular non-profit that promotes understanding about religion and spirituality across all sectors of Canadian society. For her, religious literacy courses like the one offered in Manitoba are a way to help people deal with the polarization that has become so prevalent in society today.

“It’s a way to develop a framework, skills and knowledge to engage with diversity in a respectful and informed way,” she said, noting that religion intersects with many other aspects of life today.

“By learning more about the beliefs of others, we can have such rich conversations and create a sense of community,” Chan said. “We can open up and ask questions about what belief means for each other and find different solutions to problems.”

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