Religions Courses are NOT MANDATORY in Ontario's Catholic Schools

Post type: Short Excerpt

I will make this post short as it exists purely for information that many parents might not be aware of, and of course, my own opinion.

• Ontario's Catholic Schools are funded by public taxpayers money
• In Toronto in particular, publicly funding the singular Catholic faith backed education system and not funding say, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. (forgive me if I missed your religion) does not seem to make sense.
• Irony of ironies, Quebec in 1997 abolished the Catholic and public systems and instead took on the French-speaking and English-speaking school systems
• Parents send their children to Catholic schools mostly for these reasons:  fuller, better educational resources, smaller classes, closer to home, more homogeneous, safe surrounding of peers, and sometimes the spiritual teachings and character lessons.
• The massive hoard of unemployed teachers cannot seek employment in the Catholic School Boards without showing proof of "involvement" (pastor's reference) in Catholic church (i.e. at least you attend masses, or you are somehow related to a Catholic church and knows the pastor well, I suppose), i.e. 2/3 of Ontario's Teachers cannot seek employment in 1/3 of Ontario's Schools - other than being Catholic, they have the same qualification on everything else.
• In a survey done in 1997, 79% of voters were in support of a single public system in Ontario. However, nothing has been done, really, as of today.
• A merging of the two school systems saves $1 billion in Ontario per year, who is only running at a deficit of 10.5 billion dollars in the 2013-2014 year.
• In Ontario, to attend a Catholic school from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will require at least one parent be baptised Catholic (or the children attending be baptised Catholic).
• In the high school level in Ontario, any students can attend Catholic schools

...And here's what I'd like to make clear to parents who are choosing Catholic schools for those aforementioned reason, and happens to have the misunderstanding that religion courses are mandatory as part of attending the school - THEY ARE NOT 

The Education Act of Ontario clearly states the following:

42 (13)  ...no person who...attends a secondary school operated by a
Roman Catholic board shall be required to take part in any program or

course of study in religious education on written application to the

Board of the parent or guardian of the person.

A website is made to inform parents of this: http://www.myexemption.com

In fact, any religious activities are not mandatory either. Now, with that extra course slot a year, maybe your kid can take that food&nutrition course or astronomy or travel&tourism course they've always had their wonderous keen eyes on.

So, parents, please do exploit all resources available to you and ripe the most out of what you can with what is available at your fingertips. You are paying the tax, use it!

Here is a case where a Brampton father has been granted his right to withdraw his children from religious activities while they are enrolled in a Catholic School.

We should all try to make happen an excellent single publicly funded school system in Ontario rather than having elitist, segregationist, regressive, Catholic School System hoarders who imagines themselves levitating in the sky on public taxpayers' money while preaching the "correct" morals of Catholic teaching stand on our heads and wield freedom and human rights in their favour.