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Ethics and religious culture

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Ethics and religious culture (Éthique et culture religieuse) is a course taught in all elementary and high schools in Quebec. It replaces the abolished subject of religion in public schools and is compulsory in all schools: private as well as public. The aim of the subject is to adopt a descriptive approach to the religious heritage of Quebec. The program's twin paramount principles are Recognition of Others and Pursuit of the Common Good. It is also claimed that the course will promote a “culture of dialogue” among students.

The project was adopted under the liberal government of Jean Charest, and has garnered some controversy. The first year this course has been taught is 2008-2009. It is compulsory for all students in primary and secondary schools.

Controversy

The course has been opposed by three main groups:

  1. Secularists from the Mouvement laïque québécois because the curriculum tends, for them, to be too respectful of all religions and may influence children;
  2. French nationalists who accuse the program to be a kind of Multiculturalism 101; (See this Action Nationale article.)
  3. A coalition of parents drawn from different denominations (the Coalition pour la liberté en éducation) which condemn the course for different reasons: they see it as relativistic, contrary to their faith.

Many condemned the fact that the State is imposing a vision of morals and religion (or lack thereof), while in a democratic society this is the purview of parents.

Court cases

Two legal challenges have been launched against the compulsory nature of this course.

A court case against the ERC curriculum was heard from the 11th to the 15th of May, 2009 in Quebec’s Superior Court in Drummondville. Two Catholic parents are challenging the school’s refusal of an exemption for both their first grader and their sixteen-year-old who is in last year of high school. They are arguing that the course’s contents puts their children’s faith at risk by being premature, relativistic, polytheistic and teaching ethics detached from the parents' moral framework. This will most likely be a test case for Quebec parents.[1]

A private Catholic high school, Loyola High School in Montreal, also launched a court challenge. Loyola High is challenging the fact that the Department of Education has not allowed it to teach what it deems an equivalent ethics and religion course better fitting the Catholic outlook of the school. It is alleged that the Department has done so despite provisions in the law that would allow such an equivalent course.[2]

Surveys

Several polls have shown the Quebec population to be polarized around this course. While 45% oppose the course, in October 2008, 72% wanted parents to be able to choose the moral and religious training their children will get at school: the new ERC course or a traditional denominational religion course.[3] In May 2009, the proportion of Quebecers wanting this choice had risen to 76%.[4]

Jewish community response

On May 28, 2009, the Canadian Jewish News announced the formation of a grassroots organization to represent "a response of Orthodox Judaism to the Ethics and Religious Culture program." The organization, calling itself the Council on Jewish Education in Quebec, commended the Quebec government for championing the cause of universal friendship among human beings, and for identifying "Recognition of Others" and "Pursuit of the Common Good" as values to be taught. However, the organization contended that because Orthodox Jews are required according to Torah law to limit their study of theology to the theology of the Torah, the curriculum should consist of the Noahide Code. The "Hade'ah Vihaddibur" online Orthodox Jewish weekly neawspaper reported a comparable sentiment expressed by the Israeli halakhic decisor Yosef Shalom Eliashiv. Consistent with this response, the Montreal Gazette, in an op/ed published on June 6, 2009 (p. B6), noted that Quebec Jewish school curricula are exclusively loyal to the theology of the Torah.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. ^ Motion text, verbatim and reports here (in French).
  2. ^ French and English
  3. ^ [1][2]
  4. ^ [3]
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