WSD hears delegations regarding religious exercises in public schools

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This article was published 20/04/2015 (4095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg School Division trustee Mike Babinsky asked the Child Evangelism Fellowship Manitoba repeatedly if it would file a human rights complaint against the division.

Babinsky told fellowship director David Hudson that WSD could be violating freedom of religion by delaying approval of parent petitions requesting religious exercises over school lunch hour.

But Hudson said the fellowship would not do that.

Trustees were hearing public delegations on Lisa Naylor’s May 4 motion that would ask the province to give boards discretion on who can deliver religious exercises in public schools.

Board chair Mark Wasyliw grilled Hudson on the group’s positions on sexual orientation and creationism.

Hudson said creationism is part of the fellowship’s beliefs, but repeatedly said sexual orientation is not discussed with children in the private lunchtime sessions.

Parent Glenda Bork feared school board controls on religious beliefs are a sign of dictatorship.

Bork said the division tries to keep Christian beliefs out, but children have no choice about studying Aboriginal culture.

Humanist Antonio Governo argued public schools should be neutral spaces in which children do not undergo religious indoctrination.

Hudson told the board provincial legislation allows equality in schools.

Babinsky declared Canadians died in wars to protect the rights of people to believe in god and other religious idealogies.

Said Babinsky: “You can believe in god or you can believe in gay, you can believe in both, you can believe in one.”