Canada

Old Montreal rectory welcomes Witches

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UPDATE 1/5/2017: It was announced Jan. 11 that The Rectory will be permanently closed as of February 2017. We will update this further as we learn more.  

MONTREAL – The Pagan community in Montreal, Quebec has a new community space called The Rectory. It is the brainchild of T.Scarlet Jory and Robyn, two witches who identified the need for a new venue for Pagan classes, rituals and events. Located in the actual rectory of an Anglican church, The Rectory is promoting itself as “a multifaith sacred space aimed at supporting community.” The adjacent church is St.

Canada

Canadian supreme court hears religious freedom case

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In Canada’s Quebec Province, there has been an on-going debate over the teaching of a government mandated Ethics and Religious Culture Program (Programme Éthique et culture religieuse.) The ERC school curriculum was created and implemented in 2008 by former premier Jean Charest. Since that point it has caused multiple controversies and court cases which have now taken the debate to the steps of Canada’s highest court. According to this mandate all Quebec schools, private and public, must teach a prescribed Ethics and Religious Culture curriculum or an equivalent. The province’s website explains:
For the purposes of this program, instruction in ethics is aimed at developing an understanding of ethical questions that allows students to make judicious choices based on knowledge of the values and references present in society. The objective is not to propose or impose moral rules, nor to study philosophical doctrines and systems in an exhaustive manner.

Canada

The Quebec Values Charter: religious freedom or “militant secularism”

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On September 17 a Mcgill University student released a video taken of a man and woman engaged in a heated argument on a crowded public bus. According to a Huffington Post report, the argument began when the woman who was wearing a hijab boarded the bus.  Almost immediately the man began to harass her, demanding that she “remove her headscarf or return to her country.”  The unpleasantries continued for almost ten minutes. The man accused her of being associated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and “criticiz[ed] the lack of Muslim integration into society.” In his “rant,” he said that Quebec’s Premier, Pauline Marois, would make her remove that “hat.”

The altercation on the bus is not an isolated incident. CTV, local Canadian television, reports that “more victims are coming forward” and the victims are not always individuals. On September 2 the Mosque in Saguenay was attacked and allegedly sprayed with pigs blood.