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Originally posted by squealpiggy
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Umm... that's not true.
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/p...lidays2008.pdf
Christmas isn't banned, but it is not emphasized to the exclusion of other holidays. And nobody got banned from wearing red or green.
2.5 million.
OK so about this mosqueteria business, here's the lowdown:
The school was complaining that some of the kids were going to Friday prayers and not returning. They were sometimes leaving pretending to be going to Friday prayers and never showed up at the Mosque. The solution was to turn a cafeteria into a makeshift mosque and have an imam attend and have prayers in the school. No leaving for a Mosque, no truancy, problem solved right?
Now some people objected over the Lord's Prayer thing, because prayers were (quite rightly) taken out of public schools. This is a red herring. Students are permitted to pray in schools whenever they like unless it is disrupting lessons or is being led by teachers. The Lord's Prayer was by contrast something which was read in school assemblies and all students were expected to take part.
As the mosqueteria is outside of lesson times and is (officially) totally voluntary there is no objection to it on the basis of it involving the school promoting religion.
Here are my objections:
1. The mosqueteria was set up to solve the problem of students pretending to leave for prayers and instead bunking off school. This isn't a problem of accessibility to prayer, this is a disciplinary issue and should be dealt with accordingly, in the same manner that any other truant would be dealt with. They are solving the wrong problem!
2. Non muslims including staff members are not permitted to attend the mosque, and the proceedings are in Arabic. A local religious figure is being allowed unfettered access to children and nobody who does not hare that religion is allowed to monitor. This is objectionable just as it would be if a catholic priest, evangelical minister, rabbi or even the head of the local Centre for Inquiry were permitted to have exclusive and unrestricted access to children.
3. Because the cafeteria is converted into for all intents and purposes a mosque, and because in a mosque women and girls are not permitted to speak, have to pray at the back of the room and menstruating women are considered unclean and are not permitted to participate at all, this has grave human rights implications. At least in intent a school must be a place where all students are considered equal. Religion cannot trump gender equality in a school, regardless of the religion.
If this was a student led prayer group I would have less of an issue with it. As it stands I find it to be rather ugly and really should be stopped.
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/p...lidays2008.pdf
Christmas isn't banned, but it is not emphasized to the exclusion of other holidays. And nobody got banned from wearing red or green.
2.5 million.
OK so about this mosqueteria business, here's the lowdown:
The school was complaining that some of the kids were going to Friday prayers and not returning. They were sometimes leaving pretending to be going to Friday prayers and never showed up at the Mosque. The solution was to turn a cafeteria into a makeshift mosque and have an imam attend and have prayers in the school. No leaving for a Mosque, no truancy, problem solved right?
Now some people objected over the Lord's Prayer thing, because prayers were (quite rightly) taken out of public schools. This is a red herring. Students are permitted to pray in schools whenever they like unless it is disrupting lessons or is being led by teachers. The Lord's Prayer was by contrast something which was read in school assemblies and all students were expected to take part.
As the mosqueteria is outside of lesson times and is (officially) totally voluntary there is no objection to it on the basis of it involving the school promoting religion.
Here are my objections:
1. The mosqueteria was set up to solve the problem of students pretending to leave for prayers and instead bunking off school. This isn't a problem of accessibility to prayer, this is a disciplinary issue and should be dealt with accordingly, in the same manner that any other truant would be dealt with. They are solving the wrong problem!
2. Non muslims including staff members are not permitted to attend the mosque, and the proceedings are in Arabic. A local religious figure is being allowed unfettered access to children and nobody who does not hare that religion is allowed to monitor. This is objectionable just as it would be if a catholic priest, evangelical minister, rabbi or even the head of the local Centre for Inquiry were permitted to have exclusive and unrestricted access to children.
3. Because the cafeteria is converted into for all intents and purposes a mosque, and because in a mosque women and girls are not permitted to speak, have to pray at the back of the room and menstruating women are considered unclean and are not permitted to participate at all, this has grave human rights implications. At least in intent a school must be a place where all students are considered equal. Religion cannot trump gender equality in a school, regardless of the religion.
If this was a student led prayer group I would have less of an issue with it. As it stands I find it to be rather ugly and really should be stopped.
But giving the population of Toronto proper, and not including the Western (Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga), Eastern (Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa), and Northern (York Region, RHill, THill, Newmarket) suburbs.
Its the same as giving the population of Manhattan as the population for NYC.
The realistic population of Toronto, as in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is anywhere from 5.5-6 Million.
All of these places are accesses easily and quickly via public transit. You can go from, say, Brampton, to Oshawa in about 1.75 Hours via public transit. 45 Minute drive in Car.
The most realistic population for Toronto is 6 Million.
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